TV personality Billy Porter recently elaborated on his thoughts about the highly publicized 2020 issue of Vogue featuring musician Harry Styles modeling a Gucci gown.
Porter, 53, said he wasn’t pleased that Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour chose to showcase Styles, a straight white man, as the magazine’s first male solo cover model for the December 2020 issue, even if he was cross-dressing at the time.
“It doesn’t feel good to me. You’re using my community — or your people are using my community — to elevate you. You haven’t had to sacrifice anything,” Porter said of Styles during a recent interview with The Telegraph.
The “Pose” star recalled an interview he did with Wintour several months before the cover debuted. “That b**** said to me at the end, ‘How can we do better?’ And I was so taken off guard that I didn’t say what I should have said,” Porter said.
“Use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement,” the actor continued. “Six months later, Harry Styles is the first man on the cover.”
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Porter went on to say he’s not angry with Styles, but is upset with Vogue’s “gatekeepers.”
“It’s not Harry Styles’ fault that he happens to be white and cute and straight and fit into the infrastructure that way … I call out the gatekeepers,” Porter said.
The “Cinderella” alum complained about the same Vogue cover before. In October 2021, he made his feelings known during an interview with The Sunday Times. “I feel like the fashion industry has accepted me because they have to. I created the conversation [about nonbinary fashion] and yet Vogue still put Harry Styles, a straight white man, in a dress on their cover for the first time,” Porter said.
“I was the first one doing it and now everybody is doing it,” he continued. “I’m not dragging Harry Styles, but… He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do. This is politics for me. This is my life.”
After receiving criticism, Porter expanded on his comments during an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“It is about the systems of oppression and erasure of people of color who contribute to the culture,” he said at the time. “I’m sorry, Harry. I didn’t mean no harm. I’m a gay man. We like Harry. He’s cute.”