‘He’s White and He’s Straight’: Billy Porter Expresses Distaste About Harry Styles On 2020 Vogue Cover

Last updated on August 15th, 2023 at 12:33 pm

Billy Porter, who first expressed his distaste with Harry Styles on the Vogue cover in 2020, has once again spoken out about the former One Direction singer taking it easy. The American actor believes all Harry Styles had to do to break barriers was be white and straight. Styles was featured on the popular magazine’s cover “wearing a dress”. 

Porter says the singer doesn’t care. “I was the first one doing it and now everybody is doing it. 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.” 

The Like a Boss actor highlighted that he had talked to Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue, months before the cover with Styles was released. “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.” Potter told The Telegraph that he should have said “Use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement…six months later, Harry Styles is the first man on the cover.” 

The displeased actor acknowledges that it’s not the singer’s fault – he just happens to be white and cute and straight, and fit into the infrastructure that way. “I call out the gatekeepers. He’s white and he’s straight. That’s why he’s on the cover. No-binary blah blah blah blah. No, 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 in his previous criticism had said it wasn’t anything personal against Harry Styles. “I’m not dragging Harry Styles, but he is the one you’re going to try and use to represent this new conversation? He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do.” The actor added that its politics and it’s his life. “I had to fight my entire life to get to the place where I could wear a dress to the Oscars and not be gunned down. All he has to do is be white and straight.”