Billy Porter criticizes ‘Vogue”s Harry Styles cover: “All he has to do is be white and straight”

ABC

Last year, Harry Styles made history when he became the first male to cover Vogue solo — and he did it while wearing a dress. While many called it a groundbreaking moment, Pose actor Billy Porter said he was disappointed by the choice.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Porter said he doesn’t feel completely accepted by the fashion industry, despite his many contributions.

“I created the conversation [about non-binary fashion] and yet Vogue still put Harry Styles, a straight white man, in a dress on their cover for the first time,” he said.

“I’m not dragging Harry Styles, but he is the one you’re going to try and use to represent this new conversation?” the 52-year-old Emmy winner continued. “He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do.”

“This is politics for me,” Porter added. “This is my 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 now. All he has to do is be white and straight.”

Porter famously wore a Christian Siriano tuxedo gown to the 2019 Oscars. His new memoir, Unprotected, is out Tuesday.

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