Billy Porter has expressed his concerns about Harry Styles’ 2020 Vogue cover.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Porter commented that he believed Styles secured the first male cover because he’s “white and he’s straight.”
“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,” he said.
Before the cover’s release, editor-in-chief Anna Wintour had approached Porter for guidance on Vogue’s direction. “That bitch 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,” he shared.
Porter then highlighted that he had advised Wintour to “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.”
Though Porter had voiced his concerns about Styles’ Vogue cover in the past, he made it clear it wasn’t a personal attack on the singer. “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.”
“This is politics for me. 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 down. All he has to do is be white and straight.”
