#Billy Porter Explains Why He’s Still Upset Over Harry Styles’ Vogue Cover: “He Happens to Be White and Cute”

Billy Porter is opening up about why Harry Styles’ historic Vogue cover still doesn’t sit well with him.

In a recent conversation with The Telegraph, the Pose star took issue with Anna Wintour, who made Styles the first man to cover Vogue. He shared that a few months before the cover came out, he had a Q&A with Wintour in front of the Condé Nast staff.

“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,” Porter told the U.K. publication, which was, “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 Kinky Boots Tony winner explained that his problem isn’t with Styles, however.

“It’s not Harry Styles’ fault that he happens to be white and cute and straight and fit into the infrastructure that way,” Porter added. “I call out the gatekeepers.”

He continued, “[Styles is] white and he’s straight. That’s why he’s on the cover. Non-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.”

This isn’t the first time the Cinderella star has spoken out against the Vogue cover. In an October 2021 interview with The Sunday Times, he said that he felt the fashion industry accepted him because it had to once he created the conversation around non-binary fashion. And even then, Styles still got the cover.

“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,” Porter said at the time. “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 now. All he has to do is be white and straight.”

The Hollywood Reporter reached out to representatives for Porter.