Not one to hold back his opinion(s,) Billy Porter insists that the music industry has “always” been homophobic.
The now 53-year-old singer/actor stated that it hasn’t always been easy to “just be” who he is as he wouldn’t have been accepted in the earlier days of his career.
When asked about his recent success, Porter told Gay Times magazine “Everybody says ‘just be who you are!’ It’s easy to be who you are when who you are is what’s popular.” “I’ve always been queer; it’s always been a homophobic business. Period. The end.”
Extremely proud of his new record, the ‘Pose’ actor found working on his latest album, ‘Black Mona Lisa’ to be truly “healing” adding “Putting together this album after a life’s work has been really healing, inspiring and one of the things I am most proud of in my whole life.”
Paying homage to dance, disco, house and club culture, the singer confirmed that the original idea for the full length was to create something similar to Beyonce’s ‘Renaissance.’
Addressing his background, Billy said:
“I found a home in the clubs. It was a gay church.””It was the space we went to on the weekends to have community, love one another and recharge for the rest of the fight. We were fighting for our rights, we were fighting to stay alive.” “It was the last time pre-AIDS that the world was free.”
Believing that disco was unfairly vilified in the 1980s, Porter stated “If we think about the sexual and cultural freedom of the 1960s and 1970s, we were on a road to a euphoric society, and then AIDS happened. Disco took the hit.” “Whether subconsciously or consciously, it was blamed and lumped into that plague era and dismissed unduly.”
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Adweek