Tag: Pose

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Billy Porter On “White, Cisgender, Rich” Gays Who Hit The Exits After Marriage Equality

Billy Porter (photo: Lizzy Sullivan)

Tony & Grammy Award winner Billy Porter calls out “white, cisgender, rich boys” in the LGBTQ community for closing their checkbooks once they got marriage equality in a new interview with Vulture.

Porter, who’s never been meek when it comes to issues of equality and civil rights, shares in a candid, new interview how working on the hit FX television series Pose brought back memories of living through the AIDS epidemic in 1980s New York City.

Billy says he was reminded how the transgender community became practically “invisible” during that time.

“For me, as a 48-year-old gay man, when I came out, we had to fight for our lives. Because the fight was so intense — and this is what this show has taught me — the T in LGBTQ was almost invisible. The fight was about something else. I equate it to the idea of the civil rights movement, and Martin Luther King Jr. and his relationship with Bayard Rustin. He was the gay man that taught him and set him up to be the civil rights leader that he was, and was erased from the conversation because that wasn’t the fight.”

The Pose actor goes on to describe witnessing how some left the battle field (taking their money with them) when the focus of LGBTQ rights shifted from marriage to transgender protections.

“There’s a lot of that in the gay culture, especially the cisgender, white, rich gay culture. I sat on the board of the Empire State Pride Agenda for six years, and that’s an organization that really was influential in lobbying and fighting for gay rights, during the AIDS crisis all the way up through marriage equality. When these white, cisgender, rich boys got marriage equality and the organization’s focus turned to transgender rights, those motherfuckers closed their checkbooks, and the organization of 25 years had to close.”

Billy summed up his purview of the situation:

“We need take all that energy and focus, and shift it on to those who are less than us. That’s how it works. Internal vigilance is the price of liberty. If we don’t take care of the least among us, it doesn’t matter how rich we are, it doesn’t matter how fabulous we are.”

This writer has known Billy Porter since the early 1990’s when he made his Broadway debut in the hit musical, Miss Saigon.

Billy Porter and I celebrate his birthday in the early 2000s

Over the years we’ve worked together in the theare, and I’ve interviewed him several times as a journalist. I can always count on a frank, candid, and totally unfiltered experience with Billy. #Yassss

When we chatted last year about his latest album, Billy Porter Presents: The Soul of Richard Rodgers, I was all prepared for music chat. But fresh off the 2016 election, Billy was primed for political chat explaining how the album was a political statement in and of itself.

And I loved it.

You can check out our chat from my podcast interview below.

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FX Renews Ground-Breaking Series ‘Pose’ For Second Season

FX network has renewed Ryan Murphy's ground-breaking series POSE for a second season

And the category is: Celebrate!

Ryan Murphy’s ground-breaking new series Pose may have been snubbed by the Emmy Awards, but within hours of the nominations announcement FX picked up the LGBTQ-centric series for a second series.

The series examines New York City’s LGBTQ ball culture scene of the 1980s with a focus on the Black and Latinx LGBTQ communities that shaped it.

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Trans Icon Janet Mock Makes History With ‘POSE’ Directorial Debut

Janet Mock made history earlier this week as the first transgender woman of color to write and direct an episode of TV with the recent Pose episode, “Love is the Message.”
Janet Mock (via Instagram)

Janet Mock made history earlier this week as the first transgender woman of color to write and direct an episode of TV with the recent Pose episode, “Love is the Message.”

The series, which explores the lives of LGBTQ people in the underground ‘ball scene’ alongside the emerging Donald Trump era in the go-go 1980s, artfully brings not only sexual orientation and gender identity to a mainstream TV audience, but also factors in the intersectionality of race.

In an interview with website them, Mock shared:

“The ballroom is a black and brown space before it’s a trans and queer space. So you can’t just say we have this great trans and queer show, you have to add in the layer of the race stuff… had to be very clear that a white trans girl’s experience is very different than a black trans girl’s experience — especially a black trans girl that’s struggling with economic resources in 1980’s New York City.”

“So we gave Elektra (Dominique Jackson’s character) more pointed lines about whiteness, or Angel (Indya Moore) started calling Stan (Evan Peters) a white suburban boy. We had to put that stuff in there.”

This was taken under the amber light of the #posefx ballroom on my first shoot as a Director. Don’t let the smile fool you: I was nervous af about doing something I had never done before, a job that seemed to be reserved for white men, a position in the industry that rarely invited women and/or people of color to sit in the director’s chair. I doubted whether I had the skills and experience to be a director. But I was pushed by @mrrpmurphy who told me I could (“you’re naturally bossy…like me”) and used his Half Initiative to make it happen. But still I had to talk myself through self-doubt (like so many “firsts” have done before me) by saying, “You wrote this script. You know these characters. You helped shape them, make them, move them. You got this, and your whole life as a black trans girl with all your experiences have prepared you for so many unknowns — from being the first in your family to go to college, to get a masters, to work as a journalist, to leave the safety of telling others stories to actually tell your own story, to write two memoirs that centered #girlslikeus, to be the first trans woman of color to be hired in a writer’s room…and yes, the first to write and direct an episode of television. You can do this, will do this and are deserving.” I couldn’t do it alone — no director can. I thank my mentors @mrrpmurphy & @gwynethhorderpayton for pushing, nurturing and supporting me, my DP @simondennis_dop for making it all seem so easy, my first AD Deanna Leslie Kelly, my production designer @jame03, HMU @wigorama @barryleemoe @sherrilaurence, @eriberryk and @tanasepopa for being architects, my editor Shelly Westerman, the marvelous @alexisvmw, my ❤️ @svcanals and the entire crew and the cast especially @theebillyporter, @katemara, @indyamoore, @mjrodriguez7, @evanpeters, and our guest star @johnnysibilly who gave all of themselves to episode 6. LOVE IS THE MESSAGE — and there was no way to write, prep and shoot this script without that LOVE. I hope you enjoy “Love Is the Message” tonight on @fxnetworks. @poseonfx airs at 9PM.
A post shared by Janet Mock (@janetmock) on Jul 8, 2018 at 9:07am PDT

At this year’s VH1 Trailblazer Honors, Ryan Murphy spoke with love and deep respect regarding his experience working with Mock. He also shared that he pushed the trans icon into her first directing gig.

“I said, ’No, Janet, you have to direct. You have to!’ And she wasn’t sure, and I pushed her and pushed her. She did it. And I’m so honored and thrilled to say that it is perhaps the best hour of television in my entire career that I have been associated with.”

“And I say, to Janet, thank you and I’m in awe of you.”

The series has really captured my attention not only for its subject matter but for the quality of the series. The writing, the performances, the production – it all adds up to very powerful, revealing story-telling.

Watch the trailer for Mock’s episode below.

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Billy Porter Is Living Loud On ‘Live With Kelly & Ryan’

Tony Award winner Billy Porter demonstrates proper vogueing technique on 'Live with Kelly & Ryan'
Tony Award winner Billy Porter on ‘Live with Kelly & Ryan’

Billy Porter, Tony Award winner (Kinky Boots) and star of the new FX series Pose, recently dropped by Live with Kelly & Ryan to dish on the new series and how he ‘found’ show business.

It all has to do with The Wiz, Dreamgirls and thirsting for Jordache jeans.

Billy shares that theater first came into his life when his grandmother took him to see a national touring company of the Broadway musical, The Wiz, on his birthday in Pittsburgh, PA.

“I just fell in love,” says Porter. “And I thought, ‘Oh, I can actually do this for a living?’”

That revelation led to a job performing at a theme park the summer he turned 15 years-old. It was a grueling schedule of six shows a day, but Porter had his eyes on a prize.

“I stayed in a motel, I was fifteen, my mom had to give me permission to work cause I needed my Jordache jeans,” says the future Broadway star. “Oh, she said ‘You got champagne taste on a beer budget – you gonna have to find a job!’”

It wasn’t all glamour though.

“I had to wash out my costumes in the bathtub and hang them to drip dry for the next day,” shared Porter. “But what it did was it taught me discipline; it taught me how to show up for work every day because we work six days a week.”

“I was 15 years old working six days a week but I made that money honey – I got them jeans Jordache jeans.”

Pivoting to Pose, Kelly gushed, “This speaks to me – I almost feel like this TV show was written for me.”

Porter describes the series, about the LGBT ball culture in the go-go 1980s in New York City, as being about “family:”

“That culture is a space where this group of people, often rejected by their family, rejected by society, they’ve come together to create their own family unit. They take care of each other; the choice to live; the choice to choose life; the choice to celebrate life in the middle of the most horrific of tragedies is what this is about. It’s about empowerment, its about self-love, its about family, its about community. And it is the greatest job of my life.”

“We come to these balls which is, essentially, the family reunion, the family gathering. And there are ‘houses’ that are like ‘gay gangs’ and they come together in one space for these balls to walk categories; to walk the aspirational categories that they can’t quite actually achieve in life. And I’m sort of the godfather of the community.”

Billy Porter says his new series 'Pose' is about empowerment, self-love,family and community.'
Billy Porter

And speaking of ‘walking,’ when Kelly asks for a lesson in vogueing Porter doesn’t hesitate to step to the floor for pose class.

“It’s posing on the rhythm,” he says. But there’s subtext, you see.

“It’s literally about making sure that you believe in yourself. So, the way you believe in yourself and how you present yourself is how you stand – so believe in yourself.”

Noting Ryan Seacrest’s rather frumpy body posture, Porter paused to query, “Do you believe in yourself?”

“Present yourself fully to the world,” says the actor as he reached for the sky as the music kicked in. “And rhythm, uh uh; and here, uh uh; and love the people!”

Its really a fab segment. Everyone in show biz is not necessarily great at being interviewed. The clock ticks quick in TV time and you have to be able to get your points across about the project you’re there to share, but also be open and accessible.

Porter is so comfortable in his skin and living life so loud its impossible to not succumb to his charms. Watch below.

Pose airs Sundays at 9PM on FX.

For more of the life and sass that is Billy Porter, click the play button below for my interview with the talented actor and singer about his latest album, and a few other topics in our no-holds-barred chat.

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‘Pose’ Star Dominque Jackson Speaks Out Against Companies Exploiting Pride Month

(photo: Pari Dukovic)

In an Instagram video, Pose star Dominique Jackson told her fans she is not down with corporate America exploiting Pride and the LGBTQ community in lame attempts to appear “inclusive.”

She had been invited by brand Coach to speak at their Pride Ball — but in communicating with her, the actress was misgendered by the company.

Jackson took her story to Instagram speaking out against the company and their misrepresentation of support for the LGBTQ+ community.

“So, happy Pride, everyone, I hope you guys have been watching and enjoying Pose.

“But, you know, as we’re doing something like this, a lot of stuff comes by, and that is that a lot of companies join in on the Pride celebration to show they’re all-inclusive when they’re really not. They don’t research us. They don’t understand us. They don’t attempt to comprehend us.

“So, Coach, contacted me and asked me to come in and tell my life story. You’re gonna be a part of this, it’s gonna be great, it’s for Coach.

“They offered nothing. Not a car ride. Nothing. Not a pocketbook. Nothing. Then one of their representatives contacts me to invite me to something called their ’Pride Ball’ and misgendered me! Like–you didn’t do your research. You’re not following the true stories of the LGBTQ community, ’cause you would know that a woman like myself should never be misgendered.

“It’s so insulting. And, I don’t even think I want to ever use your products or buy your products ever again! I’m going to Louis (Vuitton).”

Here’s the video:

Coach attempted to apologize on Twitter:

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Ryan Murphy’s New Queer-Centric Series, POSE, Premieres Tonight On FX

Tony Award winner Billy Porter in POSE

In the first episode of Ryan Murphy’s new groundbreaking series, POSE, Tony Award winner Billy Porter announces, “You ain’t dead yet.”

Porter, starring as the drag ball emcee Pray Tell, is giving some tough love to House mother Blanca Rodriguez (Mj Rodriguez). “There is nothing more tragic than a sad queen,” he adds.

The show, which centers on marginalized queer and brown people, signals early on there will be no resorting to sad-sack tropes about unhappy, suffering queers.

From Buzzfeed:

By centering negotiations of identity and oppression — as well as love and desire — between queer characters of color, the show allows for thoughtful exploration of intra-community hierarchies and conflicts. There are some limitations to this woke soap approach, but the show stands out in a television landscape dominated by straight stories “about race” and white stories “about queerness.” In telling a kind of intersectional fairy tale of queer brown lives, the show highlights just how limited the scope of most TV creators’ imaginations still is.

Pose’s story — as laid out in the first four episodes made available to critics — is ostensibly organized around a battle between two warring ball houses: the House of Abundance, mothered by Elektra Abundance (Dominique Jackson) and their upstart rivals, the House of Evangelista, led by former Abundance daughter Blanca Rodriguez (Mj Rodriguez). The show uses the House structures and the ball setting to dramatize the stories of the gay men and trans women of color who were — and are — the real-life protagonists of those settings, in service of Murphy’s usual goal of turning characters who might be written elsewhere as sidekicks into stars.

Ultimately, Pose is a queer fantasy, and a savvy take on the importance of fantasy for subjects marginalized through race, gender, and sexuality. “How lucky are we?” a house daughter says to Elektra at one point. “We create ourselves. Shit, we are the real dream girls.”

And in the glossy world of Pose, they finally are.

POSE premieres tonight at 9PM on FX.

A post shared by fxnetworks (@fxnetworks) on Jun 3, 2018 at 1:43pm PDT

A post shared by Pose FX (@poseonfx) on Apr 26, 2018 at 10:00am PDT

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Trailer: New FX Series “POSE”

We got the new, true trailer for the upcoming Ryan Murphy series for FX Network, POSE, and it’s looking more and more fab.

Synopsis: Set in the 1980s in New York City, Pose is a dance musical that explores the juxtaposition of different segments of society in New York, including the ball culture world.

The series reportedly has the largest LGBT cast in scripted television history, including the largest number of transgender actors in principal roles.

The series stars Evan Peters, Kate Mara, James Van Der Beek, Mj Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, Billy Porter, Indya Moore, Ryan Jamaal Swain, Charlayne Woodard, Dyllón Burnside, Hailie Sahar, Angelica Ross and Angel Bismark Curiel.

Billy Porter

Dominique Jackson
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Preview: Ryan Murphy’s New Series “Pose”

FX recently dropped the first full preview of Ryan Murphy’s upcoming new series Pose, which plays across the landscape of drag ball culture in 1980s New York City.

The series initially made headlines after announcing five transgender actors in trans roles as series regulars – Indya Moore, Angelica Ross, Hailie Sahar, Dominique Jackson, and M.J. Rodriguez – easily the most ever cast in a TV series.

The series also stars TV veterans James Van Der Beek (Dawson’s Creek), Kate Mara (House of Cards), Murphy regular Evan Peters, and Tony Award-winner Billy Porter (Kinky Boots).

According to press materials, Murphy looks to journey across 1986 NYC finding the intersections of the downtown literary scene, the ball culture and the lavish luxe of the emerging Trump era.

Pose premieres Sunday, June 3 on FX. Watch the preview below.