Billy Porter is doubling down on his distaste for Harry Styles’ historic Vogue cover.
In an interview with London’s The Telegraph, Porter said Styles was chosen to be the first man to land a solo cover for Vogue because he’s “white and straight.” Styles appeared in the publication’s December 2020 issue in a lacy Gucci gown and a Wales Bonner kilted skirt, among other boundary-smashing looks.
“Non-binary blah blah blah blah. No. It doesn’t feel good to me,” said the “Pose” actor and singer, whose red carpet looks have made him a gender-fluid fashion icon. “You’re using my community — or your people are using my community — to elevate you. You haven’t had to sacrifice anything.”
For the record, Styles has never labeled his sexuality in interviews or on social media, though he has only been in public relationships with women.
Porter’s harshest criticisms, however, were directed at “the gatekeepers” that permitted Styles to appear in Vogue rather than the pop star himself. That group, he explained, includes the magazine’s longtime editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour.
The Emmy winner said he met with Wintour for an interview six months before Styles’ Vogue cover was unveiled. During the Q&A, which took place in front of staff at Vogue’s publisher Condé Nast, Porter claims Wintour asked for his input on how to approach the rise of gender-fluid fashion.
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“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 recalled. In hindsight, he now wishes he would’ve urged Wintour to “use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement.”
Representatives for Vogue did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Porter ― who is currently promoting a new album, “Black Mona Lisa” ― previously called out Styles and Vogue in a 2021 interview with The Sunday Times.
“I created the conversation [about gender-fluid fashion] and yet Vogue still put Harry Styles, a straight white man, in a dress on their cover for the first time,” he said at the time. “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 now.”
Just weeks later, Porter clarified his remarks while appearing on “The Late Show.”
“Harry Styles, I apologize to you for having your name in my mouth,” he said. “It’s not about you. The conversation is not about you.”