Billy Porter: ‘I've lived as a black gay man for 50 years Ameri. Nothg shocks me' | Life and style | The Guardian

Contents:

• BILLY PORTER IS FIRST OPENLY GAY BLACK MAN TO W EMMY FOR LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA
• BILLY CRYSTAL PORTRAYED FIRST OPENLY GAY MA CHARACTER ON TV — SI THE 'SOAP' STORY
• BILLY PORTER: ‘I'VE LIVED AS A BLACK GAY MAN FOR 50 YEARS AMERI. NOTHG SHOCKS ME'
• FRANK WILLIAM “BILLY” GAY III’S NET WORTH, RHOSLC HEATHER’S EX-HBAND
• ‘ALL THE FAY’: INSI THE EARLY EPISO THAT CHALLENGED ARCHIE BUNKER’S VIEW OF GAY PEOPLE

BILLY PORTER IS FIRST OPENLY GAY BLACK MAN TO W EMMY FOR LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA

” The w ma him the first openly gay black man to receive the honor the tegory. "I'm never gog to do half-hour episos of Billy on the Street aga, " says Eichner, who also reveals plans for his next project: a gay-divorce edy. “I never thought a major stud would do an thentilly gay film, ” says Billy Eichner, “and treat the same way they would treat Brismaids or 40-Year-Old Virg or Fettg Sarah Marshall.

BILLY CRYSTAL PORTRAYED FIRST OPENLY GAY MA CHARACTER ON TV — SI THE 'SOAP' STORY

” Eichner is the star of Bros, the groundbreakg, hilar gay rom- he also -wrote, which — fyg his ial doubts — is due theaters Sept. “You don’t s there as a kid thkg, ‘Oh, I uld be the star of this movie, if only I wasn’t gay, '” he says.

Bobby’s openg rant, excerpted the movie’s first trailer, is a brilliantly meta attack on the ia of makg a gay movie that’d make straight guys fortable. For me, and a lot of my iends, when we watch some of those shows, although there are gay characters, we don’t regnize those people. There’s an archns to so many of the gay male characters we get.

I’m my forti, and I look around at movi general — about straight people, about gay people, pecially edi — and say, “Where are the adults? Bee y, we’re gay. Nick Stoller is a straight guy; you said that he tght you how to wre a movie and you tght him about gay culture.

BILLY PORTER: ‘I'VE LIVED AS A BLACK GAY MAN FOR 50 YEARS AMERI. NOTHG SHOCKS ME'

Whereas gay men make up our own l, we create our own fai. As much as I love those movi, for gay people, pecially gay men, they never applied and they certaly don’t apply now.

I wrote all the segments, and they were very topil — they took on polics and pop culture, and I was very open about beg gay.

There was a sketch that got very specific about gay sex, and straight sex, was lled “Sex Talk. ” To get onstage 2003 and talk explicly about gay sex, even New York Cy, was really phg people outsi of their fort zon. You’ve said that you never experienced homophobia until you entered the entertament bs.

FRANK WILLIAM “BILLY” GAY III’S NET WORTH, RHOSLC HEATHER’S EX-HBAND

Can you make a ltle ls gay this month? And I’m not sayg they were dyg for me to be gay, or absolutely thrilled that I was gay, but they knew who I was really early on.

There’s a part Bros where a teacher qutns whether elementary-school kids are old enough to learn about gay history. Did that end up beg more timely than you expected given what’s gog on Florida wh the “Don’t Say Gay” law? And, I thought, “What if we did a gay versn of [the 1989 Michael Douglas-Kathleen Turner film] The War of the Ros?

” Bee we see so many happy gay upl. We get gay people fallg love and gay teenagers fallg love, and everythg is betiful and hunky-dory. Jt bee we n get married don’t mean that marriage is the answer to everythg for gay people, and that all those marriag are gonna work out.

‘ALL THE FAY’: INSI THE EARLY EPISO THAT CHALLENGED ARCHIE BUNKER’S VIEW OF GAY PEOPLE

So I thought the ia of a gay divorce would be really funny.

I jt liked the ia of two gay men really beg able to go at , you know, emotnally and physilly.

You tell him somethg like, “Someday you’re gonna play gay and w an Osr, and I’m still gonna be on the street dog this sh.