Today Gay History: Billy Crystal Go Gay, Proudly

Contents:

• BILLY PORTER IS FIRST OPENLY GAY BLACK MAN TO W EMMY FOR LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA
• BILLY PORTER: ‘I'VE LIVED AS A BLACK GAY MAN FOR 50 YEARS AMERI. NOTHG SHOCKS ME'
• BILLY PORTER DISCS SELF-EXPRSN AS THE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO COVER ‘ESSENCE’
• BILLY PORTER BE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO W EMMY AWARD FOR BT ACTOR A DRAMA SERI
• BILLY EICHNER IS THE FIRST GAY MAN EVER
• BILLY GAY
• BILLY CRYSTAL PORTRAYED FIRST OPENLY GAY MA CHARACTER ON TV — SI THE 'SOAP' STORY
• BILLY PORTER BE FIRST OPENLY GAY, BLACK MAN TO W BT ACTOR & MORE QUEER EMMY MOMENTS

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. Porter, who was honored for his work FX’s ground-breakg perd drama “Pose, ” ma history Sunday night by beg the first openly gay black man to w this tegory, acrdg to the Televisn Amy.

Porter’s w me after Ben Whishaw, who also intifi as gay, won the supportg actor a limed seri or movie Emmy for Amazon’s “A Very English Sndal. The ernor of Arkansas threatened to -fund PBS Arkansas if they ran the episo, bee ’s perverted, ’s the gay agenda, and I’m gonna e to their home and molt their children.

I have lived as a black gay man for 50 years Ameri. Jt when we thought we uldn’t love him anymore, Billy Porter be the first openly gay man to ver Essence. The Pose star is featured on the ont of the magaze’s July/Augt 2020 issue lookg radiant an Aliétte drs and Christian Siriano hat while discsg the current polil climate and his g-of-age stggle as a young gay black man om Ptsburgh.

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

“Beg first-generatn post-civil rights and feedg directly to, as a gay man, the AIDS crisis, activism is my DNA, ” he told the publitn. Billy Porter beme the first openly gay man to w an Emmy Award for bt actor a drama seri for his role "Pose.

Growg up, there was never reprentatn of someone who looked like me… So to live my tth, be loved for beg who I am and standg proud as the first openly gay, black man to walk the Emmy Awards red rpet as a Lead Actor Drama nomee... History was ma at the 2019 Emmy Awards, as that night Billy Porter was the first openly gay black man to w the award for bt actor a drama seri (via Los Angel Tim). When Billy Porter first kissed a girl, he knew he was gay.

"She me to my room before she went to llege, a sundrs, and we kissed and that's when I knew I was gay, " he relled  an terview wh W magaze. Homophobia is somethg Billy Porter has fought agast his entire life.

BILLY PORTER DISCS SELF-EXPRSN AS THE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO COVER ‘ESSENCE’

Although Billy Porter knew om a very early age that he was gay, he grew up a very relig hoehold, which prevented him om tly beg himself. While that was the right move for Porter, he still enuntered anti-gay beliefs throughout the entirety of his reer.

"The homophobia, the systematic homophobia, the bs at large, the attack on my masculy really [led] me to a crossroads, " he revealed  an terview wh W magaze, " bee was like, 'Well you have to fix yourself or you won't ever have succs. " He add that gettg married has been credibly empowerg, pecially given all that they had been through as gay men.

BILLY PORTER BE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO W EMMY AWARD FOR BT ACTOR A DRAMA SERI

Billy Porter ma his character Kky Boots "super gay". So he ma Lola "super gay, " as noted by Esquire, and wound up wng a Tony Award for his performance.

BILLY EICHNER IS THE FIRST GAY MAN EVER

Conservativ screamed and gays held their breath when satiril soap opera Soap premiered on September 13, 1977, th troducg the natn to Jodie Dallas, a gay man played by then-unknown Billy Crystal. While the right was worried about nebulo "erodg moraly, " gays feared a stereotypil portrayal.

BILLY GAY

In many ways, was the gay groups's propheci that me te: Jodie's ial proclivy for drsg as a woman and his suicidal tennci f a pejorative mould, and later stori volvg heterosexual love weren't necsarily the most progrsive eher. While some actors would have shied away om a gay character, Crystal went at full-throttle --on stage and July of 1978, Crystal told the newspaper The Hour, "I get teased a lot about playg Jodie, but 's ually good-natured and don't bother me a b. He jt wanted to make sure the motive wasn't rogatory: "I jt wouldn't want Jodie to kill for the wrong reason, like a homosexual rage.

He would also later bee more fortable wh gay pri and would even show a suicidal lbian the lavenr honor of Crystal's urage, and celebratn of Jodie, who, as one of the first gay characters on primetime* laid the groundwork for generatns of LGBT characters, some even more stereotypil than he, here are five clips of Crystal dog his thg Soap. (*While Jodie's the most well-known early gay character, the short-lived 1972 show The Corner Bar featured actor Vcent Schiavelli as a gay man named Peter Panama.

Billy, the out and proud gay doll, by Totem Internatnal. Billy was troduced 1997, he was based on drawgs created by artist John McKterick and marketed the Uned Stat by London-based Totem Internatnal as “the first out and proud gay doll”, although that distctn actually belongs to Gay Bob, troduced 1977. Gay Bob, the actual first gay doll, plete wh his closet and a talog promisg many tongue--cheek-outfs that didn’t actually exist.

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

Gay Bob was also anatomilly rrect – although his proportns were a ltle more most than for the Billy le. Billy had a number of guis based on stereotypil gay characters, cludg Sailor Billy, Cowboy Billy, Master Billy and San Francis Billy. Billy and Carlos donned drag 1999, wh Billy drsed a ggham checkered pantsu as “Dolly” and Carlos as “Carmen” a polka dot outf remiscent of those worn by Carmen Miranda to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, an event which lnched the gay liberatn movement the Uned Stat.

The limed edn Gay Gam Billy and the equally hard-to-fd BPS Carlos doll.

Or at least that's what the 'Bros' marketg mpaign would have you believeTheo Wargo/Getty Imag Entertament/Getty ImagSorry to bother you, but do you happen to know if there are any historic gay rom-s g out the next month? Of urse I know that Billy on the Street’s Billy Eichner -wrote and stars the upg Bros, the first ever gay rom- to be produced by a major stud. Here’s Billy:We need to show all the homophob like Clarence Thomas, and all the homophob on the Supreme Court, that we want gay love stori and we support LGBTQ people.

BILLY PORTER BE FIRST OPENLY GAY, BLACK MAN TO W BT ACTOR & MORE QUEER EMMY MOMENTS

Or do I jt have to go see bee the fate of queer cema at big studs reli on me seeg a movie about a gay podster? " At a time when homosexualy wasn't discsed, Jodie Dallas me out as would be nearly 20 years until Ellen DeGener' character on her s "Ellen" me out 1994 -- as did the edienne -- but Crystal's portrayal of the assured and openly gay Jodie paved the Crystal onstage at the 'The Comedians' panel discsn durg the Televisn Crics Associatn prs tou r 2015 Pasana, California | Source: Getty ImagMEET JODIE DALLASJodie Dallas was one of the characters of the hilar ABC s "Soap, " a farse based on the plex and outrageo plotl and dramatic twists and turns of the ever-popular daily soap gay Jodie was a televisn mercial director his twenti livg wh his mother, Mary Campbell. Jodie is love wh a pro footballer who is also gay, but ep the closet, and ends up turng his back on him out of fear of was only "Will & Grace" 1996 that another ma character a prime time TV program -- Eric McCormack's WIll -- is openly Crystal wh the st of "Soap" 1977 | Source: Wikimedia Commons/ ABC Televisn, Soap full st 1977, marked as public domaOut of speratn, Jodie has a one-night-stand wh a woman, and fathers a child.

Crystal revealed that he and the productn of "Soap" worked to make Jodie more realistic, and his stggl reflected many of the homosexual muny's challeng and are still valid today, more than 40 years TODAYThanks to Jodie, characters s and drama seri slowly me out of the closet.

In the 80s "thirtysomethg" gay uple Rsell and Peter are shown layg chastely bed together -- but never seri like "Melrose Place" and "Friends" featured mor gay characters, but was only "Will & Grace" 1996 that another ma character a prime time TV program -- Eric McCormack's WIll -- is openly COMEDYCrystal, famo for his acute w and acerbic stand-up edy act went on to build an extremely succsful reer as an actor a seri of h edi, such as "Cy Slickers" alongsi Jack Palance who won the Osr for Bt Supportg Actor for his his many hs, Crystal unts "Analyze This, " wh the legendary Robert DeNiro, "Ameri's Sweethearts, " wh Julia Roberts, John Cack, and Cathere Zeta-Jon, and MIracle Max the cult fantasy, "The Prcs Bri. "Crystal immortalized some of the most quoted l of all tim cludg "men and women n't be iends, " but even Harry Burns didn't equal the massive impact his Jodie Dallas had on attus the may jt be that funnyman Billy Crystal's most endurg legacy is the life and tim of a slightly geeky gay man livg wh his mother, tryg to live a world tolerant of his differenc, and dog wh humor.