Billy Porter Gave a Powerful Speech About Fighting Anti-LGBTQ+ “Evil” at Miami Beach Pride

Abby Monteil
·2 min read
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Zak Bennett / AFP via Getty Images

During a poignant speech at the recent Miami Beach Pride Festival, Billy Porter reflected on growing up during the AIDS crisis and called for the LGBTQ+ community to come together to fight injustice.

On Thursday, April 12, the Pose star and parade grand marshal received the ceremonial keys to Miami Beach from city commissioner Alex Fernandez and delivered a rousing speech.

“I was 16 years old at the beginning of the AIDS crisis,” Porter said. “We didn’t have the luxury to hide. We didn’t have the luxury to not be active. We had to go straight to the front lines to fight for our lives, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Porter opened up about his own HIV-positive status in a 2021 essay for The Hollywood Reporter, writing at the time, “I have always wanted to use my art to heal.”

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During his Miami Beach Pride speech, Porter observed that the world has changed because “we came together as a community, we fought back, and we succeeded.” The actor encouraged the LGBTQ+ community to join together once again to “fight the forces of evil that are trying to destroy us,” noting the role that art plays in societal change.

“We speak, we write, we do language. This is how civilizations heal,” Porter continued. “I’m an artist. The only way I know how to do it is through my art. I am grateful that the people are receiving what it is that I’m trying to do.”

The 54-year-old concluded his speech by reminding the audience that, as we continue to battle anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives, Pride has always been political.

“It’s time for us to come together and figure out what ‘going high’ looks like in this new world order,” Porter said. “It is not 1963. We cannot use the same tactics.”

“It’s time to re-engage,” he continued. “It’s time to pay attention again. It’s time to get in these streets again. This is not a parade, it’s a march. That’s what it was when we started. This march [is] political.”

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Originally Appeared on them.