Billy Porter Got Real About Why Harry Styles' Vogue Cover "Doesn't Feel Good"

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Billy Porter is speaking out — again — about Harry Styles.

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Brief recap in regards to how we got here: Harry was the first man to have a solo Vogue cover back in 2020. Everyone weighed in on the occasion, from AOC and Liam Payne to Harry's mom and (ugh) Candace Owens.

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Nearly a year after the cover was published, Billy gave his own take on Harry's styling, which included dresses and skirts. "I created the conversation [about non-binary fashion] and yet Vogue still put Harry Styles, a straight white man, in a dress on their cover for the first time," he told The Sunday Times.

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"He is the one you're going to try and use to represent this new conversation?"

  Karwai Tang / WireImage
Karwai Tang / WireImage

In a new interview with the Telegraph, Billy explained why he reacted the way he did to Harry's cover — and he did not hold back.

  Manny Carabel / WireImage
Manny Carabel / WireImage

“[He’s] straight and white," Billy said (via Insider). "That’s why he’s on the cover. Non-binary blah blah blah blah. No. It doesn’t feel good to me."

harry in the studio
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"You're using my community — or your people are using my community — to elevate you," Billy said of Harry. "You haven't had to sacrifice anything."

harry on stage
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During the interview, Billy also recalled an alleged conversation he had with Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour regarding how the publication could "do better" towards the LGBTQIA+ community.

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"That bitch said to me at the end, 'How can we do better?'" he recalled. "And I was so taken off guard that I didn't say what I should have said." But Billy also knows now what he would have said if he was prepared to answer the question.

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"Use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement."

  Dominik Bindl / WireImage
Dominik Bindl / WireImage

You can read Billy's entire interview here.