Billy Porter Instagram – Flashing back to my Feb 2020 @allure magazine cover. “Flamboyance was a silencing mechanism for a long time with me. Flamboyant was code for ‘You’re a f*ggot, and we don’t want you.’ Flamboyant was a word that was used to marginalize me and pigeonhole me and keep me in a box. You get in the room, you give them flamboyant, and then they come back to you with, ‘He’s too flamboyant.’ And that’s when I started to want to m*rder people.” One day, while watching an Oprah TV special featuring Maya Angelou and Iyanla Vanzant, he heard one of them mention the importance of shifting your mindset toward service to others. Then, one of the three claimed, the rest will work itself out. Something in that thought clicked for Porter. From across the table, his eyes grew wide with a mock realization: “It’s inside of your authenticity. The very thing that everybody’s telling you is wrong is exactly what you have to be.” I am #BlackHistory I am the #blueprint #historymaker #fashionfriday #fbf