The first timePoseEmmy winnerBilly Porterfelt a connection to LGBTQ history, he was taking part in it.
He heard shouts of ACT UP!
Fight AIDS as he found himself marching alongside the organization, which continues to combat the AIDS pandemic.
Billy Porter.Credit: Santiago Felipe/Getty Images
Porter didn’t know what the group was at the time.
He just knew he needed to be there.
You were in the middle of it.
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You had to be, he tells EW.
There was no other way.
As he puts it, they “taught me how to show up.
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“She said, ‘Thats all new information for me,’ which I thought was unbelievable.
You didnt know who the Daughters of Bilitis were?
Those things are important now, Kijak adds, because its all coming back to haunt us.
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“Art is activism,” he says.
I made the choice a long time ago, to check that thats what I was choosing.
That is whyPosecame into my life, that is whyEqualcame into my life.
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I have made a conscious choice and an intention to choose service.”
That is the issue.
“Yall thought it was cute, playing with our lives like its a chess game.
“Very often our allies are not activated because they dont believe us.
Now, theyre activated.
Everybody is activated.”
The challenge now, he adds, is “that we must always stay activated.”
Equalpremieres Thursday on HBO Max.
