Billy Porter addresses problems with Harry Styles’ Vogue cover, editor-in-chief Anna Wintour

Billy Porter is dissatisfied with Harry Styles' Vogue cover. The actor, 53, gave his thoughts on the As It Was singer being the first solo male to appear on the cover of the fashion magazine in a new interview published on Friday by The Telegraph. Styles, 29, is well-known for posing in a Gucci gown for Vogue's December 2020 issue.

Porter, famed for his gender-fluid clothes, believes the One Direction star was chosen for the cover because he is "white and straight."

“It doesn’t feel good to me. You’re using my community — or your people are using my community — to elevate you. You haven’t had to sacrifice anything,” he said, explaining his feelings for Styles' fashion sense.

The Pose star disclosed that many months before the cover was unleashed, he had an interview with Anna Wintour, and the Vogue editor-in-chief questioned him his thoughts regarding how to lead the magazine and this experimental new era of fashion.

"That bitch said to me at the end, ‘How can we do better?’ And I was so taken off guard that I didn’t say what I should have said,” he recalled.

In retrospect, Porter said he should have told Wintour, "Use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement."

"Six months later, Harry Styles is the first man on the cover,” he added.

The Kinky Boots star was adamant of the fact that he doesn't had any beef for Styles but for the magazine's decision to feature him on the cover. "It’s not Harry Styles’ fault that he happens to be white and cute and straight and fit into the infrastructure that way … I call out the gatekeepers,” Porter said.

The Cinderella alum has previously expressed his dissatisfaction with the treatment of the historic cover. He told The Sunday Times in October 2021, "I feel like the fashion industry has accepted me because they have to. I created the conversation [about nonbinary fashion] and yet Vogue still put Harry Styles, a straight white man, in a dress on their cover for the first time."

"I was the first one doing it and now everybody is doing it," Porter added. "I'm not dragging Harry Styles, but… He doesn't care, he's just doing it because it's the thing to do. This is politics for me. This is my life."