Washington, D.C., June 2 – Billy Porter has had a long history of breaking boundaries. He came out at 16 years old in the middle of the AIDS crisis. His Tony-winning stint as Lola in Kinky Boots confronted stigmas around femininity. And his role as Pray Tell on Pose made him the first openly gay Black man to win any lead acting category at the Primetime Emmy Awards. But Porter is not finished breaking boundaries quite yet.
On May 19, 2021, Billy Porter gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter and revealed that he is HIV-positive and has Type 2 Diabetes. Both of these diagnoses came in 2007, but Porter kept his HIV status secret from almost everyone due to the stigma that comes with such a diagnosis.