Billy Porter takes center stage at Capital Pride
Marching down Fifth Avenue in the summer of 1989 in New York City, Billy Porter took part in his first Pride event. He distinctly remembers that June day — his fellow cast members of the show “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” out of Montclair State University in New Jersey invited him.
Porter’s friend told him not to be late. But Porter got lost. “We didn’t have GPS,” Porter recalls to the Blade. “I didn’t know where I was going.” He eventually found the march, which began right in front of Saks Fifth Avenue, and his friends.
As people slowly walked, his cast mates quickly pulled Porter into the crowd and threw a shirt over his head that read: “Silence equals death.” As the crowd marched on, they all chanted “Act up!
Fight back! Fight AIDS!” That chant still plays in Porter’s head all these years later. He’s fed up that there’s still a need for it. “It’s time to get in good trouble again,” Porter said, referencing the late civil rights icon and congressman, John Lewis. “To go back and fight for the rights that we already fought for.
