When Billy Porter enters the room he doesn’t so much light it up as detonate it, writes CARY GEE. After methodically “charging up all the things one must charge nowadays”, he’s ready to sit down for a chat. He clearly requires no charging himself. Or does he?

Porter has been living in London since the start of the year, performing nightly on stage as the Emcee in Cabaret. How is he enjoying life in the capital?

“I love London. I thought that I would be more social but eight shows a week at 55. I’m tired!”

Now that his run at the Kit Kat Club has ended Porter is set to direct a play at London’s Soho Theatre.

This Bitter Earth by Harrison David Rivers is a searingly honest drama about an interracial gay relationship between Jesse, an introspective Black playwright, and his partner, a white Black Lives Matter activist. Why was Billy drawn to this particular play?

“This play came to me because the producer found me. He wanted me to do it. I was in Soho House last year and an associate of his saw me, came over and talked to me. He said, ‘I know I’m not allowed to talk to you here…They have RULES!” says Billy, laughing.

“He says he sent a script to my agent. Had I heard about it?’

“I had not but I took his number, asked him to send me the script. I read the play. It’s extraordinary.”

Playing the part of playwright Jesse is young British actor Omari Douglas, perhaps best known here for playing Roscoe Babatunde in the award-winning AIDS drama It’s A Sin. He stars opposite Alexander Lincoln (Everything I Know About Love).

“They are wonderful, wonderful actors” Billy enthuses. “The play is a two-hander; they are in an interracial, queer, gay relationship during the civil unrest from 2012 —2016 in New York and Minneapolis.

“It asks the questions that many people in interracial relationships don’t ask. And don’t talk about. Race is a thing, and if you didn’t know it before you know it now.

“When you are in an interracial relationship you have to have uncomfortable conversations. Sometimes those conversations aren’t pleasant.”

Is race as big a thing in London as it is America?

“Yes. But you are all more polite about it. But it’s the same thing all over the world.”

Was Billy not tempted by the part himself? “No. I’m too old!”

Already an established star of both the stage and screen in the US, Porter won a Tony award for originating the role of drag queen Lola in Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Feinstein’s musical Kinky Boots, along with a Grammy for the accompanying album.

It was his role as Pray Tell in the groundbreaking TV series Pose that catapulted him into the stratosphere.

He became the first gay Black man to win a primetime Emmy (for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama) and in 2020 was included in Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world list.

Pose is set in the Ball scene of late 1980s New York City, an LGBTQ+ subculture that inspired, among other crazes, Vogueing.

Was this a scene that Billy was involved with himself?

“I was adjacent to the Ball scene. I was blessed to come to New York to be in the original cast of Miss Saigon on Broadway. The Ball culture and the movie Paris is Burning came out right when I moved to New York. That’s my era. It was the first time I had seen anyone on screen that looked like me. A queer Black man. It changed everything for me. It was crazy. Wild.”

It was also a very dark time for the LGBTQ+ community, set against the AIDS epidemic. Was it at all difficult for Billy to revisit those days?

“There was emotional trauma in playing the character. I had to do a lot of work outside of the show to make sure I could maintain some semblance of sanity.

“It was right at the beginning of the AIDS crisis. After the theatre ended we went straight to the front line to fight for our lives. I did live it. I was one of the only people on the [Pose] set who was old enough to have lived it. It was hard. It was not an easy show to do.”

Did he entertain any doubts about taking the role on?

“Never. Never.”

The only major accolade missing from Billy’s mantelpiece is his own Oscar. But Billy has been working on a biopic of Black LGBT civil rights activist and writer James Baldwin. Might this be the role that turns him into a bona fide EGOT? (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner).

“The business has shifted in the last couple of years with the [writers’] strikes and Trump. We don’t currently have the funding. I have many ways, many paths I can take to get the ‘O’ but that’s not the focus of my work.”

Is it his work that Billy is most proud of, or the fact that he is an out there Black, queer man?

“I struggle sometimes. It’s not easy, actually, being a ‘first of something’ but I am proud of who I am, and how I take up space in the world. I was told my queerness would be my liability, and it was for a long time.”

At what point did it cease to be a liability? “It’s still a liability but you just push through it.”

Does Billy think LGBTQ+ rights have slipped backwards at all with the re-election of Trump to the presidency?

“I think that in America we are in a season of ‘Yes’ or ‘No”. I choose Joy. I choose to believe in the human spirit. I choose to believe in humanity. It’s dark right now. We’ll see. We have to be present. We have to be strong. We have to be open and ready for whatever is coming.”

Where does Billy draw his own strength from? Who was his greatest influence?

“My mother. A Black woman, disabled [by medical malpractice], born in 1935. The life she lived and the choices she made, to choose joy and unconditional love, is my greatest gift’.

Does Billy hope to pass that same joy on through his performances?

“Yes, I do. My mother was a very religious woman. She had a really hard time with the gay thing for a long time. But she transformed, she grew. Her expansion, her love, was something that takes my breath away.”

We are in Pride season. Does Billy remember his first Pride?

“Yes! It was in New York. I was 19. I was doing Joseph. All the gays in the show said, “Come meet us, we’re going to march in the parade.”’

Billy pauses, then stresses that it is a march. Not a parade.

“I didn’t know where I was going. I was a little late. My friend put a sign over my head: ‘Silence Equals Death’. We marched down the street chanting, ‘Act Up. Fight Back. Fight AIDS’.

“It was pretty magical and a defining moment for me. When I came out, Pride was about community, Pride was about organising. Pride was our civil rights movement.”

Has Pride become too much of a party?

“No. Because the party is the Healing. The Healing is inside the dance… is inside the party. That’s the Healing. That’s Gay Church.”

This Bitter Earth, directed by Billy Porter, is at the Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London W1D 3NE from 18 June until 26 July

Go to: Soho Theatre

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The actor made the remarks while discussing his role on the forthcoming Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice.

In the movie Strong plays the part of Roy Cohn, an early Trump attorney, who was a closeted gay man who died from AIDS in 1986 without ever coming out or revaling his HIV-positive status.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, he said that it was “perfectly valid” to criticise straight actors playing gay roles.

He went on to say, “I’m sort of old fashioned, maybe, in the belief that, fundamentally, it’s about a person’s artistry, and that great artists, historically, have been able to, as it were, change the stamp of their nature. That’s your job as an actor.”

While he did not think it necessary for gay roles to be played by gay actors, he said that “it would be good if that were given more weight.”

“What I do feel, whoever plays any part ever, is that you have to take these things as seriously as you take your own life, and it is not a game, and that these people and their struggles and the experiences you’re trying to render are not a plaything,” he said.

This follows comments from Heartstopper star Joe Locke who said that he did not think it “fair” that straight actors should be prevented from playing gay roles.

“I wouldn’t want not to be able to play a straight character,” the 21-year-old told the Guardian. “So I don’t think it’s fair to stop someone straight – who can do all the research – playing a gay character.

“As long as you’re playing a part authentically – and with the best intentions – and you’re not playing a stereotype then just go for it.”

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A law restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ people has been signed into law – despite the objections of the country’s president.

President Salome Zourabichvili refused to sign into law the bill which bans same-sex marriages, adoptions by same-sex couples, recognition of changing genders, and positive depictions of LGBTQ+ relations.

However Shalva Papuashvili, the speaker of the Georgian parliament ignored the president’s veto, and signed the bill into law on Thursday.

Writing on social media he said that the legislation was based on “common sense, historical experience and centuries-old Christian, Georgian and European values.”

The law was introduced by the governing Georgian Dream party.

 Ana Tavadze of Tbilisi Pride said that by signing the law the party had taken homophobia to “a new level, and that is political and institutional homophobia,”

Homosexuality has been legal in Georgia since 2000 but LGBTQ+ people still suffer persecution and dissemination.

One day after the bill was passed in parliament, Kesaria Abramidze, a well known transgender actor and model, was found stabbed to death in her apartment.

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The former This Morning host, Phillip Schofield, who has been shunned by TV since admitting to a gay affair, has claimed he would have been treated differently if he had been straight.

The 62-year-old quit This Morning in May last year after it had emerged that he had been having an affair with a younger male member of the This Morning team, while remaining married to his wife Stephanie Lowe.

After first denying the accusation, Sheffield then admitted that he had had a consensual on-off relationship with the 19-year-old male member of staff.

Since then he has not worked on television until now when he is the subject of Channel 5’s Cast Away in which he spends 10 days alone on an island in the Indian Ocean.

Accusing the TV industry of double standards, he said he thought that another TV presenter “or two” would have done exactly the same thing.

Addressing the age difference, he went on to say that age-gaps were not uncommon in gay relationships.

He went on to say: “If that had been the case with me and it had been a woman. Pat on the back. ‘Well done, mate.’”

Cast Away is currently airing on Channel 5

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A new feature film about actor James Dean’s purported gay love life is to hit the screens.

Showbiz bible The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that writer-director Guy Guido has acquired the rights to author William Bast’s 2006 memoir Surviving James Dean.

The book details Bast’s meeting with the late actor at UCLA when they were each nineteen.

In the book Bast claims that the two of them became roommates and eventually lovers.

He says they kept their relationship private so as not to harm the rising movie star’s career.

During this time Dean had relationships with female stars, but Bast hoped that they would go back to living with each other..

James Dean did in a car crash in 1954 at the age of 24, with two of his most iconic films, Rebel without a Cause and Giant, being released posthumously.

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Guido said: “I have been a fan and historian of James Dean since I was 18 years old, so I knew about his ‘friend’ Willie, even when information about their relationship was straight-washed by the Hollywood machine.

“As a filmmaker, I love telling the story of a celebrity’s life in their coming-of-age period. As a gay man, I was particularly drawn to Bast’s unique story.”

The movie is currently looking for financing. Guido has said that he is looking for the right partner to team with.

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Only weeks after apologising for using the offensive term frociaggine to describe gay men, the Pope has allegedly repeated the slur.

Newspaper Corriere della Sera reports that, in a meeting on Tuesday with priests in Rome, the 87-year-old pontiff allegedly said: “There is too much frociaggine here in the Vatican.”

The term can be translated as “fa**otry” and is an abusive term for gay men.

After his first use of the term on 27 May, the Vatican issued a statement apologising for Pope Francis’s use of the word.

It said that he had not meant to cause any offence and suggested that his use of the Italian slang word was due to Italian not being his native language.

Despite what some see as his more liberal attitudes to homosexuality, compared to his predecessors, the Pope still rules that gay people should not be allowed into the priesthood.

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Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa has topped the Independent’s list of the LGBTQ+ people and change-makers who have made the most impact on the community in the past year.

Gatwa, who was born in Rwanda but raised in Scotland, is the first person of colour, and the first openly queer actor, to take on the role of the titular Time Lord.

As well as raising the profile of LGBTQ+ people, Gatwa has also criticised the current government’s anti-trans rhetoric, which has led to an increase in hate crimes against the trans community.

Coming in at Number Two is former professional footballer turned sports presenter Alex Scott. Scott has spoken frankly about the racism and misogyny she has encountered in her career.

The UK’s first trans judge, Victoria McCloud, was considered to be the third most influential LGBTQ+ person in the country.

She is followed by Ripley and Fleabag star Andrew Scott, who has also starred in the critically acclaimed film All of Us Strangers, playing a man coming to terms with being gay during the 80s’ AIDS crisis.

Also making the list are Wes Streeting, currently the shadow secretary of state for health and social care, and broadcaster Crystal, who appeared in the first UK series of RuPaul’s Drag Race. She is joined by Tia Kofi, winner of the second series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. the World.

Comedian Rosie Jones, who has cerebral palsy, and is a regular guest on TV comedy shows, is also on the list.

Other names include the pop stars Pet Shop Boys and Olly Alexander, presenter Rylan, author Juno Dawson, and Doctor Who showrunner and Queer as Folk and It’s A Sin creator and writer Russell T Davies

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Pride in London, the UK’s largest and most diverse Pride event, has launched its 2024 campaign in the run-up to Pride Day on 29 June in the capital.

The #WeAreEverywhere campaign shines a light on the presence of London’s LGBTQ+ community, and the power they have to be drivers of change by living authentically and without apology.

“This campaign confronts the increasing attacks on the queer community, particularly those who are trans and non-binary,” said Christopher Joell-Deshields, CEO of Pride in London.

“#WeAreEverywhere underlines that our community is not a political talking point—we are a vital part of the fabric of London, powering our city every day.”

“In these urgent and unjust times, and ahead of July’s general election, this campaign and our upcoming Parade are a reminder of the power, importance and presence of our community.”

Featured in the campaign will be everyday Londoners who are making a difference in their communities day after day simply by showing up as their authentic selves.

The Pride in London Parade will take place on Saturday 29 June.

For more info go to: https://prideinlondon.org/

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The Pope has allegedly used offensive language when talking about gay people.

Asked at a bishops’ conference in Rome about whether gay men who choose to be celibate should be considered for the priesthood, the tabloid website Dagospia reported that Pope Francis had allegedly said, in Italian, that there was already too much frociaggine in some sections of the Catholic Church.

The Italian word is used as a slur and roughly translates as f*g**try.

The meeting took place behind closed doors.

The story was later picked up by the Italian broadsheets La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera and other news agencies.

If true, this goes against what some have seen as the Pontiff’s softening of the Church’s attitude towards LGBTQ+ people.

Asked about gay people in the early years of his papacy, he famously said, “Who am I to judge?”

Last year he ruled that priests could bless same-sex couples.

In the same year he told the Associated Press that “being homosexual isn’t a crime”.

He also said that transgender people could be baptised into the Catholic faith.

The 87-year-old Pontiff’s first language is Spanish and an insider to the meeting claimed that the Pope was making a joke and wasn’t aware of the offensive nature of the Italian word.

The Vatican has declined to comment.

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With the Pride season now getting under way, a Christian group has called for a ban on displaying the Pride Rainbow and Pride Progress flags in public.

Christian Voice has called for the ban claiming that the Pride flag is “divisive and damaging especially for children”.

It also thinks that the Pride flags stay up too long after Pride Day.

They are organising a petition asking London’s Westminster Council to ban the raising of Pride flags, especially on the main Regent Street shopping thoroughfare

Christian Voice claims that the flags send out a message that “Christians and others with historic beliefs about gender and identity are not welcome.”

It also goes on to say that the issue is not just a Westminster or London matter, as the flag sends out a nationwide message that the LGBTQ+ movement is “in charge and that Christians should stay quiet”.

It believes that the flag signifies an “anything goes” attitude towards sexuality which, it claims, goes against God’s pattern for people’s lives.

Christian Voice then criticises the Progress flag, which, it says, is “even worse” than the Rainbow flag. It considers that the transgender chevrons, which are incorporated into the flag, represent a movement which “has done untold damage to gender-questioning children in recent years”.

It also says that the black and brown stripes on the flag would upset people from ethnic minorities who do not want to be identified with LGBTQ+ people.

It also thinks that the flags are “particularly ugly”.

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