Billy Porter is a black American actor, writer, singer, LGBTQ+, and human rights activist. Most recently, he’s best known for his Emmy-winning performance as Pray Tell on FX’s Pose. While he does a great job at showing just how perfect life can be, his life has been far from perfect. See Billy isn’t just a successful black artist, he’s an openly gay black artist, who also happens to be a man. Being black is already hard as it is simply because of systematic inequality, but when we add the next layer of him identifying as a queer man, acceptance poses an even greater challenge. See the black community has always had a rocky relationship with the LGBT community. Part of this is because religion is embedded into the community. But even outside religion, there’s high teaching of homosexuality as wrong, especially for a black man. So when we look at power and privilege, it’s clear that Billy porters power is limited to a sense seeing that he doesn’t exactly embody the societal ideal image of what a black man should be. However, as an LGBT and human rights activist, he has inspired thousands and has given a voice to those who’ve felt like they’ve been marginalised. One could only imagine the amount of pressure it takes to navigate in a hyper-masculine homophobic world. Billy’s motto, he takes it one day at a time. Every day he wakes up and faces the world. Being black first, then queer. Eyes are constantly on him as there is a lot of pressure on him not to “slip up” and disappoint not only the black community but let down the LGBTQ. But while his basic human rights are up for legislation every day, that hasn’t stopped him from being his authentic self and educating people about celebrating differences. Billy Porter is here to stay and nothing is stopping him from taking over the world.