Actor-singer Billy Porter has been
named Attitude's Man of the Year.
Porter, 52, is best known for playing
Lola in the Broadway musical Kinky Boots and Pray Tell, a gay
HIV-positive man, in the FX drama Pose.
“I just won The Man of the Year
Award!” Porter captioned a photo of himself on Instagram. “Thank
you so much @attitudemag for this incredible honor!”
Porter appears on the cover of
Attitude's The Awards Issue, out now.
In accepting his award, Porter said
that it was “the greatest honor to be a little fucking sissy,
church boy from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania all the way over here in
London town [to accept this award].”
He also called on the global LGBTQ
community to get vocal about their rights.
“It's time to stop being scared. It's
time to stop being terrified,” Porter told the crowd at the
Attitude Awards ceremony. “It's time to say fuck you. It's our
country too. It's our world too. And we're taking the mother fucker
back!”
Earlier this year, Porter came out as
HIV-positive ahead of the final season of Pose, in which his
character's storyline revolves around HIV.
“I became the statistic that everyone
said I would be,” Porter said. “This is what HIV looks like now.
This is what courage looks like now. This is what bravery looks like
now. This is what activism looks like now.”