Billy Porter Issues Harry Styles a “Queer-Baiting” Apology
Oof.
UPDATE (AUGUST 14, 2023): Similar to many who have critiqued musician Harry Styles‘ gender-bending expression, Pose actor Billy Porter recants a former statement about Styles’ sexuality and gender.
In 2019, Vogue featured its first male cover star — Harry Styles. For Gen Z and Millenials who stanned One Direction, this was a major win. Others, like Porter, felt that Styles was a mediocre take for the first male cover. “I was the first one doing it and now everybody is doing it,” Porter stated at the time. “I’m not dragging Harry Styles, but… He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do. This is politics for me. This is my life.”
Most profoundly: “I had to fight my entire life to get to the place where I could wear a dress to the Oscars… All [Styles] has to do is be white and straight.” In just under three years, Styles’ fluidity has become his mark from his 2019 MET Gala look to his gay sex scene in the 2022 film, My Policeman.
In the past week, Porter has publicly apologized to Styles via the Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert. “Harry Styles, I apologize to you for having your name in my mouth. It’s not about you. The conversation is not about you.” As he continued, he referenced “the systems of oppression and erasure of people of colour, who contribute to the culture,” as the reason for his sensitivity to the subject.
“I’m willing to unpack it, sans the dragging and cancel culture of the internet, because I do not now, nor will ever, adjudicate my life or humanity in sound bites on social media… So when you’re ready to have the real conversation, call a b-tch, okay? I’m ready to have it.”
Harry Styles is having a rather eventful year with a new album and teasing upcoming film My Policeman where he experiences a “gay awakening.” Recently, in an exclusive interview, Styles shared his hot takes on sexuality and love and surprisingly, Twitter is not here for it.
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According to the chaotic and opinionated collective that is Twitter, Styles’ current run is giving queer baiting. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, filmmaker and activist Leo Herrera defined it as, “a celebrity or a public figure capitalizing on the suspicion that they may be romantically involved with another same-sex person for the sake of publicity, promotion or capitalistic gain.”
At the moment, Twitter is divided into three groups. The first adamantly believe that Styles is queer baiting. Others believe that the world is simply policing his expression of queerness, while the third group believes Styles is not to blame. The third group believes that the media, for example, publications such as Rolling Stone, are problematic for their representation of him and treating him as if he is a queer Messiah.
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But what absolutely solidified claims and divided Twitter was Styles’ comment on queer sex in films and how My Policeman would break the mold. “So much of gay sex in film is two guys going at it, and it kind of removes the tenderness from it.” Former fans who do not “believe” his queerness questioned why he would be given a platform to discuss gay sex when in their opinion, he’s not even queer.
The accusations of queer baiting can be quite harmful as it forces someone to express themselves or create work that you deem acceptable for the LGBTQ+ community. On the other hand, queer individuals have been ostracized and policed their entire lives so the criticisms of Styles are not entirely unfounded.
Ultimately the question we’re still unpacking is: Is Harry Styles actually queer baiting in hopes of gaining traction for his upcoming movie? Or are we simply policing the expression of someone’s queerness?
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