Billy Porter: “I had to hire a professional to teach me how to bottom”
Billy Porter got candid about his earlier experiences with men for a new YouTube documentary.
The Finding Fire Island series from Jess Rothschild is a wonderful and informative historical exploration of Fire Island and Cherry Grove. It has previously been nominated for a GLAAD Media Award.
Episode 3 of season 2 dropped last week. It’s entitled “Sex Before the Internet,” and looks at cruising in Fire Island and New York in the 80s and early 90s.
Among the contributors was Porter. He remembered visits to Fire Island’s infamous Meat Rack. The area is known for spontaneous encounters.
“I’ve spent some time in the meat rack. I ain’t gonna tell you all my business! You know, I’m a gay man at a certain age. Yes, I was in the meat rack,” recalled Porter.
“I moved here December 27th, 1990, to be in the original cast of Miss Saigon. And so at the time, a lot of the Broadway community people went out there on Mondays because that was the day off. So you left, you went out on a Sunday night, you stayed through Tuesday afternoon, and you came back to do your show. I remember how magical it was. I’d never been to a place like that. We grew up very poor. I didn’t go on vacation. I’d never experienced a beach,” he laughed.
He went on to say the only thing he found difficult was that he was one of the few Black men on Fire Island back then. According to Porter, it’s more integrated now.
HX adverts
Later on, the documentary explores magazine ads and phone lines that connected men before they hooked up online.
Porter says he responded to some of the adverts.
“Yeah. I called a couple of escorts from HX [a well-known NYC gay magazine],” laughs Porter. “I’m telling some real personal sh-t right now.
“You know, I was what you considered a top,” he continued. He explains that in the early years of the AIDS crisis, many thought the illness was something that only bottoms acquired. This led some men to take on the more active role as a safety strategy. It led others to work out hard at the gym, to be as fit and healthy as possible, and to appear healthy to others – whether they had the virus or not.
“Oh, ‘I’m a top’ was a common, fear-based response. But by 30, I was ready to be versatile,” says Porter. “And I didn’t really know where to go, and I wanted a professional. So, I did go to HX. And you had to vet over the phone. They had pictures, but you had to call, you had to talk. It wasn’t text message. You had to hear the voice.
“That was a part of the allure of it, your voice. But I, you know, had to hire a professional to teach me how to bottom,” Porter says, laughing.
You can watch the whole episode below. Porter’s comments about HX start at the 34.40 mark.
Porter’s comments bring up issues not only concerning the impact of AIDS upon a whole generation of men, but around sex education, too. Gay men are never given lessons about sex. Navigating one’s sex life at a time when doing it without protection could end in death… well, perhaps it’s little surprise Porter turned to a professional for assistance.
Porter revealed in 2021 that he’s living with HIV. He didn’t discover the fact until 2007.
Talking to the Hollywood Reporter, Porter, 56, said, “I was the generation that was supposed to know better, and it happened anyway. It was 2007, the worst year of my life. I was on the precipice of obscurity for about a decade or so, but 2007 was the worst of it.”
“By February, I had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. By March, I signed bankruptcy papers. And by June, I was diagnosed HIV-positive. The shame of that time compounded with the shame that had already [accumulated] in my life silenced me, and I have lived with that shame in silence for 14 years. HIV-positive, where I come from, growing up in the Pentecostal church with a very religious family, is God’s punishment.”
La Cage Aux Folles
Last year, Porter nearly died after ending up in the ICU with a bad case of sepsis. Thankfully, he recovered and is now back working again.
This week, he’s appearing in a strictly limited run of La Cage Aux Folles at the New York City Center. Porter plays drag performer Albin while Wayne Brady plays his partner, Georges. Check out Porter singing the show’s big number, “I Am What I Am”, below.
Via: Queerty
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