“The category is love, y’all… LOVE LOVE LOVE!” Porter cried out in reference to his character Pray Tell from Pose.
Billy Porter made history at the 2019 Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday.
The veteran actor was the first openly gay black man to take home Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama for his work on "Pose".
"The category is love, y’all… LOVE LOVE LOVE!" Porter exuberantly cried out in reference to his character Pray Tell from the popular FX series as he took the stage.
"I’m so overwhelmed and I’m so overjoyed that I’ve lived this long to see this day. James Baldwin said ‘It took many years of vomiting all the filth I had been taught about myself, and halfway believed, before I could walk around this earth like I had the right to be here.’ I have the right, you have the right, we all have the right." he added.
Porter then thanked the other "exquisite" actors in his category and everyone in his life who helped get him to this amazing milestone.
"We are the people, we as artists, we are the people that get to change the molecular structure of the hearts and minds of the people who live on this planet. Please don’t ever stop doing that. Please don’t stop telling the truth," he pleaded with the audience before exiting the stage.
With an Emmy secured, Porter needs to take home an Oscar to complete his EGOT. He won his Tony, in 2013, and Grammy, in 2014, for the same project, Broadway’s "Kinky Boots."
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