Billy Porter Talks Met Gala Snub Since 2019 & Social Media Knows Why

Billy Porter is wondering where he went wrong.

The Broadway star says despite his many stellar red-carpet moments, he hasn’t been invited back to the Met Gala since 2019.

In 2019, Porter was carried in by a group of shirtless men. The theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” and his beaded gold face covering and outfit were a homage to the museum’s collection of Egyptian art. So he understood the assignment.

The annual fashion event is actually a benefit for the Metropolitan Museum and has a different theme every year. Last year’s theme was “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which was also billed as the year of the Black dandy, a theme Porter would certainly seem to fit.

The 2026 theme is “Fashion is Art,” which should lend itself to multiple creative variations.

But unfortunately, Emmy winner Porter, 56, won’t be in attendance.

“I’m just going to throw that out there,” he told Bevy Smith on her Sirius XM show Bevelations. “I’m good. It’s all good. But the reality is when people ask me, you need to know I was not invited and I’m good, and I don’t go to places where I’m not welcome.”

However, there is some context to this story. In 2023, Porter referred to Vogue editor Anna Wintour as a “b-tch” based on her selection of British pop star Harry Styles for a December 2020 Vogue cover.

Styles is straight but has often worn gender-fluid outfits, including the Gucci gown he wore on the cover. Styles was the first solo male on the renowned fashion magazine’s cover.

Porter saw the move as disrespectful, as he believes he better represents the move toward gender-fluid fashion.

“I’m not dragging Harry Styles, but he is the one you’re going to try and use to represent this new conversation?” he told The Sunday Times in 2021.

He added, “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. I had to fight my entire life to get to the place where I could wear a dress to the Oscars and not be gunned down. All he has to do is be white and straight.”

In 2023, he specifically called out Wintour in an interview with The Telegraph.

He says Wintour had previously asked him how the magazine could be more inclusive, then decided to go with Styles.

“That b— said to me at the end, ‘How can we do better?’ And I was so taken off guard that I didn’t say what I should have said,” Porter added. He says he should have told her, “Use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement.”

He later apologized to Styles…but not to Wintour.

Porter won an Emmy in 2019 for his role in Pose, the first openly gay Black man to do so in an acting category. After recovering from a bout of sepsis, he’s expected to appear on Broadway opposite Wayne Brady in La Cage Aux Folles in June.

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