Billy Porter says he hasn’t been invited to Met Gala since 2019: ‘I don’t go to places where I’m not welcome’

Key Points

• Fashionable actor Billy Porter says he won’t attend the upcoming Met Gala because he hasn’t been invited since 2019.

• The Emmy winner said he was a guest that year after being invited by Ryan Murphy, his Pose producer.

• Porter said he’s reached a level that “doesn’t require validation from the outside.”

Billy Porter won’t be on the red carpet for fashion’s biggest night next month.

“No, I’m not going,” Porter said on a recent episode of SiriusXM’s Bevelations. “I have not been invited. I haven’t been invited back since 2019. That’s the only time I’ve ever gone, and the only time I’ve ever been invited, and I was invited by Ryan Murphy that year.”

The theater, TV, and movie actor starred on Murphy’s TV series Pose, which aired for three seasons between 2018 and 2021.

The fashionable actor’s announcement that he hadn’t returned to the stylish event surprised host Bevy Smith.

“Last year was Black dandyism, and I was not invited,” Porter said of the theme “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” “I’m just gonna throw that out there. 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 don’t go to places where I’m not welcome.”

Porter is known for his dramatic, often genderless looks, which have included tuxedo dresses, to awards shows. So he said that he’s not broken up about missing the first Monday in May event.

“I’ve earned the invitation, and it’s OK that I don’t have it,” Porter said, “because there’s a level that I’ve reached, that doesn’t require validation from the outside. So I’m gonna sit and live in that, because it helps keep me sane, too.”

The 2019 Emmy winner, for his work on Pose, has explained that he sees clothing as more than just functional.

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“Fashion is art and we’re the first to be silenced,” he told Women’s Wear Daily in February 2023. “I’m trying to step up and use my art to make a difference in this world.”

But he said he favors taking a break and relaxing in sweatpants and T-shirts at home.

Porter’s acting credits also include the 2021 live-action version of Cinderella, 80 for Brady, and the upcoming The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.

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