Billy Porter Says His Church Told Him He Would 'Never Be Blessed' If He 'Chose To Be Gay'

Out actor Billy Porter has revealed that his church told him he would “never be blessed” if he “chose to be gay.”

Porter is best known for his portrayal of Pray Tell, a gay man living with HIV, in the FX drama Pose, which has been renewed for a third season. In 2013, he won a Tony playing Lola in the Broadway musical Kinky Boots.

Speaking with the Guardian, Porter was asked, “What is the worst thing anyone's said to you?”

“When I was young,” Porter answered, “my church community said that I would never be blessed as long as I chose to be gay. And we all know it's not a choice.”

Porter, 51, also said that he's “trying to figure out how to receive unconditional love.”

“That's hard to do when you've never really had it, so I'm trying to navigate that,” he said.

Porter married husband Adam Smith in 2017.