WILTON MANORS, Fla. – Broadway great Billy Porter was in South Florida on Thursday to raise money for a worthy cause.
The actor is pitching in to help Fort Lauderdale’s Stonewall National Museum.
“It’s all hands on deck right now,” said Porter.
The Emmy, Tony and Grammy winner, as well as a red-carpet trendsetter, came to Wilton Manors to speak out.
“Billy Porter is extraordinarily outspoken; he is not afraid of taking guff for what he says,” said museum executive director Robert Kesten.
Kesten said Porter accepted his invitation to help raise money for the museum’s LGBTQ history education programs.
“They are vitally important at a time when, not only in Florida, but across the country, government officials are cutting back on a universal education and education where everybody is equally and well represented,” said Kesten.
The event was sold out.
“It’s about honoring our humanity, the demand for the honoring of our humanity, like we already do for everyone else,” said Porter.
Kesten points to the recent controversial decision by the Miami-Dade school district, which voted against commemorating LGBTQ+ history in October.
Some commissioners raised concerns that celebrating LGBTQ+ history would be a violation of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Law.
“Political pressure should not be able to determine the outcome when these people serve the people,” Kesten said. “The only way we know history, the only way we know culture, is when we hear everybody’s story. When you leave one piece, one thread out of that rug, it starts to unravel.”