Actor and LGBTQ activist Billy Porter hosted an anti-Trump speech on Wednesday, calling Donald Trump “one of the biggest crises of my lifetime.”
The speech dubbed the “LGBTQ State of the Union” was hosted by LGBTQ TV network Logo TV and was touted as a reply to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech.
“This year, you and I have the chance to course-correct,” Billy Porter said early in his address.
The Pose actor went on to say forebodingly, “So far, our nation has survived the first term of Donald Trump, but who’s to say what another term would do to our country, to democracy and, truly, to the entire world.”
The 50-year-old activist and Pose star insisted that Trump has “disdain” for gays.
“His disdain for our rights has been demonstrated up, and down the federal benches he’s packed with anti-LGBTQ judges, whose influence will be felt long after Trump has left office,” Porter said.
Porter cited the FBI’s claims that “hate crimes” have reached a 16-year high and said that the evils of Trump mean “life and death” for gays.
However, Porter either did not know, or did not care, that the FBI’s statistics only reported about 2,000 cases of anti-gay or anti-transgender “hate crimes.” Out of a nation of more than 300 million, 2,000 crimes is a statically low sum. Further, the “hate crimes” that went up were crimes against Hispanics, not crimes against gays. Even hate crimes against Muslims went down, according to the Bureau’s numbers.
Porter ended his address on a positive note saying that with the acceptance that gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, the nation is “witnessing true progress.”
“I’ve been so proud to see the wave of everyday citizens protesting in the streets, engaging with their local governments, running for office, and speaking out in hopes of righting the wrongs occurring all around them,” the actor concluded.
Porter was recently celebrated by PBS children’s show Sesame Street which announced that the activist actor would appear in an upcoming episode of the show’s 51st season. Sesame Street posted a photo of Porter on the set wearing his Oscars tuxedo dress.
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