Stage preview: Billy Porter comes home as star of 'Kinky Boots'; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/2/15

Sharon Eberson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Stage preview: Billy Porter comes home as star of 'Kinky Boots' :

"Mr. Porter has spoken openly about the pains of growing up a black gay Christian, who began singing in the Pentecostal church. Acceptance has been hard-fought for most of his 45 years.

“I just cried,” he said of hearing the recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage.

“I realized, and I’ve been realizing it more and more inside of this conversation, that for many years I drank the Kool-Aid of ‘My love doesn’t matter.’ This evolution that we’re seeing has cracked open inside of me in a way that I didn’t even know could exist,” he said...

Facing an audience full of friends and family with a show that delivers messages of perseverance and acceptance is particularly sweet.

“To be able to be a representative of the idea that hard work and patience pays off is what makes me so thrilled about it. … Where I came from, I’m supposed to be a statistic, and I’m not. And just that representation alone is the reason for me to come,” he said."