We?ve reached the halfway point in the first season of FX?s groundbreaking ?Pose,? and as the stakes in the underground queer ballrooms of 1980s New York ratchet up, so do personal victories and tragedies for the characters in the Ryan Murphy drama.
Broadway and recording veteran Billy Porter had a shining moment on Sunday as Pray Tell, the stunt queen emcee who hosts the weekly balls where gay orphans, trans woman and a family of LGBTQ people gather for organized self-flattery and some fierce dress up.
Pray Tell is never short on comebacks or crowd-pleasing disses for the brave children who walk various categories at the balls, in search of validation ? but he?s never been as dimensional as he was in Sunday?s installment ?The Fever,? written by trans activist Janet Mock.
?It?s been years and years I?ve been in this business. I?ve always had big dreams, but this piece has taught me to dream the impossible,? Porter told TheWrap of the experience.
The show?s young queer men all seek HIV testing after a health scare in their inner-circle, a moment Pray Tell had been avoiding for decades as he watched his friends die in droves from the then-mysterious disease.
?When I read the script I felt that this is exactly the story I?ve always wanted to tell ? this story of all of my friends who I lost, the generation that we lost,? Porter said.
It?s a destabilizing moment, that one of the series anchors might suddenly be compromised when so much is working against the heroes of this story ? marginalized, unemployable, sick and fighting for acceptance. Pray Tell is diagnosed as HIV positive.
