KINKY BOOTS' Billy Porter on Growing Up Black, Christian and Gay in Pittsburgh

"Being black, gay and Christian in Pittsburgh during the 1980s made me a target for the kind of oppression that literally kills people and destroys humanity. Government and religion-sanctioned homophobia permeated the culture here."

Billy Porter took a trip back to his hometown of Pittsburgh in early August. Still black, still gay, still Christian, but now as the Tony-winning star of the Tony-winning musical, KINKY BOOTS, performing loudly and proudly in his role of a lifetime.

In today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Porter writes a moving account of his experience feeling welcoming acceptance from a community where he grew up as a target of hatred.

"Thank you, Pittsburgh, for your gifts of growth, evolution and acceptance," he writes. "It's so good to have a place I can truly call home. You are all proof that you change the world when you change your mind!"

Click here for the full article.

Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy

KINKY BOOTS opened on Broadway on April 4, 2013 and went on to win six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Kinky Boots features a Tony Award-winning score by Lauper, a book by Tony Award-winner Harvey Fierstein, and direction and choreography by Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell.

Now in its third year, the musical tells the uplifting and heartwarming tale of Charlie Price (currently played by Andy Kelso), a young man reluctantly taking over his family's struggling business. Charlie meets and finds inspiration in Lola (currently played by Billy Porter) and together, the unlikely pair finds that they have more in common than they ever dreamed possible... and discovers that when you change your mind about someone, you can change your whole world.