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Billy Porter Closes DNC's First Night With Powerful '60s Protest Song

Billy Porter

The Democratic National Convention's first night ended with the Pose star and Stephen Stills's rendition of a classic. 

To close out a night of hope, inspiration, and the common goal of ousting Donald Trump from the White House and electing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Pose star Billy Porter performed a powerful rendition of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" with Stephen Stills on guitar.

Last year, Porter became the first out gay Black man to win the Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama Series for Pose, and his closing out the Democratic National Convention's first night clad in a vest with tails that he used like wings to great effect is nothing short of historic.

While Buffalo Springfield's song was written by Stills as an anti-Vietnam protest anthem, Porter, who recently re-recorded it, performed in a video for the convention against a backdrop of images from the current culture wars. Photos and graphics of Black Lives Matter protests splashed across the screen along with images of people in masks in a country under siege from a pandemic.

Watch Porter's moving performance below.

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.