Billy Porter Denies Giving RuPaul Side-Eye At The Emmys During ‘Drag Race’ Acceptance Speech

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And the Emmy for Best Shade goes to…not Billy Porter. The ‘Pose’ star shut down those who thought he gave some side-eye to RuPaul at the Emmys, saying it’s ‘all love, all love’ coming from him.

“There’s never a side-eye coming from me,” Billy Porter said to the press at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards. After the Pose star won the Emmy for Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Essense’s Danielle Young brought up how Twitter thought Billy, 50, threw some shade at RuPaul after RuPaul’s Drag Race won the award for Reality-Competition Program. Billy was having none of these “side-eye” allegations. “Let me make this clear right now in this room to everybody. Right now. There was never a side-eye coming from me.”

“There’s never anything negative coming from me. You’re never going to get from it from me. Okay. It’s all love. It’s all light. It’s all positivity. Don’t come to me with that,” he added. “They can catch you, and it can look like a side-eye, [but] RuPaul is a friend of mine. I am so proud of him. I stand on his shoulders. I stand on his shoulders. He is doing it. He paved the way for me, so there’s never a side-eye about that.”

So, there you go. On the night that Billy made history by becoming the first openly gay black man to be nominated – and win – an Emmy for outstanding actor in a drama series, there was only love in his heart and not an ounce of shade. RuPaul, 58, also continued his successful run at the Emmys. He also won his fourth consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program, tying Survivor’s Jeff Probst for the most wins in the category.

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Drag Race also made history at the 2019 Emmy Awards. Nina West, a contestant on season 11 of the competition (and a pillar of the LGBT community), became the first person to walk the Emmys purple carpet in full drag, according to Deadline. Also, Drag race won Outstanding Costumes for Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Programming as well as Outstanding Hairstyling for a Multi-Camera Series or Special. Oh, and the show was renewed for a 12th season and the spinoff, RuPaul’s Drag race All-Stars, will be back for a fifth season. Add in that Pose was renewed for a third season, and the future is full of the “light and love” Billy was talking about.