Pose star Billy Porter created history on Sunday night with his win at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards. With this win, Porter has become the first openly gay man of colour to win an Emmy in the "Outstanding Lead Actor" category.

Victorious. @theebillyporter becomes the first openly gay black man to win Outstanding Lead Actor in A Drama Series for @PoseonFX. pic.twitter.com/Y1CGRS8ibX

— Television Academy (@TelevisionAcad) September 23, 2019

While accepting the award, Billy Porter gave a moving speech and said, "The category is love, y'all, love! I am so overwhelmed, so overjoyed to have lived long enough to see this day."

The actor quoted novelist James Baldwin: "It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I'd been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here" and added in his speech "I have the right, you have the right, we all have the right".

"We as artists are the people that get to change the molecular structure of the hearts and minds of the people who live on this planet. Please don't ever stop doing that. Please don't ever stop telling the truth," he concluded his speech after thanking his family, his manager of 29 years, the cast of Pose and others.

The actor who started his career from Broadway nearly three decades ago, later said he hopes his victory will give courage to other queers.

"I feel like visibility and representation are the only things that create change. It's when we are visible that we have the power to create empathy through the way we tell stories. I know that being black, gay and being in this position, and speaking from where I get to speak from, is the change I hope that young queer people of all colours can look at me and know that they can," Porter told Variety.

Porter earlier this year spoke about why the award is important for him and told Rolling Stone, "Awards matter for this little black gay boy. If this black queen walks up to take a Best Lead Emmy? That's the first time it will ever have been done.

(Photo- Billy Porter)
US actor Billy Porter accepts the Emmy for Lead Actor In A Drama Series for "Pose" -- he is the first openly gay black man to win the honor Frederic J. Brown

With this win, the "Anastasia" actor is just one "O" away from an EGOT- which stands for "Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. The 50-year-old won a Tony in 2013 and Grammy in 2014 for his lead role in the musical "Kinky Boots".

The actor graced Emmy's purple carpet in a flamboyant hat and a suit adorned with more than 130,000 crystals, reports Slate.