Speaker 1: We talk a lot about how the Internet can be
Speaker 1: used as a tool to draw attention to stories that
Speaker 1: would otherwise fall under the radar. Afterlives, a new podcast
Speaker 1: from Iheart's Outspoken Network, spotlights one of those stories. Afterlives
Speaker 1: examines the life and legacy of Leileen Polanco, a transgender
Speaker 1: Afro Latina who tragically died at New York City's Rikers
Speaker 1: Island Jail. Lealeen's death was totally preventable, and this new
Speaker 1: podcast sets out to investigate the systems of power that
Speaker 1: led to her untimely passing, as well as how her
Speaker 1: story sparked national movements for change. As we're seeing more
Speaker 1: and more legislation policing how trans people exist, including how
Speaker 1: they show up online, this story is more important than ever.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. Be sure to subscribe.
Speaker 1: Here's Afterlives, the Lalene Polanco story. Episode one.
Speaker 2: After Lives is a production of iHeart Podcasts and the
Speaker 2: Outspoken podcast Network in partnership with School of Humans. Just
Speaker 2: a heads up, The following episode discusses transphobia, racism, mental health,
Speaker 2: suicide and violence.
Speaker 3: Take care while listening.
Speaker 4: Studdy sing It, Sing It?
Speaker 1: Wait, let me sing It?
Speaker 4: First, you'll never see me again, so no one not
Speaker 4: sing it. Okay, let's see me again.
Speaker 2: That last voice, that's Leileen Polonko. She's singing Cry for
Speaker 2: You by the Swedish musician September.
Speaker 4: Let her finish, Let her finish.
Speaker 2: Leileen's niece, Aliyah is the one goading her on, trying
Speaker 2: to get her to beld it out for the case
Speaker 2: would come on.
Speaker 4: I want to You'll never see me again.
Speaker 2: I first learned who Laiyleen was back in June of
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen. A friend and fellow activist texted me a
Speaker 2: four sentenced New York Post article about a trans woman
Speaker 2: who had died hours earlier in a cell on Rikers Island,
Speaker 2: New York City's notorious Gel Complex. We had few details
Speaker 2: at the time, even Leileen's name wasn't public yet, but
Speaker 2: the little information we did have was enough for us
Speaker 2: to know we lost a member of our cherished community,
Speaker 2: and we needed answers. I'm a journalist and an activist.
Speaker 2: I know some people find those descriptors at odds, but
Speaker 2: for me, story telling and social justice.
Speaker 3: Go hand in hand.
Speaker 2: Throughout my career, I found it important to prioritize stories
Speaker 2: of trans people, specifically trans women of color.
Speaker 3: Like myself.
Speaker 2: Our lives, our joy, our struggles, and our truth. A
Speaker 2: difficult part of that truth is that many of us
Speaker 2: are dying. There is growing concern in this country and
Speaker 2: fear about deadly attacks against transgender Americans, particularly trans women
Speaker 2: of color. As more information surfaced about Laileen's death, something
Speaker 2: shifted in me. Here was an Afro Latina whose story
Speaker 2: felt like it touched so many systems of power that
Speaker 2: affect trans women. I connected with her, I mourned her,
Speaker 2: and I wasn't alone.
Speaker 5: Hundreds gathered in New York City Monday to demand justice
Speaker 5: for l'ileen.
Speaker 4: Rest in power. The recent death of a twenty seven
Speaker 4: year old woman on Rikers Island is raising questions about.
Speaker 2: The way officials there hold people in solitary confinement.
Speaker 4: We have a full investigation going on.
Speaker 6: Leileen Palanco could have been released from Rikers if she
Speaker 6: was able to post her veil of just five hundred dollars. Matter,
Speaker 6: trans matter, every kind of gone for one of us.
Speaker 4: We I'm stronger.
Speaker 2: It's been four years since Leyleen's death on Rikers Island,
Speaker 2: four years since she was left unattended in solitary confinement,
Speaker 2: four years since her family and friends first shed tears
Speaker 2: over her loss and turn those tiers into rage, that
Speaker 2: rage into action. We'll discuss her death and what led
Speaker 2: up to it in detail on this podcast, but before
Speaker 2: we talk about how we lost Laleen in the many
Speaker 2: ways the criminal justice system failed her, before we dig
Speaker 2: into the remarkable ways her legacy endures today, I want
Speaker 2: you to know about her life. I'm your host, Roquel Willis,
Speaker 2: and this is Afterlives, Episode one. Laileen Layleen was born
Speaker 2: on October fourth, nineteen ninety one, in the Dominican Republic.
Speaker 2: Her family moved to New York when she was two
Speaker 2: years old, first to the Bronx and then just outside
Speaker 2: of the city to Yonkers. And if there's one thing
Speaker 2: you need to know about Laiyleen, it's that she was
Speaker 2: the life of the party.
Speaker 6: Leilein loved today and she loved to sing. She was
Speaker 6: just happy to be alive.
Speaker 2: That's Leileen's older sister, Milania Brown. They were born about
Speaker 2: three years apart. The two of them were always close.
Speaker 2: Leileen brought out a spark in Milanya. She was full
Speaker 2: of energy and always up for an adventure. Milania says
Speaker 2: she could always count on her, whether she needed a
Speaker 2: confidant or just a good laugh in the dr Milania
Speaker 2: remembers how freeing it felt for them to take baths
Speaker 2: in the rain. When they moved to the States, they'd
Speaker 2: go on family outings, taking boats around the New York Harver.
Speaker 2: They loved watching Pixar movies with their brother.
Speaker 3: Solomon. Toy Story was Leileen's favorite.
Speaker 2: She also loved animals and dreamt of growing up to
Speaker 2: be a vet. Most of all, Milania and Leileien like
Speaker 2: to joke around.
Speaker 4: We found this doll somewhere and my mom.
Speaker 6: Was like freaked out about the doll because it looked
Speaker 6: like a real baby.
Speaker 3: She says.
Speaker 2: Their mom r Sally's said get rid of that doll,
Speaker 2: but they didn't.
Speaker 6: Instead, we used to put the door in the middle
Speaker 6: of the street and then we will hide behind the
Speaker 6: cars and people would like just stop and freak out,
Speaker 6: and like you know, we would just be cracking up
Speaker 6: watching them, and then they just throw the doll to
Speaker 6: the side, and then we'll do it again.
Speaker 2: And then their mom always encouraged them to play outside,
Speaker 2: even if that doll prank wasn't exactly what she had
Speaker 2: in mind for the most part, their family got on
Speaker 2: pretty well. They had their routines, their traditions. Our sullies
Speaker 2: would play ballads and Spanish throughout the house, and she
Speaker 2: dragged them to church every Sunday.
Speaker 4: Leileen and I used to be like, oh my god,
Speaker 4: not again. We just went. My mom would be like
Speaker 4: that was a week ago, Like we was just there.
Speaker 2: This was Leileen's world as a child church choir, climbing
Speaker 2: rocks outside the house, a close nuclear family led by
Speaker 2: a strong woman. As she and her siblings got older,
Speaker 2: Layleen's sense of identity developed too.
Speaker 6: I started realizing that I really had a sister. She
Speaker 6: started loving flowers and I like to get dirty.
Speaker 4: And she was more like ill. No.
Speaker 6: Solomon and I always knew, we just never wore the
Speaker 6: type to like flat out ass. When she feels comfortable,
Speaker 6: she'll come and she'll talk to us. I remember one
Speaker 6: day we was just playing Mortal Kombat, which was like
Speaker 6: one of our favorite games, and laden the game and
Speaker 6: Solomon's like, because you were about to lose. I remember
Speaker 6: that fight, and Lailen's like, no, I pulsed the game
Speaker 6: because I got to say something. And then that's when
Speaker 6: Leileen came out as being gay Solomon, and I was like, really, like,
Speaker 6: this is why you pulsed the game, because I mean
Speaker 6: we already knew that, like.
Speaker 4: I'm pulsed the game.
Speaker 2: That was when Leaileen was twelve, But about a year later,
Speaker 2: Layleen started to express herself and her identity in other ways.
Speaker 4: Leileen was just like, well, can I use your stuff?
Speaker 2: It was Halloween, which had always been one of Leileen
Speaker 2: and Milania's favorite holidays.
Speaker 4: And she's like, your stuff, let me go get it.
Speaker 6: And she comes back with my clothes, my brawl, my pants,
Speaker 6: my shirt, my shoes, everything, and she's like, can you
Speaker 6: help me like put it on. I was like, okay, fine,
Speaker 6: Like you know, I helped her get dressed. We stuffed
Speaker 6: so much tissue, and I remember I'm telling Hi, I'm
Speaker 6: like I feel like I'm stuffing you like a turkey.
Speaker 6: And we was just cracking up and I fly into
Speaker 6: her hair and she went outside. She came back inside
Speaker 6: like okay, I'm like, so, how do you feel? And
Speaker 6: she was just like, this is who I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 2: Layleen has two birthdays in her sister's eyes. The day
Speaker 2: she was born into the world and that Halloween night,
Speaker 2: when she expressed to Milania for the first time in
Speaker 2: her own way that she was a trans woman. Milania
Speaker 2: still goes all out for Halloween to celebrate her sister, spiders, zombies,
Speaker 2: a six foot witch outside of the house. Even Layleen's
Speaker 2: mom gets in on it, and she's always hated Halloween.
Speaker 2: As Leileen got older, she grew into herself more and more,
Speaker 2: and something that made her film most alive was music.
Speaker 4: Growing up, Le'lein was into house music.
Speaker 6: Leilein started dragging me into her world and what she liked,
Speaker 6: and then I started liking the house music. The house
Speaker 6: music will only be played really like between her and I.
Speaker 4: If I'm going.
Speaker 6: Through something or she's going through something, We'll put like
Speaker 6: the craziest, loudest house music and we'll just dance it off.
Speaker 2: As a teenager, Leleen's love for house music often led
Speaker 2: her to clubs and parties in New York with other
Speaker 2: queer and trans people of color. She wanted to get
Speaker 2: her life and meet more people like her, and she
Speaker 2: didn't care if that meant staying out all night and
Speaker 2: dealing with her mom getting angry at her the next day.
Speaker 2: At a club in the Bronx, she met a trans
Speaker 2: woman named Leslie who offered to help her get access
Speaker 2: to her her own replacement therapy. She became a mother
Speaker 2: figure to her, and a new world opened up. Layleen
Speaker 2: became more embedded within the trans community and New York
Speaker 2: City's iconic ballroom scene. Yes, she had some family who
Speaker 2: affirmed her transitis, but through ballroom she found a second family,
Speaker 2: a chosen family who understood her experience as their own
Speaker 2: and encouraged her to step into herself in ways she
Speaker 2: never had before. Layleen discovers home in the House of
Speaker 2: Extravaganza after the Break, We're back with After Lives. After
Speaker 2: growing up in Yonkers and coming out to her family
Speaker 2: as a trans woman, Layleen Polanco would find community in
Speaker 2: New York City's ballroom scene. Ballroom is a community rooted
Speaker 2: in queerness, gender expression, performance, and solidarity, and the community
Speaker 2: as we know it today has roots that trace back
Speaker 2: to Harlem. In the nineteen sixties, black and LATINX LGBTQ
Speaker 2: plus folks gathered for extravagant so called balls, complete with
Speaker 2: runway categories, competing houses, and vogue battles. These events were
Speaker 2: organized as an alternative to existing drag balls that traditionally
Speaker 2: excluded and discriminated against black and brown people. Layleen finding
Speaker 2: community through ballroom is no surprise. It's a world where
Speaker 2: people living on the margins can center themselves and their
Speaker 2: lived experience.
Speaker 1: The category is puts Queen first time in Drags at.
Speaker 7: Table, Coming Pretty Girl, nineteen eighty six ticket.
Speaker 2: These folks you hear are walking categories as part of
Speaker 2: balls recorded in the nineteen ninety documentary.
Speaker 3: Paris Is Birding.
Speaker 2: In case you didn't know, this film opened the door
Speaker 2: for mainstream audiences to understand ballroom culture. To school, Layleen
Speaker 2: walked categories like realness, face, and body, and she would win.
Speaker 2: My Milania said she always played it cool and confident,
Speaker 2: though she never acted surprised when she took home the trophy.
Speaker 3: To put it.
Speaker 2: Plainly, Layleen was that girl. Layleen was a part of
Speaker 2: the House of Extravaganza, the premiere LATINX house.
Speaker 3: In the scene.
Speaker 2: You're listening to a clip from the two thousand and
Speaker 2: six documentary How Do I Look? Extravaganza has become one
Speaker 2: of New York's most famous houses and one of the
Speaker 2: longest running.
Speaker 7: The House of Extravaganza was founded in.
Speaker 3: Nineteen eighty two, this is Sydney Blou.
Speaker 7: My pronouns are he, him, his, and girl. I always
Speaker 7: like to add that extra one. I'm a writer, TV writer, producer,
Speaker 7: a journalist. I've been in the House of Extravaganza for
Speaker 7: oh my goodness now four years, and I've been in
Speaker 7: the ballroom scene for eleven.
Speaker 2: Sidney is also the author of the forthcoming book Undeniable,
Speaker 2: A History of Voguing Ballroom and How it changed my
Speaker 2: life and the world.
Speaker 7: In those early days, it was actually very hard for
Speaker 7: the House of Extravaganzo. There was a kind of protective sense,
Speaker 7: you know, that people had over the scene. They felt
Speaker 7: very threatened. Yes, it was a heavily Latin house, but
Speaker 7: it was also very much like kids living.
Speaker 4: On the pier.
Speaker 7: You know, people who were homeless, people were doing survival
Speaker 7: sex work. Some people didn't have as much money as
Speaker 7: the other houses. They had to really really keep coming
Speaker 7: and keep turning it in order for people to finally
Speaker 7: accept them. And then once they did, it was you know,
Speaker 7: the rest was history. I mean, the house just really
Speaker 7: started to take off.
Speaker 2: By the time Lealen joined the house as a teenager,
Speaker 2: it was fully on the map. It had been featured
Speaker 2: in Paris with Learning, and it's members choreographed and dance
Speaker 2: in Madonna's nineteen ninety hit single Vogue. Vogue was a
Speaker 2: seminal moment when ballroom broke into the mainstream, but it
Speaker 2: wouldn't be the last. This song and the members of
Speaker 2: Extravaganza helped set the stage for ballroom to make huge
Speaker 2: waves in pop culture, from music to language to TV.
Speaker 2: But ballroom isn't all about the balls in the odds.
Speaker 2: When Leyleen joined the House of Extravaganza, it was a
Speaker 2: centerpiece in the queer and trans community in New York.
Speaker 2: She became a beacon for many trans women and girls
Speaker 2: around her. Now that's a legacy, Honey.
Speaker 5: In my mind, I am in the same house as Giselle,
Speaker 5: Alicia Extravaganza, the other of Extravagans. Like I'm in the same
Speaker 5: house as Leileen Extravaganza.
Speaker 3: That's India.
Speaker 5: More like sharing this proximity to them made me feel great,
Speaker 5: made me feel valuable.
Speaker 2: She's an actor and model, well known for her role
Speaker 2: as angel Evangelista in pos, the FX series about ballroom
Speaker 2: culture in the eighties and nineties in compliance with the
Speaker 2: SAG after a strike at the time of our interview,
Speaker 2: India and I didn't discuss pos, but we spoke about
Speaker 2: her personal experiences in New York's ballroom scene, experiences that
Speaker 2: mirror her character's journey in many ways.
Speaker 5: I was surviving a young transpersons, trying to stay safe,
Speaker 5: have a home and money in my pocket. I didn't
Speaker 5: feel welcomed in many environments that should have been home
Speaker 5: for me, or like that should have been school for me.
Speaker 5: So like I ended up sort of surviving on the streets.
Speaker 5: I took a lot of risks to survive, you know,
Speaker 5: to have money in my pocket, to be able to
Speaker 5: support myself.
Speaker 2: India's character on Poe's joined the fictional House of Evangelista
Speaker 2: because she desperately needed a chosen family, housing, and support
Speaker 2: while she was doing sex work, and in real life,
Speaker 2: India joined the House of Extravaganza as a way to
Speaker 2: connect with New York's queer community and to be around
Speaker 2: people like Leyleen.
Speaker 5: And I think about Leileeen. I think about her as
Speaker 5: somebody that brought people joy. I see Leileen also as
Speaker 5: somebody who was really proud of being trans and loved
Speaker 5: other trans people as well.
Speaker 2: They never developed their own personal relationship, but India always
Speaker 2: admired her.
Speaker 5: When you're a kid, there's always like some people that
Speaker 5: you sort of look to in your understanding of what's beautiful.
Speaker 5: She sort of like aspired to be like them. Leileen
Speaker 5: was one of those girls. She was Dominican and I'm Dominican,
Speaker 5: and she just reminded me of like my culture.
Speaker 4: And she didn't have just charm, she had sex appeal.
Speaker 5: Leileen was one of the women that was sort of
Speaker 5: a reflection for what it looked like for me to
Speaker 5: grow into a confident and beautiful and secure woman.
Speaker 2: Leileen, India, and Sydney were all members of the House
Speaker 2: of Extravaganza at different points in its history. Whether or
Speaker 2: not they knew each other personally, they share a bond
Speaker 2: because they've shared a family.
Speaker 7: The Huse of Extravagance is one of the few houses
Speaker 7: in Ballroom that's still a family. We literally have a
Speaker 7: cookout every summer. Grandma Coco, who's one of our OG members,
Speaker 7: she cooks all the food and there's fried chicken and beans,
Speaker 7: rice and mac and cheese and potato salad and.
Speaker 5: All of that.
Speaker 7: It's truly like a co generational space. There's so many
Speaker 7: people who I know, I can call upon, or who
Speaker 7: have my back, or who can just teach me about life.
Speaker 7: I know Leileen was part of that mix, and there
Speaker 7: was a sense of her really being part of the
Speaker 7: family in that way.
Speaker 2: The House of Extravaganza and other ballroom communities have always
Speaker 2: been vital spaces, a way for black and brown LGBTQ
Speaker 2: plus folks to survive and thrive. Still, so many trans
Speaker 2: women of color, like Leyleen, lack the support systems they
Speaker 2: deserve to live long and fulfilling lives, and they, like
Speaker 2: all trans people, experience disproportionately high rates of unemployment, incarceration,
Speaker 2: and violence. Ballroom has always been a form of versus
Speaker 2: distance to these realities. Just because people say sligh or
Speaker 2: no shade doesn't make the world safer for us.
Speaker 5: I do find that a large part of the culture
Speaker 5: of ballroom has become so mainstream to the point where
Speaker 5: the people who now participate in using our language also
Speaker 5: have become some of the people who reject and defame
Speaker 5: trands and queer culture and people.
Speaker 2: But this doesn't take away from the fact that these
Speaker 2: spaces and this community are meaningful. Layleen was an Extravaganza
Speaker 2: for pivotal years of her life, it meant a lot
Speaker 2: to her, and she followed a long standing tradition of
Speaker 2: adopting the house's name as her own. Layleen Extravaganza Cubalette Polanco.
Speaker 2: Queer culture is more consumable than ever, but queer people
Speaker 2: and specifically trans women of color, remain at risk. Layleen
Speaker 2: was at risk as she entered adulthood. She was turned
Speaker 2: away from job opportunities, she struggled with her mental and
Speaker 2: physical health. She turned to sex work as a way
Speaker 2: to support herself, and it would be a sex work
Speaker 2: arrest that would ultimately lead her to the place she
Speaker 2: would lose her life, Rikers Island. That's Coming after the
Speaker 2: Break Welcome back to Afterlives. In Layleen's mid twenties, her
Speaker 2: vibrant life took a turn. She struggled to find and
Speaker 2: keep consistent work, spent less and less time with her family,
Speaker 2: and decided to engage in sex work to make ends meet.
Speaker 2: One day in August of twenty seventeen, Leyleen was arrested
Speaker 2: by undercover NYPD officers who were targeting sex workers. The
Speaker 2: city claimed around this time that arrests like these would
Speaker 2: end a small victory in the long battle to decriminalize
Speaker 2: consensual sex work, but the arrest happened anyway. Eventually, Layleen
Speaker 2: ended up in front of a judge and a bill
Speaker 2: of five hundred dollars was set on her sex work case.
Speaker 2: That's despite the fact that in the months before Layleen's
Speaker 2: Dancourt District attorneys had made promises about eradicating bill for
Speaker 2: low level crimes. The city even had an alternative system
Speaker 2: in place to handle sex work cases so that sex
Speaker 2: workers could avoid jail time. We'll get into why and
Speaker 2: how later in this series, but the decision to set
Speaker 2: bell on Lalen's case would crucially impact her life. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: she couldn't afford to pay and was sent to Rikers Island.
Speaker 2: Rikers is an isolated island in a city of eight million.
Speaker 2: The jail complex rests on over four hundred acres of
Speaker 2: land in New York City's East River. The average gel
Speaker 2: population is six thousand people on any given day. Its
Speaker 2: buildings are old and dilapidated. Extreme temperatures are norm as
Speaker 2: is moldy, food and fece smeared on the floors. Pieces
Speaker 2: of straight HIPing and broken light fixtures that line the
Speaker 2: hallways are often used to create weapons. Pealsymakers have called
Speaker 2: the conditions at Rikers Island a humanitarian crisis. Once Layleen
Speaker 2: was there, her troubles only got worse. Her mental health deteriorated,
Speaker 2: She got into several fights and was moved into solitary confinement.
Speaker 2: JEIL officials were made aware of a key detail about
Speaker 2: Leyleen's health that she suffered from a seizure disorder, and
Speaker 2: this alone should have kept her out of solitary. Still,
Speaker 2: that's exactly where she ended up. Leyleen was in Riker's
Speaker 2: custody for fifty two days before her death. Nine of
Speaker 2: those days were spent in solitary confinement.
Speaker 4: Now, remember the girls and I spoke about it.
Speaker 2: Her sister Milania didn't even know she was at Rikers,
Speaker 2: never mind being in solitary.
Speaker 6: And they're like, we missed her and we just don't
Speaker 6: feel right. And I'm like I don't feel right either.
Speaker 4: I was the only one.
Speaker 6: You guys feel the same thing. And my daughters is like, yes,
Speaker 6: something is not right.
Speaker 2: On June seventh, twenty nineteen, while locked away in a
Speaker 2: solitary confinement cell, Leyleen had a fatal seizure. Officers were
Speaker 2: supposed to check on people in this unit every fifteen minutes,
Speaker 2: according to jail protocol, but large periods of time would
Speaker 2: pass without anyone checking on her. When there were signs
Speaker 2: something was wrong, no one took action. Staff gathered outside
Speaker 2: her door, staring into it, but no one went inside.
Speaker 2: At one point, they left her unattended for forty one minutes.
Speaker 2: Forty one minutes, completely alone, despite being at high risk,
Speaker 2: forty one minutes with no checks for signs of life.
Speaker 2: At approximately three forty five, after medics were finally called
Speaker 2: to enter her cell, she was declared dead. Why did
Speaker 2: no one help her? Why was she even in Rikers?
Speaker 3: Really?
Speaker 2: Why did system after system fail to fulfill promises of progress.
Speaker 2: I've been thinking about Layleen's case ever since I got
Speaker 2: that text from a friend with the New York Post article.
Speaker 2: It was just hours after she died. Within a few days,
Speaker 2: I was speaking at a rally in Layleen's honor with
Speaker 2: the mic in my hand. My sadness and fatigue turned
Speaker 2: into anger. Layleen deserved to be alive. She deserved more.
Speaker 2: Black and brown trans people have been in the war
Speaker 2: since we were born. Over six hundred of us grieved
Speaker 2: together at that rally in the middle of Pride month, nineteen.
Speaker 2: It was the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the
Speaker 2: seminal queer militant uprising that sparked the modern fight for
Speaker 2: LGBTQ plus liberation. Millions of visitors were flocking to New
Speaker 2: York City for World Pride. Our community was more visible
Speaker 2: than ever, and yet here was another one of our
Speaker 2: sisters taken from us. Holding all of this has always
Speaker 2: been hard. These competing truths can feel like alternate realities.
Speaker 2: I wanted to address that feeling more directly, so I
Speaker 2: created the Trans Obituaries project. Back in twenty nineteen, I
Speaker 2: was the executive editor of Out magazine and wanted Lealen's
Speaker 2: story and the stories of other trans women lost that
Speaker 2: year elevated in the annual Out one hundred issue. It's
Speaker 2: the magazine's best known feature, honoring the year's most influential
Speaker 2: LGBTQ plus people.
Speaker 4: I remember then we did this photo shoot for the cover.
Speaker 3: Here's a Milania, Layleen's sister again.
Speaker 4: It was very it was beautiful.
Speaker 2: It was actually Leileen's birthday. Yes, Layleen's friends and family
Speaker 2: gathered at her mom's house in Yonkers, where Leyleen grew up.
Speaker 6: We had her urn with her ashes in it. We
Speaker 6: bore her a cake, and we celebrated her.
Speaker 2: At one point during the cover shoot, Leayleen and Millenia's mother,
Speaker 2: Our Sally's, opened up a suitcase filled with Layleen's belongings.
Speaker 2: Everyone come through, trinkets, toilet trees and all t shirts.
Speaker 6: Everything you could name was in that like luggage and
Speaker 6: were shocked. I remember we was all like digging and
Speaker 6: I was like, oh, I want this, I want this,
Speaker 6: And I ended up taking like her New York shirt.
Speaker 6: I have it like in a bag upstairs because I
Speaker 6: want to keep like her scent and everything. I would
Speaker 6: like open it a little bit, just smell, and I
Speaker 6: close it back up so I don't lose.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget that day, seeing the love that Layleen
Speaker 2: left behind and filling her spirit surrounding us. After the
Speaker 2: magazine came out, I watched Malania grow as an outspoken
Speaker 2: activist on behalf of her sister. She shared Layleen's story
Speaker 2: with larger and larger audiences, even at one rally packed
Speaker 2: with fifteen thousand people. I listened as politicians talked about
Speaker 2: her sister's memory and witness law's path in Layleen's name
Speaker 2: over the last four years, Layleen's story has unfolded in
Speaker 2: ways I could have never imagined. But as much as
Speaker 2: death has the power to build movements, it also shatters.
Speaker 2: In the immediate aftermath of Layleen's passing, family, friends, and
Speaker 2: community organizers formed a united front. But over the years,
Speaker 2: the loss of Laileen has sunk in more fully.
Speaker 6: After she died, I picked up the mic three days
Speaker 6: later and I just didn't stop.
Speaker 2: Milania and others have had to reshape their lives without her.
Speaker 4: I never had time to grieve my sister.
Speaker 2: Time has passed, but not without forming scars.
Speaker 6: I think that's when reality really kicked in that Leileen
Speaker 6: wasn't going to come back home.
Speaker 2: Layleen's family has moved out of New York since that photoshoot.
Speaker 2: This time around, I visited Malanya in Connecticut.
Speaker 4: We needed to get away, We needed to get far.
Speaker 2: I met many of Lalen's family members and friends back
Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen, but since then, people have removed themselves
Speaker 2: further from the public eye, farther from New York. There
Speaker 2: have been riffs in their relationships. Folks have experienced other
Speaker 2: losses too. While we reached out to several members of
Speaker 2: l'yleen's origin and chosen families for this podcast, we weren't
Speaker 2: able to speak with everyone. Layleen's story is harder for
Speaker 2: many to revisit today, but I always knew it was
Speaker 2: worth returning to. Much of my career has been fueled
Speaker 2: by the losses of people in my life and those
Speaker 2: I didn't know whose stories drew me in, whether it
Speaker 2: was transtenes loss to suicide, victims of police brutality, and
Speaker 2: of course other transistors of color. Layleen's life and story
Speaker 2: will forever be a part of me. Her death has
Speaker 2: stayed with me, in part because so many issues compounded
Speaker 2: to lead her to that cell. Because her death happened
Speaker 2: in state custody, I had hope for accountability. There were
Speaker 2: and are leaders and systems that we could blame, that
Speaker 2: we could even try to change. Some things have changed
Speaker 2: for the better in the last four years, but we've
Speaker 2: also witnessed the US become a much more hostile place
Speaker 2: for trans people. What happened to Leileen tells us a
Speaker 2: lot about our world, about trans rights and the injustices
Speaker 2: of our legal system, about how we treat people who
Speaker 2: are most marginalized and most in need of support, She
Speaker 2: died because of systems that still exists today, and while
Speaker 2: progress has been made in her name.
Speaker 3: There's a lot more work to do.
Speaker 2: That's what this series is about.
Speaker 3: No real spoilers in the story.
Speaker 2: If you google Alien's name, you'll find these details. What
Speaker 2: we're doing in this podcast is breaking it down system
Speaker 2: by system and looking closer at.
Speaker 3: The reasons she died.
Speaker 2: We want to restore her humanity as we tell the
Speaker 2: story and look at the ways this loss and legacy
Speaker 2: has affected our world, even if you've never heard her name.
Speaker 2: That's all coming this season on Afterlives.
Speaker 6: Stepping foot on Rikers Island has been widely acknowledged a
Speaker 6: potential death sentence.
Speaker 4: Was her trans this actually a cause of her death?
Speaker 5: We found out that the answer was yes, it absolutely was.
Speaker 2: I had every opportunity to be dead and am still here.
Speaker 7: They have an interest in stopping youth from becoming trans adults.
Speaker 7: They have an interest in essence, in eradicating transniess.
Speaker 3: We just want to live our lives.
Speaker 2: We don't want to be sitting here over explaining ourselves
Speaker 2: to you over and over again.
Speaker 3: Just let me be.
Speaker 2: I want to work, I want to have a home,
Speaker 2: I want to drive a car.
Speaker 3: I want to be happy too.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to Afterlives. You can
Speaker 2: find this episode and future ones on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please leave
Speaker 2: us a writing and review to let us know what
Speaker 2: you think. After Lives as a production of iHeart Podcasts
Speaker 2: and The Outspoken Podcast Network in partnership with School of Humans.
Speaker 2: I'm your host and creator Roquel Willis. Dylan Hoyer is
Speaker 2: our senior producer and scriptwriter. Our associate producer is Joey
Speaker 2: pat Sound design and engineering by Daisy Makes Radio Productions,
Speaker 2: story editing by Aaron Edwards and Julia Ferlan, fact checking
Speaker 2: by Savannah Hugiley. Our show art is by Mackai Baldwin.
Speaker 2: Score composed by Wisei Murray. Our production manager is Daisy Church.
Speaker 2: Executive producers include Me, Raquel Willis, and Jay Brunson from
Speaker 2: The Outspoken Podcast Network, Michael Alder June and Noel Brown
Speaker 2: from iHeart Podcasts, Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr and Elsie Crowley
Speaker 2: from School of Humans and The Cats Company
Speaker 1: School of Humans