Ten Miles From Stonewall

Layleen Polanco’s death haunts a prideful celebration.

- Rosa Goldensohn, Reuven Blau, and Savannah Jacobson

AT THE FLOWER FUNERAL home in Yonkers, Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco was surrounded by dozens of friends, family members, and rainbow-colored bouquets of roses. Mourners paid their respects to the 27-year-old transgender woman as “Over the Rainbow” gave way to the thrum of house music. The family wore T-shirts bearing Polanco’s image on the front, angel wings drawn sprouting off her shoulders, and the transgender-pride flag on the back. Her mother knelt before her casket. To the right, a big rainbow-lettered banner read: human. Most of those attending had not seen Polanco for a long time, at least since April, when she was arrested for two misdemeanors and, unable to put up the $500 bail, sent to Rikers. She spent the last nine days of her life in solitary confinement and was discovered unconscious in her cell on the first Friday of June.

June is Pride Month, and this year New York is hosting WorldPride, a celebration of social advancement since the police raid on the Stonewall Inn 50 years ago. The day before Polanco’s death, the city’s police commissioner had apologized for the NYPD’s actions during the raid; the week before, the mayor had announced that statues would be raised in Greenwich Village honoring transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera as leaders of that uprising.