Are You Listening? With Leiomy Maldonado Exclusive Clip
Leiomy Maldonado is a choose on “Legendary,” sitting alongside Megan Thee Stallion, Jameela Jamil, and Law Roach as they seek for the very best voguing home. Few persons are extra certified to guage ballroom than Maldonado, who’s also known as the “Wonder Woman of Vogue.” The Bronx native performed a important function in defining New York’s ballroom scene within the early 2000s, creating the “Leiomy Lolly,” which has been included into the routines of many a pop star. She additionally made historical past as the primary brazenly transgender performer on MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew,” served because the choreographer for “Pose,” and starred in Nike’s #BeTrue advert marketing campaign and quite a few different modeling campaigns.
In the brand new episode “Chosen Family” from HBO Max Pa’lante and WORD’s initiative “Are You Listening?,” premiering completely on POPSUGAR, Maldonado speaks in regards to the means of transitioning in a Latinx household, leaving dwelling to search out her chosen household within the LGBTQ+ neighborhood, and finally returning dwelling as soon as once more, extra comfy in her personal pores and skin. “I had to leave home at a very early age,” Maldonado says. “Not because my family didn’t accept me or respect me, but it was more so that they didn’t understand, and I didn’t understand my own transition. So I left home, and I was able to find the LGBTQ+ community.”
In the ballroom neighborhood, Maldonado discovered individuals who had gone by way of comparable experiences and will present her the way in which ahead whereas additionally honoring and celebrating her. Still, all her success within the ballroom world got here with some challenges. “I went through so much in ballroom. I had so much negativity when it came to the competition world,” she says. “It was so bad, ’cause I was so good. But I had to tell myself: do you want to become the pain, or do you want to become the light?”
Watch the episode above, and take a look at “Chosen Family” on YouTube on June 9.
