Thousands of supporters dressed in white congregated outside the Brooklyn Museum Sunday to call attention to the plight of Black trans lives, including the death of trans woman Layleen Polanco.
The event, Brooklyn Liberation: An Action for Black Trans Lives, was organized in part by The Okra Project, Marsha P. Johnson Institute, For the Gworls, G.L.I.T.S., and Black Trans Femmes in the Arts.
The thousands of New Yorkers attending Sunday’s rally filled several blocks surrounding the front of the museum. A march was scheduled to follow the afternoon rally.
Polanco, 27, died in solitary confinement on June 7 of last year after an epileptic seizure, according to a medical examiner’s report.
Her family says the 10 hours of footage taken from a surveillance camera inside the restrictive housing unit where Polanco’s cell was located shows that Rikers staff failed to provide her with medical care that could have saved her life.
Last week, the New York City Department of Investigation, tasked with overseeing city employees and contractors, and the Bronx District Attorney's Office concluded that staff members at Rikers Island’s Rose M. Singer Center were not criminally responsible for Polanco’s death.
