Leyna Bloom on the 2021 Met Gala. Picture Supply: Taylor Hill / WireImage
When mannequin and actress Leyna Bloom attended the Met Gala in 2021, she wasn’t the one trans girl of colour to shine throughout vogue’s largest evening — “Pose” stars Janet Mock and Indya Moore celebrated the second alongside her. It was a giant yr when it comes to trans illustration; Elliot Web page additionally walked his first carpet since popping out as trans.
However when Bloom tuned in to the Met Gala this yr on Could 1, she was shocked she did not see any protection of trans folks of colour attending the occasion. She even took to Instagram to level that out.
“These are areas that maintain a lot energy when it comes to illustration,” Bloom tells POPSUGAR. “We now have been right here and we need to be seen in these areas, to showcase our self-expression, our creativeness, and our freedom.”
“We need to be seen in these areas.”
Whereas there have been people of colour who determine as queer strolling the carpet on Monday — Lil Nas X, Doja Cat, Janelle Monáe — Bloom noticed the omission of trans girls of colour as notably evident in a yr that has seen unprecedented anti-trans laws and violence. Trans girls of colour face a number of the highest charges of violence inside the queer neighborhood, per the Human Rights Marketing campaign.
“We are actually being murdered,” Bloom says. “There are extra of us in physique luggage than there are on the Met Gala, on the Golden Globes, on the Emmys.”
On the occasion, Dwyane Wade — whose daughter, Zaya Wade, got here out as trans in 2020 — introduced consideration to trans points as he walked alongside his spouse, Gabrielle Union. He spoke in regards to the excessive charges of suicide within the trans neighborhood and the significance of acceptance. “Let’s be certain that our children have a possibility to reside this life that all of us get to reside,” he instructed a Selection reporter.
This yr’s Met Gala did not come with out different controversies. Many criticized the occasion for honoring the late designer and artistic director Karl Lagerfeld, who all through his life made derogatory feedback in opposition to immigrants, fats folks, and sexual-assault survivors, amongst others. On Could 2, Jameela Jamil referred to as out those that supported the occasion in any capability, given Lagerfeld’s historical past. (Vogue didn’t instantly reply to POPSUGAR’s request for remark.)
Bloom — who has made historical past many instances over, notably as the primary trans girl of colour to look on the quilt of Sports activities Illustrated’s Swim challenge — plans to carry an Instagram Reside on Friday at 6 p.m. ET to create extra space for trans and nonbinary people to speak by way of the occasion and what illustration means to them.
“While you actually consider our queer, trans, nonbinary tradition, you see this life power, this sacred power that brings folks collectively and doesn’t separate folks. And when you have got that alongside our cisgender brothers and sisters, it permits us to be seen — in the identical photographs, in the identical conversations, on the identical purple carpets, in garments designed by the identical designers,” she says. “That is why it is so vital.”
And within the meantime, Bloom is imagining a future during which the Met Gala seems slightly completely different. “It ought to be an area for all types of creativeness from all walks of life,” she provides. “Which means it contains everybody who can dream and everybody that helps folks with their goals.”
