In celebration of Pride, Meta's Horizon Worlds invited Ballroom icon, Leiomy Maldonado and a powerhouse group of LGBTQ+ community leaders to explore identity, safety and equity in the metaverse in a Dream House in Horizon Worlds as part of the Metaverse Culture Series. Leiomy, a ballroom pioneer, judge of HBO Max’s Legendary, and an LGBTQ+ community leader, joined Cheddar News in the virtual space to talk about inclusive culture in the metaverse and the mainstreaming of ballroom culture. “I feel like it's been a long time coming and being a part of that movement of bringing ballroom to mainstream has been you know a huge part of my journey," she said.

Between Bells

Celebrating Pride and Ballroom Culture With Leiomy Maldonado in the Metaverse

welcome back Between bells, everyone, meta is celebrating Pride month by creating safe spaces for the L G B T Q plus community in the metaverse, the newest installment in its metaverse culture series. Dream House brought together a group of L G B T Q plus community leaders for a panel conversation on identity, chosen family, safety and culture. In the metaverse cheddar, Senior reporter Michelle Castillo was able to step into the metaverse to talk to one of those panelists leo me maldonado ballroom pioneer and judge of HBO max's legendary to discuss her journey in ballroom, take a look so leo, thank you so much for joining us today, we're inside the metaverse culture series, we're inside the dream house, can you tell us a little bit more about how we got here today and what this is, this is the metaverse, it's called, I believe the Dream World and it was created for us to have a panel to have a conversation about chosen family and um safety with trans kids and how can we make this space somewhere safe for everyone. So you're such a legend in the ballroom scene, You start out with house Miss Roth, can you tell me a little bit about how you found your chosen family? I found out about bar room by going to a boys and girls club and I came across someone who end up becoming my first trans mentor, she was voguing in the kitchen and I was like what is that? A few days later she came back, well when I came back she gave me a VHS tape and I went home and I put it in the VCR and I basically I sucked into barroom and from there I started going to like an after school program um where they had a lot of LGBT kids um and a lot of them were a part of our room so that's how I got started. You know one thing is ballroom has made it into the mainstream, thanks to shows like pose and legendary, what does it mean to you who's been in the scene for so long that now it's becoming part of normal culture, I love it. I feel like it's been a long time coming and um being a part of that movement of bringing ballroom to mainstream has been you know a huge part of my journey and something that has kept me, you know humble has kept me being open and being um open to sharing not only what boardroom is but to sharing the culture and why it's so important to everyone. Speaking of that culture. What does ballroom mean to people in the L. G. B. T. Q. Plus community, especially people of color in this community. I believe it depends on so many different ways. Um There are so many people who don't have a real family that's supporting and they turn to ballroom for that um There are people who may not feel like they belong somewhere in the world or that they feel like they're important and being a part of a woman getting out in those stages and creating a name for yourself. It does something for them. You know maybe they don't feel um like they have a place in the world where they feel important and like a place where they can be whoever they want to be and in barroom they can do that. So you start your own house, house of amazon. Talk me through that decision why start your own your own house For me, I took a break from barroom for a long time. I was traveling overseas and um visiting a lot of countries and teaching them about barroom in watching barroom um be created in in those spaces and for me coming back here and having a lot of different students going through different things in different other houses or not being able to experience ballroom the way they wanted to, I wanted to give them a home and giving them a place of you know of safety and not only that I'm able to teach them about ballroom and educate them and guide them as a mentor. So we're here in the metaverse. I mean it's so futuristic, how can spaces like this be so great for people in the L. G. B. T. Q. Plus community to share ideas and connect with each other. I feel like this is a place where it's so open to so many different people that you can maybe come across and connect with people across the world that may not even understand what, you know, what, what certain things in your life have been. Like, certain journeys, you'll be able to share journeys with people and even like I feel like a place like this is helpful for people who have social anxiety and in person, they're kind of like shy and they don't know how to communicate or you know, just be just be open and just like have fun. And I feel like this is a place where it, it'll push people into wanting to be more social. And last question, what does pride mean to you? To me, Pride, it means be invisible, being able to live in your truth and be proud of that and being able to be a beacon of light for people who don't believe in themselves. Um, also for me it's all about the underdogs. Pride is about giving light to the underdogs and letting them shine because they deserve, we all deserve thanks so much for joining us today, we completed the interview high fives all around and uh, and let's strike a pose, Oh, thank you. Oh, thank you. This is my best pose, I guess