O’Shae Sibley.Photo:gofundme
gofundme
In the days afterO’Shae Sibleywas stabbed to death after voguing to Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” album at a gas station in Brooklyn late Saturday night, the death of the gay dancer has sparked outrage,gaining attention from Beyoncé herself, as police investigate “a possible biased incident.”
“O’Shae said ‘I’m going to be famous,’” his maternal aunt, Tondra Sibley recalled to PEOPLE. “I’m like, ‘shoot he probably is at this point,’ but he didn’t mean this way.”
In a tearful phone call Tondra, 49, who helped raise O’Shae with his mother in Philadelphia, recalled a young child who “was bouncing around dancing” and a young man who at 28 still made the time to call his aunt nearly every day. He had moved to Brooklyn around the start of the pandemic to pursue “his dream and his love of dance,” his aunt said.
“He had big dreams for life,” she said, recalling one conversation when he told her: “‘Aunt Tondra, I just want to dance: I feel free when I dance.’”
O’Shae Sibley.Sage O.Dumure Versailles/Facebook
Sage O.Dumure Versailles/Facebook
O’Shae was stabbed in the torso shortly before 11:15 p.m. Saturday on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn, according to police. He was pronounced dead at Maimonides Medical Center.The Hate Crime Task Forcewithin the NYPD investigates all potentially biased incidents. No arrests have yet been made.
Crying through a nearly15-minute videohe recorded in his bedroom and posted to Facebook hours after his best friend’s murder, Otis Peña recalled Sibley’s final moments, as he faded in Peña’s arms. Peña said his friend was murdered because he was gay.
“We as a community don’t deserve this,” Peña said in the video, adding: “We may be gay, but we exist. We’re not going to live in fear. We’re not going to live in hiding. Because everybody knows me and O’Shae we were always out and loud.”
“Sibley’s shocking murder follows a disturbing rise in violence and harassment against LGBTQ people across the U.S.,” GLAADsaid in a statement. “This cannot continue. No one should have to fear for their safety just for being themselves.”
Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who is openly gay,said in a TweetMonday that he was “heartbroken and enraged” over O’Shae’s death. He added: “Despite homophobes' best efforts, gay joy is not crime. Hate-fueled attacks are.”
Peña, who called Sibley “my brother,” and described him as “the salt to my pepper, the peanutbutter to my jelly,” said in the Facebook video that the friends had been celebrating Peña’s birthday and were two blocks from Peña’s home when they decided to stop for gas, Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” album playing as they pumped gas.
That’s when several men approached them, spitting homophobic slurs at the friends and instructing O’Shae to stop dancing, then stabbed him,The New York Timesreported.
Peña recalled seeing his friend stumble. Running to catch him in his arms and apply pressure to the wound, Sibley was already bleeding out: “Just because he’s trying to let people know that we’re gay, we exist, we don’t disrespect,” Peña said in the video, adding: “Ya’ll took him from me– and not just from me. O’Shae was a beacon of light.”
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“He was a light. He was always happy and smiling,” she said. “He loved life, he loved his family, he was passionate about friends.”
At the time of his death, O’Shae was practicing withAiley Extension, an off-shoot of the prestigious modern dance group,Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the program said.
Tondra, who is now planning a celebration of life with O’Shae’s siblings, said she hoped people took inspiration from O’Shae’s story: “Just to live their dreams, pursue their dreams, be happy, if there’s something you love to do, pursue it and do it.”
As for her nephew: “I just want justice to be served," she said. “This was pointless.”
source: people.com
