Beyoncé is honoring the memory of O’Shae Sibley, who tragically lost his life while voguing to her music over the weekend.
The singer paid a heartfelt tribute to the dancer on her official website, commemorating his passion for dance and the profound impact he had on the voguing community.
“Rest in power O’Shae Sibley,” it reads in white text on a black background.
On Saturday night, the 28-year-old dancer was killed while he and his friends were filling up at a Brooklyn gas station. One of his friends, Otis Pena, filmed the night out for a Facebook Live post.
“They were dancing,” neighbor Beckenbaur Hamilton told CBS News. “They were filling up on gas, but they were voguing.”
Per CBS News, surveillance video shows the victim involved in a dispute with a group of people outside the Midwood gas station on Saturday night. Witnesses said they were voguing to Renaissance — Beyoncé’s seventh studio album celebrating Black queerness and the ballroom scene where voguing originated — when a man walked up to them and allegedly made homophobic comments. Police said the two groups of people argued, and that’s when one man allegedly stabbed Sibley. One witness, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he tried to break up the argument.
The New York City Police Department said Sibley was stabbed after that argument and is investigating his death as a possible hate crime.
Sibley had moved from Philadelphia to New York to further his dancing career. Neighbors and friends told the outlet that Sibley often danced in public.
“Homophobia and words can lead to ideologies and thoughts,” friend Kemar Jewel told CBS NewsPhiladelphia said, “and those thoughts can lead into actions. And those are the type of actions that took O’Shae away from this world.”
On Tuesday, GLAAD released a statement regarding Sibley’s death, calling attention to other issues plaguing the LGBTQ community. While calling Sibney’s death part of a “disturbing rise in violence and harassment,” the organization added that “this cannot continue.”
“No one should have to fear for their safety just for being themselves,” GLAAD continued. “Politicians spewing lies and proposing policies filled with disinformation, and media repeating their false and dangerous rhetoric unchallenged, are creating an incredibly hostile environment that endangers all LGBTQ people and all queer people of color.”