Friends gather in Philadelphia to remember O’Shae Sibley, killed in a confrontation over dancing
Friends and family members gathered Tuesday in Philadelphia to remember O’Shae Sibley, who was fatally stabbed after he confronted teenagers who taunted his group of gay, Black friends as they danced at a Midwood gas station.
“O’Shae had the power to touch everyone’s heart, whoever met him,” said Otis Pena, a close friend of Sibley’s who was at the gas station and bared his grief hours later in a Facebook video. “O’Shae was a beacon of light for a lot of us in our community.”
About 200 people attended Sibley’s funeral at a historic opera house in the city where he grew up and performed before moving to New York to pursue his career as a dancer. He had performed with the dance company Philadanco and used dance to celebrate his LGBTQ+ identity. Sibley was 28.