There were still bloodstains outside the Midwood Mobil gas station on Friday night; a fresh sign taped to a lamppost read “A Hate Crime Happened Here.” This is the place where, less than a week prior, 28-year-old O’Shae Sibley, a gay Black dancer and choreographer, made a pit stop with friends after a Jersey beach day. They were filling their gas tank and voguing to Beyoncé’s Renaissance when a group approached, yelling homophobic and anti-Black slurs; after an argument, a 17-year-old, who has since turned himself in to police and been charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime, stabbed Sibley to death. Hundreds of friends from the ballroom scene, LGBTQ+ activists, and Black queer New Yorkers gathered to mourn Sibley — and vogue in his honor. “It’s Friday and we are here for O’Shae,” Qween Jean, a costume designer and the founder of Black Trans Liberation, told the crowd while wearing a white fascinator. “So if your energy is low, wake up, because they have taken the life of a young powerful Black human who deserved to live.”
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