The news of Nigel Shelby’s untimely death has broken the hearts of those who’ve heard his story. Now, celebrities are stepping up to help out financially.

On April 18th, 2019 Nigel Shelby, a 15-year-old student at Huntsville High School in Huntsville, Alabama, was reported to have died by suicide. Shelby’s mother told NBC News that he had been the target of anti-gay bullying before his death; his passing tragically highlights the fact that our culture is failing our most at-risk youths, especially those who live at multiple intersections of marginalization. We need to do more to help young people like Shelby — and that happen until we destigmatize our national conversation around suicidality and challenge persistent myths that accompany it in the media.

Those challenges are compounded by the fact that far too little research has been done on the needs and issues faced by Black LGBTQ+ youth. The Human Rights Campaign’s 2019 Black & African American LGBTQ Youth report, however, shows us that many face disproportionate levels of physical harm, bullying, and sexual assault in their daily lives; only 19 percent of young people surveyed in the HRC’s study reported being able to “be themselves” at home, while 80 percent reported “usually feeling depressed or down.” Around 40 percent said they’d been bullied at school within the last 12 months.

Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade are two of the notable names lending a helping hand to Shelby’s family. Nigel took his own life after being bullied for his sexuality by kids at school. 

He was 15 years old at the time of his passing.

According to TMZ, Union and Wade joined forces with Ludacris and Janelle Monae in their donating effort. A GoFundMe set up by Nigel’s family has also been set up and has raised almost $40,000.


Many activists have found the current rise in deaths by suicide among Black teens and children extremely troubling. “Suicide in Black youth is on the rise and has reportedly reached twice that of White youth,” Nadia M. Richardson of the No More Martyrs organization posted to Facebook in the wake of Shelby’s death.
“Unfortunately, for evidence of this, you don’t have to look much further than the state of Alabama. I graduated from Huntsville High. I am still processing this loss. We have so much to understand and so much work to do. Racism, sexism, homophobia, classism; all of that plays a part. Bullying is a by-product of a world ill-equipped to include that which is deemed different.”
Rest in power, Nigel Shelby.