WASHINGTON — Thousands of people are working to throw an unforgettable dance party for a man who was the victim of a hateful body-shaming post online. Last month, an anonymous user posted an image of a man on 4chan with the text saying “Spotted this specimen trying to dance the other week. He stopped when he saw us laughing.”
Thousands throw special party for body-shamed ‘dancing man’ http://t.co/vmY3aipFSQ #DancingManFound pic.twitter.com/fisWksoUxr — TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 9, 2015
The post spawned comments, good and bad. Los Angeles activist and writer Cassandra Fairbanks saw the pictures and decided to do something nice for the man: find him and throw him a dance party, TODAY reports. A social media campaign to find the man ignited with #FindDancingMan trending on Twitter. After only 12 hours, users found Sean, the London man behind the body-shaming pictures, according to TODAY. Now, celebrities such as Pharrell Williams, Moby and Ellie Goulding are volunteering to participate in a Los Angeles dance party for Sean and thousands of people are contributing to a GoFundMe campaign to fund the bash. As of March 9, more than $36,000 has been raised for the event. Additionally, the LA Coliseum agreed to host the event and the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board volunteered to fund Sean’s trip. Sean created a Twitter account aptly named @DancingManFound. His first message bring a positive outlook to the Internet:
Just woke up to be greeted with so many more kind words. Big thanks again and am sure the charity will appreciate it as well. Thanks again — Dancing Man (@Dancingmanfound) March 7, 2015
A date for the dance party has not yet been set.