Shanesha Stewart

Shanesha Stewart (1985 - February 9, 2008) was an African American transgender woman who was stabbed to death in her Bronx, NY, apartment by man who lived in her apartment building.

Shanesha Stewart

Stewart, 25, stood over six feet tall and enjoyed wearing stylish outfits, with high heels. Born Talib, she had begun the process of transitioning to female, and she had undergone breast augmentation surgery as well as surgery to gain other feminine features. Neighbors described her as a friendly, flirtatious presence in their Belmont apartment building.¹⁾ Stewart had moved into the apartment building three years earlier, was well loved by neighbors in the building²⁾, and rarely ever hassled because of her appearance.³⁾

Stewart's neighbor, Steven Bamberg, reported hearing Stewart in distress at about 5:00 a.m. on February 9, and called police. Police responded at 6:00 a.m. Inside they found Stewart, suffering multiple stab wounds. She also had defensive wounds on her hands.⁴⁾ Police arrested Steven McMillan, 37, who was still inside Stewart's apartment. Police sources said Stewart was a john who flew into a rage upon discovering that Stewart was biologically male. Bamberg, however, denied that Stewart was a sex-worker.⁵⁾ A police spokesperson added that McMillan and Stewart were in a “known-to-each-other” relationship.⁶⁾

McMillan had returned to New York upon being released from prison, after serving eight years on a drug charge, and was living in a temporary shelter with a friend. Bamberg said McMillian had been at Stewart's apartment before the murder, claiming to have left something there.

Stewart died at the scene. A spokesperson for the medical examiner's office said that Steward was died of a punctured throat and lung.⁷⁾ A

Many LGBT activists were upset by media handling and reporting of Stewart's murder, taking issue with reports that Stewart was a sex-worker when neighbors said she was not, and with the use of masculine pronouns to refer to Stewart instead of respecting her gender identity. Of particular concern were the headlines used in original reports of Stewart's Murder. The New York Post initially published the story under the headline “Fooled john stabbed Bronx tranny,” but changed the headline at the urging of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.⁸⁾

The New York Police Department was criticized for assuming that Stewart was a sex-worker - and the media for reporting that she was - despite friends and neighbors' statements that she was not.