A 31-year-old Black trans woman was brutally shot and killed in Milwaukee Sunday, making her at least the third Black trans woman to be killed in the city in less than one year and at least the seventh to be killed in the US since the year began, according to Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents.
Cashay Henderson was discovered lifeless from a gunshot wound inside a burning building on Sunday morning, according to local reports. No arrests have been made.
Henderson, a Chicago native, was an active member in several LGBTQ+ communities, including working with Sisters Helping Each Other Battle Adversity (SHEBA), a group of Black women who meet biweekly to support and empower transgender women.
On Monday, the organization released a statement in honor of their community member whose life was taken so soon. She was “so beautiful and had her whole life still ahead of her,” they wrote in a Facebook post. Henderson, who was also known as Gemini Shanti, was “inspiring to many of our ladies” and had recently attended the funeral of another member, Regina “Mya” Allen, who was killed in Milwaukee in August of last year.
“She was funny sweet and fabulous the time we shared in the Sheba space over the years,” the post read. “She was nothing less than a joy to be around supporting our girls and open to sisterhood.”
The Black Rose Initiative, a coalition of Black trans leaders in Wisconsin, also released a statement in honor of Henderson’s life, calling her “one of our great sisters.”
“She was a great friend and great influencer in our community,” the post reads. “She is dearly missed and it’s so heartbreaking to know that I won’t get to see her alive again.”
And a Milwaukee-based LGBTQ+ advocacy group called “Diverse and Resilient” wrote on Facebook that Henderson was “a loved and valued member of our community.”
The family of Henderson has created a GoFundMe account to seek assistance for funeral expenses. On the page, the victim’s cousin, Veronica Beck, wrote that Cashay “didn’t deserve what happened to her.”
“She was a bubbly spirit with a down to earth, ‘tell it like it is’ personality. Cashay was a transgender female and was as beautiful as can be, inside and out. Cashay didn’t deserve what happened to her,” Beck wrote.
She continued: “She lived her last days in Milwaukee, WI. Where she lived, transgender females are murdered at an alarming rate and unfortunately Cashay became apart of that statistic. Cashay was only 31 years old and she is survived by her father, mother, sister, niece, immediate family and many many friends.”
Learn more about Cashay Henderson and show support here.
