Late Sunday in Houston midtown, a few blocks from bars and restaurants, Shante Thompson and Willie Sims were shot to death. Police say they may have been beaten with a crowbar before the shooting transpired.

Witnesses say a group of up eight people armed with several weapons swarmed a transgender woman and a man out in the street.

It really hurts me. I have always looked for Shante. I was always been there for her. When I got the call and saw her laying on the ground it really hurt my heart.

--Kevin Braxton, friend of Ms. Thompson

Back in January...January 22 to be exact....police found the body of Jasmine Sierra, a 52-year-oldtransgender woman of color, was found in an apartment in Bakersfield, CA. According to the police report, the body showed signs of trauma and foul play.

While police reportedly interviewed neighbors and witnesses about hearing gunshots and fighting, they won't release further specifics about the circumstances of Sierra’s death. Calls to Bakersfield police were not returned by press time.

Unfortunately, at the time the coroner and media identified Jasmine as a male and used her birth name, while asking "anyone with information helpful to the investigation to call police."

Because of the deadnaming, none of Jasmine's friends and acquaintances could help out because they didn't know she was dead.

Monica Loera was shot and killed on her front doorstep on January 22.

Although police have made an arrest in the case and a suspect has been charged, there’s been no public acknowledgement of her death or the community that has been further traumatized in its wake. And that’s wrong.

Reading the arrest affidavit or local news reports about the death, you’d have no idea that the victim was a transgender woman. The wild curls and wide grins from her Facebook page – and above all else, her chosen name – have been omitted to a staggering degree. Instead Loera has been described using her birth name and masculine pronouns.

--Nina Hernandez, Austin Chronicle

Argentina President Cristina Fernandez has asked for the full involvement of of federal and Buenos Aires police in finding the person who killed transgender and LGBT activist Diana Sacayan.

Sacayan's body was found in an apartment in Buenos Aires on Tuesday. It is believed she had been stabbed to death.

Fernandez spoke from the city of Garin. She personally presented Sacayan with the first identification document in Argentina to indicate a gender change.

Kiesha Jenkins lived in North Philadelphia. At Oh-Dark-Thirty Tuesday morning, Keisha got a ride from someone to Hunting Park in Logan.

Upon exiting the vehicle Keisha was surrounded by five or six men who proceeded to beat her. Then one of the men took out a gun and shot her twice in the back.

When police arrived, they rushed Keisha to a hospital, where she was later declared dead.

The twenty-two year old transgender woman is the twentieth transgender woman in the US known to have been murdered this year.

Right now we don't have any motive. We don't know if it's potentially a hate crime or if it was a robbery. We really don't know. It's too early in the investigation to tell.

--Philadelphia Police Captain James Clark

Am I the only one who has never seen such a headline? (Excluding religious wars and religious warfare, of course.) I'm pretty sure that shit just doesn't happen, at least in the US. Yet, just the other day, yet again some religionist snuffed some kid for being possessed by demons.
'Baby Doe' dad: Mom's boyfriend thought girl was possessed - SFGate