- Bee Love Slater, a 23-year-old transgender woman, was found burned beyond recognition in a car on September 4.
- Slater's death marked the 18th transgender person killed in the US this year, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
- Just two days before Slater was found dead, Bailey Reeves, a transgender teen, was shot and killed in Baltimore, Maryland.
- Research shows the transgender community, particularly transgender people of color, are at a disproportionately high risk of danger and discrimination in public and the workplace.
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Last week, a 23-year-old transgender woman was killed in Clewiston, Florida in what investigators reportedly described as a grisly death in a burned car.
The Human Rights Campaign reports that Bee Love Slater, who was killed on September 4, is the 18th transgender person killed in the US this year.
Friends of Slater believe she was targeted because of her gender identity, according to the Miami Herald, but authorities have yet to confirm whether or not it was a hate crime.
Slater's friend Desmond Vereen told local outlet WBBH that she was a people person who blossomed after transitioning.
"She was a people person," Desmond Vereen, who organized a vigil after Slater's death, told the affiliate. "She loved to be around people and meeting new people too because of her new lifestyle that she transitioned to."
Just two days before Slater was found dead, Bailey Reeves, a transgender 17-year-old, was shot and killed while leaving a Labor Day Party in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Human Rights Campaign reported that of the 18 known transgender people killed this year, 11 have died from gun violence. In 2018, the organization called fatal anti-transgender violence in America a national epidemic.
The transgender community faces danger and discrimination in public and at work.
"Our society needs to work to ensure transpeople can live without fear," the American Civil Rights Union said in a Facebook post after Slater's death.
The Human Rights report said that the deaths make it "clear that fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of color," and prejudice often "deprives them of employment, housing, healthcare, and other necessities," and creates "barriers that make them vulnerable."
Business Insider's Lauren Frias reported that, in August, the Trump administration outlined in a court filing why transgender discrimination is legal in the workplace under federal law.
"The Justice Department under the Trump administration is arguing that workplace discrimination based on sex does not apply to transgender workers," Frias reported.
The filing is a response to a Supreme Court case, which will be heard on October 8, involving transgender funeral worker Aimee Stephens who was fired from her position after telling her employer that she was transgender.