Remains of transgender woman found burned in Florida dumpster

FORT MYERS, Fla., June 23 (UPI) -- Police in Florida are searching for the murderer of a transgender woman whose body was found burned and left in a garbage bin.

31-year-old Yaz'min Shancez, born Eddie James, was found Thursday dead and burned in a dumpster behind a Budget Truck Rental. Fort Myers police do not believe the murder was related to Shancez's gender identification, telling local reporters, "We have no indication at this time to say this was specifically done because it was a male living as a female or anything like that."

"If you really think about it, a hate crime is killing someone for a specific reason, being black, Hispanic, gay. We're investigating as we would any other homicide."

Jason Fleenor, who started a Facebook group to raise money for Shancez's family and funeral expenses, disagrees with police assessments, writing, "We still don't know if [being a transwoman] was why she died, but it very likely was."

"In 2014, people shouldn't be afraid to be who they are in public. I have friends that are transitioning ... I see the fear in their faces. It makes me even angrier. They shouldn't have to be afraid."

According to GLAAD, 13 of the United States' 18 victims of sexual orientation or identity-related homicides in 2013 were transgender women. Eighty nine percent of those victims were individuals of color.

"Transgender women, particularly transgender women of color, face the most violence against them," GLAAD spokeswoman Ross Murray told the Naples Daily News.

"Transgender people are still marginalized and stigmatized in our society. We tend to talk about transgender people in a way that discounts their experience and makes them a butt of a joke or deviant or suspicious and doesn't take [their] whole life into account."