Brandi Seals, a black transgender woman, was shot to death in Houston on Dec. 13, becoming the countrys 22nd known trans woman of color to be killed in hate violence in 2017. Like many other transgender and gender non-conforming homicide victims, her gender identity and name were not initially acknowledged, even in death.

Less than two weeks later , on Dec. 26, police discovered the brutally bound bodies of Shanta Myers, her two children, and her partner, Brandi Mells, in Troy, New York. Just two days later, Kerrice Lewis, a lesbian, was killed in Washington, D.C., after being shot and locked in the trunk of a car that officers found engulfed in flames. On the same day, in West Palm Beach, Florida, Kaladaa Crowell and her daughter were fatally shot; police arrested the son of Crowells girlfriend on two murder charges.

Each an individual tragedy, collectively these eight lives lost were the final hate-violence killings in a hate-filled year for the LGBTQ community.