Brian Powers’ friends say he may have been victim of hate crime
Published in the Akron Beacon Journal, September 12, 2020 (Click here to view on news site).
On the night before his death in mid-June, Brian Powers visited his friend Corletta Howes at her Akron home. It was their weekend ritual, and Powers showed up, as he often did, with a drink in his hand. The friends sat down and caught up. Powers was glowing on that night.
Being clean for seven months meant that Powers, also known as Egypt, had gained some healthy weight — something that Powers, whom friends and family remember for his sense of humor, frequently joked about.
“My last memory of him is sitting in my room, in that swivel chair, telling everybody he’s pregnant,” Howes recalled, laughing.
In the course of their years-long friendship, Howes said she had seen Powers endure a lot of setbacks. He had been homeless. He had struggled with drug addiction. Powers had been incarcerated, and on multiple occasions, the victim of physical attacks because of his gender expression.
But Powers had worked hard to get his life on track, and Howes was proud of him.
“I’ve seen him at his worst, and right before he died, he was at his best,” she said in an interview last month at Hardesty Park, as family and friends held a vigil demanding justice for Powers.
Within 12 hours of leaving Howes’ home, Powers, 43, was found lying on the sidewalk near the University of Akron with a fatal gunshot wound.
Three months after Powers’ murder on June 13, his killer remains at large.
His death has sparked outcry not only from those closest to the Akron native but also from local and national activists.
The mystery surrounding Powers’ murder and the lack of progress in the police investigation, combined with frustrations from those who knew Powers about the struggles he faced as a gay, gender non-conforming person living in Akron, have prompted friends to come forward to share details that they believe may have exposed him to dangers and contributed to his death.
“People need to know the good and the bad. We shared these moments with him,” said Darlitha Cook, another close friend of Powers.
‘The streets accepted him’
Powers had lived with Cook on several occasions. In the course of their friendship, Cook saw Powers struggle to find jobs and housing.
“A lot of people despised Egypt because he was upfront about his sexuality … It was hard for him to get employment. It was hard for him to find (housing). … This is why he spent a lot of years being a runaway. This is why we got so close, because a lot of people would turn him down,” Cook said.
Ninety percent of transgender and gender non-conforming people in America reported experiencing mistreatment or harassment at work, according to the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Seventy-eight percent stated they had experienced discrimination resulting in the denial of promotions or outright denial of a job.
Transgender and gender non-conforming people of color also reported higher instances of workplace harassment and homelessness; 42% of Black respondents reported experiencing homelessness as a result of being trans.
The experience of not belonging, coupled with discrimination at every turn — including at some local transitional housing and substance abuse recovery facilities — is what led Powers to enter into street life, Cook said.
“The streets accepted him for who he was, how he did it, how he lived,” she said.
Powers engaged in sex work in order to survive, beginning in his teen years. This left him vulnerable to physical violence and verbal harassment, both on and off the job.
Police reports detail some of these incidents. In 2012, a male client stabbed Powers inside of a vehicle. But friends said that many other violent encounters went unreported, owing in part to concerns around the criminalization of sex work. Powers worried that he would not be taken seriously by law enforcement.
When Cook learned where Powers’ body was found, and that he was dressed in women’s clothing, she suspected his murder was a hate crime.
“I believe it was a hate crime. I honestly do. Just because of the things I’ve watched him have to go through,” she said.
On the night before his death, Powers told Howes that he was going home to get ready to do sex work.
“The area they found him in was one of his [sex work] routes. I know that because I’ve dropped him off plenty of times,” Cook said.
Cook suspects that a client found out Powers’ gender identity and attacked him out of anger.
Survival sex work
“[For] many folks who engage in survival sex, it is simply a means to keep their head above water,” said Tori Cooper, director of community engagement at the Transgender Justice Initiative of the Human Rights Campaign.
Studies show that homelessness and discrimination increase the likelihood of engaging in survival sex work.
“Often folks who engage in survival sex are again the folks who are facing multiple marginalizations in society. When you’re talking about Black trans people in particular, that marginalization is even deeper,” Cooper added.
Michelle, a 65-year-old Black trans woman and Akron native, described her own experience with survival sex work. Michelle left her home because of the severe physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, which she now suspects was due to her gender identity.
From childhood onward, she bounced around between group homes and prison, and experienced homelessness. Michelle engaged in sex work between ages 13 and 28.
Michelle knew Powers was a local sex worker. After his death, Michelle heard from the streets that Powers had been murdered by an angry client.
“When I first heard it, I was shocked. … I got angry,” Michelle said. “He was just really, really young.” Over the years, Michelle lost many transgender friends and acquaintances to violence, she said.
“I always thought that either someone was with Brian and they found out he wasn’t really a woman, because them guys, they get really pissed when they find that out,” she said.
“I had a couple guys do that to me but I was able to get myself out of the situation,” Michelle said, describing several assaults and attempts at her life while working.
Powers often worked his strip alone. Though he was strong and could defend himself, Michelle worries that Powers may not have been aware of all of the potential dangers.
“I know Brian, I know he could fight and all that, I know he could handle himself, but you never know what somebody might have, you know?,” Michelle said.
Prosecuting hate crimes
Powers’ murder marks the 14th reported murder of a transgender or gender non-conforming person in Ohio since 2013, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Eleven of those victims were trans women, 11 were Black, and 10 were Black trans women.
So far this year, at least 26 transgender people have been murdered in the United States. Since 2013, only 50% of all murders of transgender and gender nonconforming people have resulted in arrests.
The Human Rights Campaign began to collect data on hate crimes, based on community and media reports, after noticing gaps in reporting from law enforcement agencies.
“There are no laws requiring police departments to submit that information to the FBI, so that means for example, we’ve seen entire states report no hate crimes or not report any data at all,” Elliott Kozuch, former press secretary at the Human Rights Campaign, said.
“Even in cases where the community believes things are clearly [a] hate crime, often it doesn’t end up being legislated as one,” Cooper said.
Powers’ death is currently not being investigated as a hate crime, Akron Police Lt. Michael Miller said. He explained that the gender identity or expression of a victim is not enough for the department to deem a murder a hate crime, and that the department relies on additional evidence, such as witnesses who may have heard discriminatory slurs or threats related to a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Because hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people often happen in intimate settings and are difficult to prove, local advocates are demanding that all instances of violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people be classified as hate crimes.
In 2009, the federal government introduced protections for people who are victimized because of their gender orientation or sexual identity, but the government only prosecutes cases where the crime threatens “interstate or foreign commerce.” If it doesn’t, then prosecution falls under the purview of state law.
Ohio’s hate crime laws do not include protections for LGBTQ+ people or people with disabilities. As a result, several Ohio municipalities, including Akron, have implemented their own ordinances to protect these populations.
The city of Akron’s hate crime ordinance includes language around sexual orientation and gender identity, but Akron’s Deputy Chief Prosecutor Craig J. Morgan confirmed that it applies only to misdemeanors. Higher-level hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people like murder are not under the city’s jurisdiction, Morgan said, and are instead referred to state and federal agencies for prosecution.
In Ohio, this means that the state may not prosecute a hate-motivated murder of an LGBTQ+ person in Akron as a hate crime.
“We certainly wanted to address that there was a gap here and extend that type of protection, and do I think that should be done at the state level? Yes, absolutely,” said Morgan.
Cooper also noted that most transgender murder victims are killed by someone they know.
“As trans people, particularly as Black trans people, if we can’t trust people that we know or perhaps are in some type of relationship with, then who is it that we can trust?,” Cooper, a Black trans woman, asked.
Given how small the trans community is nationally and locally, advocates are sounding alarms over their murders.
“Killings of two trans people doesn’t seem like a lot to non-trans people … but when you consider how small the trans community is, particularly right here in Dayton, all of a sudden two (murders) that you know of could be another four or five that simply weren’t identified accurately in reports,” Cooper said.
Police investigation
Miller said that the department is diligently pursuing the case. He said the complexity of the Powers case, and the lack of surveillance footage or witnesses, makes it challenging for detectives.
Miller said the department was not aware that Powers may have been doing sex work at the time of his murder. “If that’s the case, then, obviously, that puts in a whole different dynamic. Certainly intentional,” he said.
He said detectives received an anonymous tip or tips in recent weeks.
At the Aug. 29 vigil commemorating her brother, Vivian Powers-Smith denounced the recent spate of violence in Akron and against the LGBTQ+ community.
“I’m just trying everything I know to do to find out who murdered my brother. In doing that, I found out that there's so many other people that have been murdered with no justice and no answers, and I pray for them too. It shouldn’t be like that. Everybody is somebody’s brother or sister or son or daughter, and they all deserve justice, and their families deserve answers,” she said.
A note on terms: Brian Powers, also known as Egypt, was assigned male-at-birth and lived as both a man and woman. For this reason, we use the term “gender non-conforming” to describe Powers, and which GLAAD defines as “a term used to describe some people whose gender expression is different from conventional expectations of masculinity and femininity.” We continue to refer to Powers by “he/him/his” pronouns, following extensive interviews with those who knew him.