Empower Profile: A tribute to Leelah Alcorn

Part 2: Empower Outfit Concept

Before we start here with this character I need to say a few words. This is a Tribute character of a person, a girl, a woman that was taken too soon from this world, but whose death was caused by this world and the hatred in it. I am of course talking about Leelah Alcorn who after a life of feeling trapped in her own body took her own life to escape it.

Now I do not claim to speak for any transgender person or any member of the LGBTQ+ community nor do I claim to understand anything they go through in their lives. After hearing this tragic story and the details around it, I felt as a member of the religion (a religion that has lost its own way) that caused this girl so much pain in her life that she chose to end it. I needed to pay tribute to her, and in a way immortalizer her in one of the few ways I know how; to make her into a Superhero.

I did not know Leelah, but I wish to god that I had, so I could show her there are people that love her and accept her true self for what she is and who she is. So while this character shares her name and likeness it is not and can never be a perfect representation of her or her personality.

If any of her friends or anyone from the LGBTQ+ and specifically the transgender community come across this I ask for your help in creating and growing this character for as I said before I do not have firsthand experience of the experiences needed, but also because this will not be my character, but OUR character. Our; begin the people that care, and the people that will always remember.

But even with the imperfections I hope with this I can at the very least fulfill Leelah Alcorn’s last wish and have her death be the spark that the changes lives of other kids who are in her same position, so her life is never repeated in the same way that ended in tragedy.

Now some may say, why do I as a straight, white, male born and raised in a Christian household in the bible belt southern state of Kentucky USA have a right to make this character and to immortalize Leelah in this way. And to those I say that you are right, I have no right to do so, especially since the religion I claim to follow was a primary factor is this tragedy. But I wish to say this with hope that I do not turn this away from being about Leelah.

Yes I claim to be a Christian, but not a Christian aligned with any established Christian church or the kind of “Christians” Leelah’s parents where. For I believe the religion as it is commonly known has lost its way on what it means to be a true Christian. A religion about love, peace, acceptance, and mercy has turned into a beast of hatred, conflict, rejection, and cruelty, a cult of hypocrites. In my personal reading of the bible I recall many a verse, parable, and story that are applicable to this situation. From the two laws of Jesus, “Love thy God and Love thy neighbor as thy Lord” to his teaching if “Judge not least you be judged yourself.” But the one that rings the most with me about this tragedy is the story of Job.

In the Story of Job, he is afflicted by many a tragedy to test his faith and his families faith in the lord. The devil tries everything to break him, but he refuses to turn his back and he suffers for years. His wife and children abandon him, and call him a fool to his face, his friends ridicule and laugh at him, he loses all of his worldly possession, his house, his wealth, even his land, yet throughout it all he stays strong in his faith. But a few things below the surface of the story speak to me. The devil must always ask God’s permission before he does anything to Job, these means that God is always in control, even the bad thing that happen to us are allowed by god, but not as punishment, but as a test. A test of our faith and our test of ourselves. I believe even in the story of Leelah Alcorn that she and her family where test. God does not make mistakes, but Leelah trapping in a male body was not a mistake, (now stay with me here) Leelah’s situation was a test for her and her family to find and accept her true self. And I say that Leelah passed that test, and Leelah’s parents failed the test. Tragically there was no one in Leelah’s life to tell her this and to give her the love she so desperately needed, and it ended in tragedy.

However, God is still in control and while the loss of this young girl’s life is sad, and we may never understand the reasoning behind it, we must realize it was part of a larger plan, and maybe this character as a tribute to the actual person is part of that plan.

I do not care if you agree with me or not, whether you believe in my religion, another religion or none at all. That is not the point of this character; this character is about honoring the memory and the last wish of a girl that was not loved by those that should have loved her. But now we all can make it right.

Hero Name : Empower

Real Name: Leelah Alcorn

 ·     Age: 17

 ·     Gender: Trapped form: Male (trans)/ Released form: Female

 ·     Appearance

    o   Hair: brown.

    o   Eyes: light pink.

    o   Height: 5’ 11”

 ·     Clothing
    o   Empower Outfit Concept

 ·     Powers

    o   Leelah has a magical bracelet that allows her to transform between two different forms. Trapped and Released forms. Her Trapped for is the body she was born with, Male but partially transition to female. Her Released form is a full female version of her true self

 ·    Abilities

    o  Trapped form

    §  Telekinetics: she is able to lift large objects up to about 15 tons.

    §  Barriers: she can use her telekinetic powers to form protective barriers, powerful enough to resist the kinetic energy of an atomic blast but it cannot block other forms of energy like thermal, radiation, and energy beams, however it dose suppress the effects, so a 4000˚ flame will only feel like 100˚ and energy weapons lose 75% of their force. The Barriers can also hold air inside even if outside it deep underwater or in the vacuum of space.

    §  Force blasts: She can also create shockwaves of telekinetic energy that can hit with the maximum force of 300lbs of explosive yield.

    o   Released form

    §  Invulnerability: in released form her body can withstand almost any form of damage, even those resulting from the force equivalent of a multi-megaton nuclear blast. This ability even extends to her ability to fly in space; however she requires a breathing apparatus over her face.

    §  Flight: She has the ability fly at a top speed of Mach 2, this flight is also Omni-direction giving her unparalleled levels maneuverability.

    §  Super strength: ability to lift up to 300 tons

    §  Enhanced reflexes: ability to move and react 3 times faster than a normal human being.

 ·  Weaknesses

    o   While her Released form in nearly indestructible her Trapped form is just like a normal humans.

    o   The amount of time she is able to stay in Released form is limited, with a maximum of allotted time of 8 hours but the more she uses her powers in that form the less time she is able to stay in that form, down to a minimum of 15 minutes. If she reaches any time over 5 hours, the bracelet takes 12 hours to recharge. Any time under that as can range from 15 minutes to an hour depending on how much of her power she has used.

 ·   Training

    o   none

 ·   Equipment

    o   Magical bracelets that allows her to transform between Trapped and Released forms

 ·   Background

    o   Early life

    §  At 4 years old Leelah began feeling like she did not belong in her own body, for 10 years she felt trapped and fell in and out a varying depressive states. At 14 she discovered what it meant to be transgendered. When she told her parents, who were devout Christians, what she thought she was they reacted extremely negatively, belittling her and telling her she was wrong and she could never truly be what  she thought she was. At 16 her parents too her out of school and cut her off from the outside world, taking away her phone, her computer, and did not let her see any of her friends. For 5 months with only her cruel parents and depressing loneliness. At that point she felt no way out, not from her parents, her body, or what her life had become. She chose suicide rather that to live unhappy as a male and unable to become a female like she wished.

    §  As she prepared to end her life on the I-71 interstate by stepping out into oncoming traffic, what she though was a meteorite landed on the side of the road near where she was. When she went to investigate the rock broke apart reviling a glowing gold and silver bracelet, as she reaches down to touch it, leaps up and attaches itself to her arm and this is where her new adventure and her new life truly begins.

 ·   Personality

    o   Leelah is a quite girl, not shy but not wanting to really stand out in the crowd. She is not very good at making a lot of friends; she has a few very close friends in her fellow heroes. Because of how she was treated growing up she is very guarded with sharing her feelings and personal stuff. When she changes into her Released form her personality changes, she becomes more open, bubbly and extroverted, but also a bit more aggressive which is a side effect of the bracelet.

Her story and personality are short and end at the turning point because I do not what to give too much away about where I want to take that character. Now with this I would like to reiterate that this is not a perfect representation of the actual Leelah and it is not intended to be, she is a tribute and even though I will be writing her story, like all my other characters once they are created, they take on a life and a personality of their own and tell their own story. I only serve as the conduit to share that story.

Rest in Power Leelah Alcorn, 12/28/2014

Be reborn Empowered, 1/2/15