A small-town Alabama pastor and mayor killed himself Friday, days after a local conservative news website published a story that included photos of him wearing women’s clothing and makeup.
F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, who was the mayor of Smiths Station and the pastor at First Baptist Church in Phenix City, shot himself in front of police during a welfare check, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said.
Copeland’s private life was exposed Wednesday by the conservative blog 1819 News, which was once owned by the right-wing Alabama Policy Institute and whose top editor is a former Breitbart News contributor.
Poor guy. This is sad. I hate hearing stories like this
poor poor racist republican, joined the republican party to hold down women, and minorities, didn’t wanna get into the whole the leopards that eat faces party that i joined might eat my face should they find out i like wearing women’s clothing, here, let me just defund another domestic violence shelter, nope, i’ll be just fine
Actually, I looked more into his history and you know what I found? They (using neutral pronouns because there’s confusion about whether or not they were actually trans or just cross-dressing) seemed to actually be a pretty cool person. They were very supportive of their trans sisters online and generally encouraging to them.
To be honest, that really isn’t all that surprising. The smaller the town, the less likely it is for local party politics mirror state or federal politics. Normally this means small town politics tend to swing hard-right and either radical libertarian or authoritarian, but it sounds like in this case they probably wanted to be more supportive and inclusive and was possibly being held back by locals. The reality of it is that they were probably Republican because it was the only way to get elected, not because they agreed with the Republican party. Let’s be honest here as well, does it really make sense that someone would be supportive of trans people and then turn around and demonize them?
Sometimes the only way you can make a difference is to walk through the leopards’ cage and hope you don’t get eaten before you reach the other side.
Finally, I’m not even fully convinced that they did kill themselves. Personally, I’ll be waiting to see if any bodycam footage shows up. Small town cops only side with the mayor when they want something done, or when the mayor is actively supporting them, otherwise the mayor is just as much an enemy to them as anyone else.
Edit: it’s also possible that they were a Republican before discovering their love for cross-dressing or desire to be trans, and they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Because they were in a conservative area, it’s entirely possible they were afraid for their life and or were so heavily indoctrinated by Republicans that they believed that they were the problem, not the party (though the latter doesn’t explain why they were supportive of trans folk online); and considering they supposedly committed suicide in front of cops with no witnesses, it’s entirely possible they were killed by cops and therefore justified in their fear. It’s easy to forget or underestimate just how dangerous it is to be trans in America, especially if you’re from a more liberal city.
If you join fascist organisation, you’re a fucking asshole and there’s absolutely no excuse. Defending these people just makes you an asshole too.
I wouldn’t feel as bad if he was a raging bigot about lgbtq issues, but apparently he didn’t have much to say about that which is pretty impressive for a BAPTIST PREACHER IN ALABAMA.
Yeah, he obviously dealt with a lot of cognitive dissonance between his experience and the culture he was raised in. He wasn’t some hypocrite who was preaching ‘family values’ or some other nonsense, just a tortured soul driven over the edge.
The world just lost another potential ally. He could have helped shape the discourse in his town for the better, but instead he’s being buried. This is a sad day.
