Nov 7, 2023
Mayor Takes Own Life After Right-Wing Blog Outs Him As Cross-Dresser
- 6 minutes
An Alabama mayor who's also a pastor,
took his own life after he was outed for
being a cross jester.
Florida, here we go.
Bubba Copeland, an Alabama pastor and
mayor, took his own life last week after
a conservative blog wrote a story about
him wearing women's clothing as a hobby.
[00:00:19]
Copeland's private life was exposed
Wednesday by the conservative blog 1899
I'm sorry, 1819 News, which was once owned
by the right wing Alabama Policy Institute
and whose top editor is a former
Brightbite news contributor.
The post,
written by reporter Craig Monger.
[00:00:36]
My God, this is a doozy.
1819 News published a username to
Copeland's Reddit and Instagram account,
writing that he posed in various outfits,
some more racy than others.
The blog also said that Copeland used
the pseudonym Brittany Blair Summerlin and
[00:00:55]
posted pornography and
advised on chemically transitioning.
The blog reported that Copeland,
a Republican, confirmed that the account
were run by him, saying that they were
a hobby he used for getting rid of stress.
[00:01:10]
1819 News reported that Copeland
asked them not to out him, but
they did it anyway, even though it does
not appear he had taken any public
positions against LGBTQI issues that
could be construed as hypocritical.
[00:01:27]
All right, I need to stop right here.
The fact that this is news is absolutely
not this man taking his life,
but that 1819 blog needed to cover this.
Why aren't they digging into other
people's hobbies unless they are trying to
[00:01:42]
cessationalize?
What has happened to this man or
what could happen?
What would be the result of a pastor,
a conservative pastor
that's also an elected official
cross dressing to relieve stress?
Someone hobby to relieve stress.
What other instinct do we have of
them covering someone's hobby?
[00:02:01]
None, this was intentional.
And especially when we know this
person has no stance on this issue,
this was intentional.
This is absolutely intentional,
and it's disgusting.
And I'm gonna tell you why it's
disgusting when we get into it.
But let's get back into it,
fallout from being outed.
[00:02:18]
Copeland's extracurricular activities
quickly turned into a community wide
controversy.
His church referred to unbiblical behavior
in a statement, and Copeland reportedly
told his parishioners that this article
did not represent who or what I am.
[00:02:34]
He added that it would not
cause my life to change.
And that, of course,
is according to the Daily Beast.
The Oak Road took a tragic turn on
Friday when Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones
said the deputies who tried
to pull Copeland over for
[00:02:50]
a welfare check witnessed Copeland
step out of his car and shoot himself.
Craig Monger responded to the criticism
defendants his reporting on X,
formerly as Twitter, Monger responded
to a since deleted tweet saying,
digging up someone's personal
life is reporting on what someone
[00:03:07]
posts publicly on social media,
interesting take.
In a separate post responding
to criticism, Monger wrote,
pictures posted to Reddit
are now considered private.
According to the Kitty Table
of Alabama media,
Monger has not posted
since Copeland suicide.
[00:03:24]
This is the ridiculous Sharon,
in which these people are willing
to go to defend this behavior.
This is disgusting behavior.
This is not news.
We did not need to know about this person
cross dressing as a point of relief.
I don't understand why we
needed to cover his hobby.
[00:03:41]
You did this.
But this is the history of Breitbart.
People might forget this.
Breitbart became big and a household name
off of some controversial stuff like this
that could have actually
ended someone's career.
Shirley Sharad, when Barack Obama
was president, Shirley Sharad,
who's a daughter of a civil rights hero
and a civil rights hero in herself because
[00:03:59]
of the farmland she lost and then fought
against the USDA in the Pitchfork
settlement, choosing to
not take that settlement.
Shirley Sharad herself was targeted
by Barack Obama's administration,
immediately responding to a fake coverage
from Breitbart in this very same sense,
[00:04:15]
saying that she discriminated against
white farmers when she didn't.
And Barack Obama said she should be fired.
She eventually did get fired, was offered
her job back after they dug in and
found out that it was false.
This case, though, the difference in
this case is we can't offer this mayor,
[00:04:31]
this pastor, a job back even though
he was doing the Lord's work.
We can't bring him back to continue
that work because he killed himself.
Someone at 1819 should have had
the conscience to listen to him asking,
begging not to be outed.
Sharon, what are you saying about this?
[00:04:47]
>> Speaker 2: Well,
I'm just looking at 1819.
And I suppose they can't apologize.
They can't do what would be moral,
ethical, decent, because they're too
busy with other stories about how to
build a ban medically altering gender.
[00:05:02]
Okay, you see where we're
going with this attack against
progressives who don't have
enough respect and are too woke.
So it goes on and on and on that
someone is taking the time to, I guess.
Well, there's probably not much
research that goes into this.
[00:05:19]
You wanted to be in this man's bedroom,
okay?
And his wife was already there, and
it was none of your business 1819.
I am so
sad that this is where we are in 2023.
No matter where you are in the world
that a man felt so attacked, so
[00:05:35]
cornered, so outed for whatever.
I hate that he explained any of it.
And now he's gone.
>> Speaker 1: And now he's gone.
Public service in two forms,
in the governing space and
then also at the helm of a church.
[00:05:51]
This is absolutely ridiculous.
And if people think you're doing
God's work by outing someone for
their hobby, you're not.
There's no Christianity in this.
Jesus had nothing to do
with behavior like this.
He was a speaker, a bilingual minority
born in an oppressive regime,
[00:06:10]
under the helm of an oppressive regime
that did not speak up for this behavior.
It is tacky, and I can't believe that this
is what they call conservative in 2023.
We should also note that for these people
who are lovers of small government,
[00:06:26]
how small are we talking about?
So much so
that you can get in someone's dress?
So much so
that you could be in someone's bedroom?
That it's not small government when
you have this level of oversight.
And people keep saying,
why are you talking about government and
we're talking about media?
Media has been referred to as this
fourth arm of government, and
[00:06:43]
we need to acknowledge that.
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