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.