What is uploaded to the internet stays on the internet. For analysis by random people until there ceases to be an internet.
GOP mayor dies by suicide after cross-dressing revealed by rightwing site
Edit01: This story is associated with a lot of different topics. It is posted here because I see it as primarily someone who wanted to keep an aspect of their digital life private.
I know this is posted here for the privacy aspect and that everything you post online is there forever and his past being revealed and all that.
BUT I’d like to just point out this is more about him not being comfortable and accepting of himself.
He didn’t kill himself for who he really is, he killed himself for others finding out who he really is.
This should be only a story about people trying to bring his past up to make him look bad (in their eyes). Not about suicide.
When you surround yourself around people who would hate your guts if they knew the truth, you’d be secretive too. He was in too deep in his church and political party to be comfortable as being himself outwardly.
I encourage everyone to be kinder with people you disagree with. When it comes to political discourse especially, it’s very easy to call people names or overgeneralize, but it’s not as constructive. Just the other day I saw someone with a shirt with something along the lines of “every socialist is a dictator in disguise.” Similarly, not every Republican or person who votes Republican is a fascist/nationalist Christian. When talking to my dad, I try to represent a wide range of beliefs on issues in order to bring him out of his fox news bubble. It’s got him to consider looking at the party platforms and to consider voting for policy instead of color.
It’s genuinely terrible that this person was drove to suicide, and I fully believe that the people who were responsible didn’t care about the ramifications of what they were doing. Be better, when someone is shown to be hypocritical, try to understand why and instead of generalizing, name calling, and taunting try to spread acceptance and open a conversation about what needs to change.
My first reaction to the headline is “Of course another closeted Republican.”
But after reading it, this story is nothing but sad.Kagi AI summary:
F.L. Bubba Copeland, the mayor of Smiths Station, Alabama and a Baptist pastor, died by suicide after a right-wing site published photos of him dressed as a woman. The site also revealed his online persona where he posted about transitioning genders. Though he asked the site not to publicly out him, they did so anyway. His church condemned his behavior as unbiblical. In his last sermon, Copeland acknowledged embarrassing photos but said his life would not change. When police later attempted a welfare check, Copeland took his own life in front of them. The superintendent, who was a friend, expressed anger at those who ridiculed Copeland, questioning if they were proud of driving him to suicide. Copeland’s church and community mourned his death and supported his family.
Copeland’s church and community mourned his death
After driving him to suicide. Fucking tragic and it’s sad this community will likely learn nothing about acceptance.
Absolutely sickening. Waste of a life. Fucking small minded hateful bigots can’t possibly live and let live. They have to cram everyone into a box or mercilessly ridicule or kill them if they don’t fit that mold. Because it upsets them if someone is different. JFC.
When YOU post something on the Internet, it will stay there forever and ever.
When SOMEONE ELSE posts something on the Internet, it will disappear off of the face of the earth tomorrow.
So a conservative blog outs him, even though he asked them to please respect his private life.
The church he cares enough about to deliver sermons at sees fit to release a public statement about it - amplifying the reach of the blog and drawing attention to it in the local community.
And then the local cops just happen to pull him over while he’s driving for a ‘wellness check’?
I’ve never, in my life, heard of a traffic stop wellness check. We know what they were doing. We know what that church was doing. And we know what that blog was doing.
What a tragedy. I hope everyone involved knows the stain they bear.
I care alot about caring for yourself and others, I care alot about mental health.
But he threw in with ALL the enemies of ALL those things in a bid for power. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
