An Alabama preacher and politician killed himself November 3, two days after being outed for having a secret life he shared online as a “transgender curvy girl.”
F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, who was the mayor of tiny Smiths Station, with a population of just 6,756, as well as the pastor at First Baptist Church in nearby Phenix City, shot himself around 5 p.m. in front of sheriffs who were following him.
Copeland was a married father of three.
His suicide came after police were asked to do a welfare check and began tailing his car.
“He exited the vehicle, produced a handgun, and took his own life,” the sheriff’s office said.
Copeland’s suicide followed an exposé in 1819 News, a news site once owned by the conservative think tank, the Alabama Policy Institute, that described Copeland’s secret life online as a transgender woman under the pseudonym Brittini Blaire Summerlin.
“Brittini” described herself as a “transitioning transgender curvy girl, that loves smiling, clothes, and shoes!”
One of his social media profiles showed Copeland wearing different women’s outfits, including bedroom photos of himself in women’s underwear. ...