The apparent suicide of an Alabama pastor and mayor last week underscores the potential dangers of outing, or revealing a person\u2019s real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity against their will. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
F.L. \u201cBubba\u201d Copeland \u2014 the mayor of Smiths Station, Alabama, and a pastor at First Baptist Church Phenix City \u2014 died by apparent suicide on Friday<\/a>. His death came two days after 1819 News, a conservative Alabama news site, published pictures of him wearing women\u2019s clothing and makeup, and the same day the site published a follow-up article stating that Copeland wrote and shared a violent fictional story online featuring a woman he knew in real life and posted photos of minors and women online without their consent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The photos published in the first article are from various social media accounts Copeland operated under the pseudonym Brittini Blaire Summerlin. In a screenshot of one of the since-deleted accounts, Brittini is described as a \u201ctransitioning transgender\u201d girl. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In that article, the Alabama outlet stated that Copeland confirmed he operated the accounts and was featured in the photos, but said the accounts were merely about \u201cgetting rid of stress\u201d and were just a \u201chobby\u201d and a \u201cfantasy.\u201d The article also noted that Copeland deleted the accounts after the interview and asked that the 1819 News not make the screenshots of the accounts public due to his family and position as a pastor. That request was denied. Copeland, 49, was found dead two days after the Nov. 1 publication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Following the article\u2019s publication, Copeland addressed his congregation during a prayer service and spoke about being \u201cthe object of an internet attack.\u201d In his remarks, which were recorded and posted to his church\u2019s YouTube page<\/a>, Copeland said he took photos with his wife in the privacy of their home \u201cin an attempt at humor, because I know I\u2019m not a handsome man or beautiful woman either.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI apologize for any embarrassment caused by my private personal life that has become public,\u201d he said. \u201cThis will not cause my life to change. This will not waver my devotion to my family, serving my city, serving my church. I\u2019m thankful for the grace of God and the willingness to forgive. I have nothing to be ashamed of. A lot of things that were said were taken out of context. In conclusion, I love my family. They\u2019re number one. And, again, I\u2019m sorry for what my actions have caused.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Copeland thanked the hundreds of people he said had reached out to him in love and asked his congregation to turn their Bibles to the Psalm of David, which includes the line, \u201cEven though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for he\u2019s always close beside me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his interview with 1819 News, Copeland referred to his online presence as \u201cdress-up\u201d and \u201ccosplay,\u201d though it is unclear exactly how he identified. People who cross-dress are not necessarily transgender or gay, but they often face anti-LGBTQ biases because they present or dress differently than their birth gender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of how he identified, Copeland\u2019s online persona was revealed without his consent, a practice called \u201couting\u201d within the LGBTQ community. While it\u2019s impossible to know exactly why someone attempts suicide or dies from it, the practice of outing, or even just the threat of it, can have severe negative psychological effects on the person who is outed, according to mental health experts. Stories of public outing can also have a ripple effect by discouraging people from coming out in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 1819 News, the conservative website that published photos of Copeland\u2019s online profiles, described his activity as a \u201csecret life.\u201d Among the social media photos the outlet shared were revealing images that appeared to show Copeland wearing women\u2019s underwear. In a short article about Copeland\u2019s death, 1819 News referenced its Nov. 1 and Nov. 3 articles, saying Copeland had been the subject of previous stories on the site regarding \u201chis sexually explicit behavior\u201d while serving as a mayor and a pastor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Someone in Copeland\u2019s situation would likely feel ashamed, embarrassed, humiliated and terrified, according to Dr. Jack Drescher, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and the author of \u201cPsychoanalytic Therapy and the Gay Man.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Drescher noted that he can\u2019t comment on the psychological frame of someone he hasn\u2019t examined, but he described outing as an \u201cact of violence\u201d that could have severe negative psychological effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople hide because they are afraid to be seen, and often if they are revealed over their own wishes and without their consent, it\u2019s a form of violence, which is why you sometimes see violent responses,\u201d Drescher said. \u201cThis is a violent response to an outing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Drescher said people often have good reasons for keeping their identities a secret, and often it\u2019s because they don\u2019t feel like they would be accepted. The dangers of revealing that information can vary, for example, if someone lives in a more conservative area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Copeland\u2019s position as mayor, and the news coverage of his death, could also affect people going forward, Drescher said, and could lead people who are keeping their identities a secret to feel more threatened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the last few decades, the outing of public officials has become rare, in part due to increasing acceptance of LGBTQ people and more awareness about the potential harms of outing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, outing has a long history both in and outside of elected and government offices. From the late 1940s to the \u201860s, thousands of federal employees were forced to resign because they were thought to be gay. The purge, which came to be called the Lavender Scare<\/a>, was part of U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy\u2019s effort to find and remove employees with suspected communist ties from the U.S. government. The name comes from the color lavender being associated with homosexuality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n LGBTQ historian Lillian Faderman<\/a>, author of \u201cThe Gay Revolution\u201d and several other queer history titles, said there are many examples of the harms of outing \u2014 or the threat of it \u2014 in American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She pointed to former Sen. Lester Hunt<\/a>, a Wyoming Democrat who was elected in 1948. In 1953, Hunt\u2019s 25-year-old son was arrested for soliciting an undercover police officer in Washington, D.C., and two of McCarthy\u2019s Senate Republican colleagues told Hunt that if he didn\u2019t end his term and announce he wouldn\u2019t seek re-election, they would make his son\u2019s arrest a key campaign issue and publicize it widely, according to the Senate archives. In June 1954, Hunt announced that he wouldn\u2019t seek re-election, and then, a few days later, died by suicide in his Senate office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Faderman also gave the example of Andrew Ference, an administrative assistant at the U.S. Embassy in Paris who had a very promising future in the State Department. In the summer of 1954, Ference was interrogated by two State Department officials<\/a> until he admitted to having a relationship with his male roommate. He was forced to resign from his position and died by suicide days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Faderman said some journalists would out elected officials who were secretly gay but were known for being anti-LGBTQ. For example, in 2007, Roll Call published a story about how then-Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican, was arrested for indecent behavior in a men\u2019s restroom in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. He pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct. In that case, Faderman said, the outing seemed more justified because Craig\u2019s views were hurting a community that he was allegedly a part of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outing has also had deadly effects outside of government. For example, in 2010, Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi<\/a>, who was out as gay only to close family and friends, died by suicide after his roomate secretly recorded him having a romantic encounter with a man. In 2014, Essay Anne Vanderbilt died by suicide<\/a> after a Grantland reporter found out she was trans and lied about her credentials in the course of reporting on a golf club she had built. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Faderman said the culture has changed significantly since the Lavender Scare, and nowadays the effects of being outed as gay would often be much less severe. However, Copeland\u2019s apparent suicide shows the consequences may still be deadly, though the exact reasons for his apparent suicide are unknown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNowadays, presumably, we\u2019re safe being outed, unless we have to hide it for one reason or another, like we live in a small town, and we\u2019re mayor or we\u2019re a Baptist pastor,\u201d Faderman said. \u201cThe irony is it\u2019s no longer threatening to be outed unless you have something to lose, as this man did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe potential shame of a \u2018secret life\u2019 <\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The history of outing public officials<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n