Former Alabama Mayor FL “Bubba” Copeland is accused of sharing images of children from his community in social media posts encouraging children to transition.
Pastor Copeland, 49, died by suicide last week after a local conservative news site exposed secret social media posts in which he appeared as a “transgender curvy girl” named Brittini Blaire Summerlin.
The same outlet, 1819 News, reported that Copeland’s secret social media accounts were also shared images of a local brother and sister used to make it appear as if the boy had transitioned.
1819 News claims they removed the meme from their website to protect the children’s privacy after their father contacted them.
The outlet says Copeland also shared transgender and heterosexual pornography with captions like, “Do what you gotta do to get fucked” and “Once you’re edited properly, there’s no turning back.”
Pastor Copeland, 49, died by suicide last week after a local conservative news site exposed secret social media posts
On his secret social media, the mayor appeared as a “transgender curvy girl” named Brittini Blaire Summerlin
Copeland, the mayor of Smiths Station, a town of 5,300 near the Georgia border, owned a small grocery store and was a pastor at First Baptist Church in nearby Phoenix City, where a sign proclaims to passersby, “Jesus Loves You.” All are welcome.’
His public presence on social media detailed baptisms, family gatherings, homecoming parades and sales at his country store.
But Copeland’s private online life became public in November when the outlet published the first of several items describing messages he posted under an alias on Instagram and Reddit as a “transgender curvy girl” with photos of him wearing women’s clothing and makeup wears.
On November 3, the same day Copeland committed suicide, the 1819 News accused him of using the names and photographs of local residents, including the minor, in messages without permission, including the real name of a local businesswoman in a fictional story about a man who develops a deadly obsession with taking over her identity.
Copeland told the news site that he wore women’s clothing as a way to release stress, but that he was not transgender. He stood before his congregation on November 1 to apologize, saying the photos taken in the privacy of his own home were an attempt at humor.
Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said deputies were trying to control Copeland at the time of the suicide for fear he would harm himself.
Opeland’s private online life became public in November when the outlet published the first of several items detailing posts he made using an alias on Instagram and Reddit
Phoenix City pastor apologized in a statement to his congregation just days before his death for “any embarrassment” caused by his behavior
The politician was more than a man with a female alter ego: he was considered an upstanding member of the community who even met with then-President Donald Trump after a devastating tornado in 2019.
Before his death, the married father of three told congregants he was the subject of an “internet attack.”
Copeland apologized to his flock and told them that his wife was aware of his activities.
“Yes, I took pictures with my wife in the privacy of our home in an attempt at humor because I know I’m not a good-looking man or a beautiful woman either,” Copeland said.
‘The article is not about who or what I am. I apologize for the embarrassment caused by my private and personal life becoming public.
‘This isn’t going to change my life. This will not diminish my commitment to my family, serving my city and serving my church,” Copeland said.
The Southern Baptist Convention, which is reportedly no longer affiliated with Copeland’s parish, said it has received allegations of “unbiblical behavior.”
However, the Alabama Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, of which Copeland’s church is a member, said the issue was “between the pastor and the church.”
Copeland is also said to have written erotic fiction that used the thinly veiled identities of people in his community
Copeland started his “hobby” of cross-dressing when he was young, but he didn’t clarify when he started playing Brittini Blaire Summerlin, according to the news site 1819.
‘It’s a hobby I do to relieve stress. “I am under a lot of stress and I am not undergoing a medical transition,” Copeland said in a statement to the news site.
‘It’s just a bit of a character that I play. … I don’t go looking for requests or anything like that.”
Copeland added, “It’s just a hobby that I have in my own home that hasn’t traveled outside my home.”
“I have done nothing outside of my own home other than post or publish anything on the Internet, and that does not affect anything within my jurisdiction,” he said.
The First Baptist Church of Phoenix City has since been in mourning and changed its Facebook profile picture to a black ribbon.
Supporters have questioned whether Copeland should have been “outed” as he appears to have never expressed anti-LGBTQ views despite his Baptist faith.
Copeland was a community pillar who was praised by then-President Donald Trump for his handling of a tornado in the area in March 2019
Copeland also wrote erotic fiction that used the thinly veiled identities of people in his community.
The women discovered that in addition to their names, their photos had also been used.
“Some people started sending me photos that had been posted of me on multiple porn sites, I guess you could say, that also included photos of ‘Brittini,'” Ansley Summerlin said.
She told WTVM, “He then used my first and middle name on these sites.
“And I think there are about nine sites now that have five or six pictures of my face and my name on the Internet.”
A second woman, described by WTVM as a local hairstylist, said Copeland used her identity in his erotic fiction.
“It had my first and last name on it,” she said.
“And it basically described the way I look — and intensified, I think, as a porn star.”
“And it was in very graphic detail. I couldn’t get past the first page because I honestly couldn’t stand it.’
Jeff Poor, the editor of 1819 News, defended the reporting on his website.
“There’s a lot more here,” Poor said. “This was clearly a troubled man, and it’s a shame he took his own life.
“But it wasn’t because of any of the reasons or the narrative of the mainstream media.
‘He didn’t just write erotic fiction.
“He wrote erotic slasher fiction in which he fantasized about murdering a woman in the local community and used her real name.”
Poor told Breitbart that their motivation wasn’t, “let’s go find a transgender man to criticize.”
He said he and his team weighed whether the story had public interest, and concluded it did because he was a public figure and lead pastor at a church.
“If this was going on in my church, if this was the face of my church doing this, I think I would have a right to know,” Poor said.