Alabama mayor's apparent suicide underscores the dangers of outing

The apparent suicide of an Alabama pastor and mayor last week underscores the potential dangers of outing, or revealing a person’s real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity against their will.

F.L. “Bubba” Copeland — the mayor of Smiths Station, Alabama, and a pastor at First Baptist Church Phenix City — died by apparent suicide on Friday. His death came two days after 1819 News, a conservative Alabama news site, published pictures of him wearing women’s 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.

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 “transitioning transgender” girl.