Right-Wing Media and the Death of an Alabama Pastor: An American Tragedy
www.esquire.com
Bubba Copeland was the heart and soul of his community—mayor, businessman. When a website exposed his deepest secrets, his life wasn’t the only thing that was destroyed.

Content warning: depression, suicide

The world lost a great and loving individual. He looked out for his gay son and welcomed queer and non-queer community members in his small town, but when viciously backstabbed, he couldn’t deal with the shame of coming out in the midst of such contempt.

…

"Our philosophy is this: We open those doors,” he says. “You can read your whole Bible, and nowhere in it does the Bible give you permission to judge your fellow man. But time after time after time, it tells you to love your fellow man. No matter what. That was Bubba’s attitude. It’s the attitude our church shares.” "

"Dan (a gay local hoping to join the church), you are my brother. God has blessed our church by sending you to join us.” Bubba added that his son was gay and that he was “not sure how to relate to him. God has brought you into my life to be Carter’s gay stepdad.’ "

  • Wahots@pawb.socialOP
    3·
    8 months ago

    I know, I feel terrible for him and his sweet family. I wish his friends could have like…kidnapped him and spent a week or two on a remote Hawaiian island or something and let most of this blow over without any internet. Stuff like this always gets better with time, even if the immediate future looks bleak.

    I greedily want him as a neighbor in the gay part of my neighborhood where he could relax and just be himself a bit more, without worries of such judgment.