Hours before Copeland’s death, Hemant Mehta, who runs the popular religion blog Friendly Atheist, noted that Copeland did not appear to have bigoted views toward transgender people or people who simply enjoy cross-dressing.
“There’s a story making the rounds about an Alabama preacher/mayor who secretly dresses in drag and adopts the persona of a trans woman on social media,” Mehta tweeted. “The problem? It’s not clear he’s a hypocrite. If he’s not a bigot, why is he being outed?”
That’s the biggest problem with religion and hypocrisy. You’re all right being against everything that doesn’t concern you personally but as soon as it does suddenly it’s a problem.
That quote is ignoring the fact that it was his fellow conservatives who went after him to destroy his life. It is his fellow conservatives -- the ones he chose to stand among and support -- that enjoy this outcome.
You cannot be surprised when bullies bully. And the people who hang out with bullies because it benefits them to do so? They are also bullies.
And unfortunately, I think that's exactly why you're wrong. The issue isn't partisanship. The issue is bigotry. These people outed him because they hate and want to destroy LGBT people. There's no shades of grey here. There is no moderate position. This story happened even with no one from the opposite partisan position being involved.
I don’t see anyone making that argument. What I do see is people saying that being conservative removes your pass to be queer. And that’s just atrocious.
You don’t have to apologize. Your silence will suffice.
You seem to be thinking that just cuz someone is LGBTQ that makes them a good person inside.
You don’t have to speculate about what I think. I’ve explicitly stated it on clear and uncertain terms. A person’s sexuality is their own private business and there’s no reason to be outing anyone.
Your reading comprehension is shit.
I don’t think you have demonstrated enough reading comprehension to sit in judgement.
No one has a pass to be conservative, especially a queer person. No one. Not one person. It is not acceptable to be a bigot, a bully. It's not acceptable to be cruel just because you believe there is a certain social hierarchy that ought to be enforced. All the tenants of conservatism are unacceptable. And if you are queer, you now have INTIMATE knowledge of what it is like to be on the receiving end of that hatred and oppression and should know better than most to take no part in it.
nah, if you're an elected political official with power over other peoples lives, and you're a bigot, it's open fuckin season, and i'd recommend outting every single last goddamned one of them
All Republicans are hypocritical bigots, by definition. It's the core of their political party, it's who they signed up to be identified with, it's who they are, or in the case of this poor bigoted fuck, were. I don't want to see any "but this was a nice republican" bullshit. After the Southern Strategy in 1964, all Republicans are trash, every single one.
Institutionalized racism, misogyny, homophobia, and white Christian separatism as party platform. No matter how "conservative" Republicans claimed to be, The Southern Strategy was the core value and singular driving force for the past 60 years. MAGA isn't a symptom, it's result.
Maybe the politicians, I could agree with that, but most Republican voters are not on board with the southern strategy and all of this other stuff.
All the majority know is that they hate Democrats, and that is why they vote the way they do. Human beings are creatures of habit after all.
Besides, even if a group of people are doing bad things en masse, it's ultimately counterproductive to lump the followers in with the leaders. It makes it harder for the followers to break from the leaders that are leading them down the wrong path.
I am anti-republican politics, and I don't get along with Republican voters, but I'm not going to call the guy at the gas station evil because he votes Republican because his dad voted Republican because his dad voted Republican.
They aren’t evil, doesn’t stop them being ignorant, stupid, wrong, and detrimental to society. Ebola isn’t evil, but it’ll fuck up your life if you don’t kill it first.
Republican voters are cancer, they might not want to kill you, but they will.
"They don't know what they're voting for" is not a defense, frankly. If you're truly ignorant of what a party stands for and you just can't bring yourself to vote for their opponent, maybe don't vote at all?
If you vote Republican then you are "on board" with the southern strategy and all of this other stuff. That's what voting signifies, that's the whole point of voting. It's a binding statement to the world that you want the person or group you're voting for to be in charge, and in the case of Republicans we know very well what them being "in charge" entails.
Out the ones that could be a part of the ones who could effect change so they can be ousted and replaced by another run-of-the-mill Republican demon. Smart. Real big-brained move.
I think there is a good argument to be made for outing someone closeted who is using their power to oppress LGBT+ people, but there is also a trend of labeling any homophobic politician as being in the closet when a lot of them are just plain old bigots.
I’m sorry, but I must vehemently disagree. There is absolutely no reason to discuss publicly someone’s private sexual preferences. Otherwise, you have the society they want where witch-hunts can be started over rumors.
there is also a trend of labeling any homophobic politician as being in the closet
But if your oppressor is LGBTQ+ and oppressing you for being LGBTQ+ it is “rules for thee…”
Tell me I’m wrong, you nut.
Most importantly, in this case I don’t think we should be defending the rights of an oppressor over the rights of the oppressed.
Edit:
I could go on. The exact reason someone would not want to be outed is because of the social stigma created by the oppressor. So your stance is doubly absurd.
But if your oppressor is LGBTQ+ and oppressing you for being LGBTQ+ it is “rules for thee…”
Yes. He is "rules for thee…"ing you.
But when you out him you become the one not abiding by your own rules. Twice. Once for the outing, because you don’t want to be outed. And again for not holding yourself to your own standard of not having rules that don’t apply to you.
I don’t think we should be defending the rights of an oppressor over the rights of the oppressed.
If you think that some people don’t deserve to have their rights protected, then you are the oppressor.
Yes I’m saying it’s ok to be queer and not ok to be intolerant. What the fuck is wrong with your reading comprehension?
No one is saying that it is ok that he was outed. They’re saying he was making rules as a Republican official that bound LGBTQ people and the instant those rules would apply to him he killed himself…
All Republicans are hypocritical bigots, by definition. It's the core of their political party, it's who they signed up to be identified with, it's who they are, or in the case of this poor bigoted fuck, were. I don't want to see any "but this was a nice republican" bullshit. After the Southern Strategy in 1964, all Republicans are trash, every single one.
Institutionalized racism, misogyny, homophobia, and white Christian separatism as party platform. No matter how "conservative" Republicans claimed to be, The Southern Strategy was the core value and singular driving force for the past 60 years. MAGA isn't a symptom, it's result.
Or brainwashed. This was a boomer who grew up in very rural Alabama. There was almost no chance he wasn't going to grow up to be a Republican. And from what I've read, from all accounts, he was not a bigot and was supportive of trans people.
This is a terrible shame and I hope the people who needlessly outed and ridiculed him feel the guilt on their consciences.
I'm not a republican but almost every other member of my family is Republican.
The grand majority of them could care less about whether a person is gay or not, or what they do in their own time or in the privacy of their own homes.
I am a minister and I performed a gay wedding for my brother-in-law's brother and his husband just a month ago.
Every single one of them vote Republican because they believe that voting Republican will either decrease their tax burden, that it will prevent abortions, that it will keep illegal immigrants out of the country, or that it will help prevent the world from going even more insane than it already is.
That's why they vote republican.
The fact that the Republican party is anti-trans and anti women's rights and pro white rights at the cost of the right of every other race and anti-environment and pro-billionaire simply cannot penetrate into their brains and so they do not consider those topics.
You cannot bring up those topics to them, because they do not have the mental or emotional faculties to communicate about them.
There are plenty of Democratic voters in Alabama. Even in rural Alabama. The 2020 presidential election, for example, has a map that breaks down voting by county. Look at all the pink and light red regions - those went Republican, sure, but only by tens of percentage points.
I don’t know who you think is excusing their stupidity and ignorance. Certainly not me. I was just pointing out that not all GOPers are evil assholes, some of them are just idiots
I don’t think he killed himself because he wasn’t accepting of himself, but because he was being tormented and ridiculed and had his entire life turned upside down for who he was. Big difference.
Clutch my pearls. It’s seems more and more frequent to see a comment such as yours denouncing a comment section. Mainly after Israeli massacre began. When you can’t legitimately debate your views it seems a last resort. Why use lemmy if you don’t want to debate
I don’t personally approve of some of the stuff this fellow did, and most of it is just disagreeable or not my cup of tea. But it sure isn’t worth the man’s life. What a shame he ended up killing himself.
Is it normal for queer people to post pictures of kids onto fetish sites, where they fantasize about young males transitioning to "bimbo"s, all while using pictures of actual kids? 1819news.com/…/to-say-i-was-a-stalker-would-be-a-…
What a waste. Regardless of his political affiliations, it’s sad that someone got bullied so hard that they decided to take their own life. It’s what we fight for in the LGBTQ community and beyond- so nobody feels that their life is over if discovered. Nor should it be a big deal, regardless. It’s what we’ve been fighting for since the Lavender Scare, and we’ll keep fighting for a general sense of normalcy for everyday Americans, regardless of political orientation.
I just imagine him being so conflicted about what he wanted for himself and what he thought reality would allow that killing himself made more sense then living ostracized. He must of truly believed the goodness of people is limited to what the majority find socially acceptable.
I hate Republicans for all they do and stand for, but nobody kills themselves just for fun. This guy was mentally ill (aside from being in the GOP) and got pushed over the brink by an asshole.
You don’t have to be sad about his death, but suicide is not normal and should never be encouraged like some here basically do.
Yeah WTF, cross dressing is objectively bad? People don’t even try to hide their bigotry anymore. If anyone should get back in the closet it is the bigots.
He posted photos of local residents (including minors) in his sex fantasy fiction. He actually NAMED a local businesswoman in a story he wrote where he kills her and assumes her identity, seduces her husband, and takes over her life.
“To call myself a stalker would be an understatement.” He wrote before going on about analyzing every social media post the woman made and collecting her photos like pornographic baseball cards.
This person was batshit crazy and a potentially dangerous predator.
How anyone that unstable can convince people that they’re just your average Joe, mentally well and healthy enough to become a mayor, is beyond me.
Cross dressing isn’t bad. Sexually obsessing over everyone in your town and naming them in a public forum is miiiiilllllleeees above being creepy. It’s like something out of the Twilight Zone.
I wish he could have gotten help. I wish he didn’t end his own life. That doesn’t change the reality here.
The publication did nothing wrong by bringing this to the attention of the public. The parents of the kids whose images he posted on pornographic websites needed to be made aware of this bizarre shit.
If he hadn’t named anyone or shared photos of actual people that had known him all their lives, I’d feel a little differently about it.
Dang he is the exact perfect match of the conservative Boogeyman.
He is trans, trying to push a “real” woman out her space, grooming kids, a threat to hetrosexual marriage, and mentally ill.
This is like if I invented a person named Reginald Slavetrader who born wealthy went to Harvard for economics. Now spends his day writing articles denying global warming and calling for less banking regulations.
Isn’t it amazing how perfectly this matches up? This guy just happens to have all the traits conservatives happen to hate and was caught by a conservative operator.
Yeah, for example convicted pedos have a higher suicide rate than the average - I don’t think most people believe that is a statistic we should work on changing.
I think that is a statistic we should work on changing. There is still a lot research to be done, but it is possible that poedophilia is not so different fron being sexually attracted to people of your own gender. Your brain is just wired differently, in the case of pedophilia wrong. But you don’t exactly get to pick if and how you are born.
Societies outlaw living out these sexual desires for obvious reasons, which (in better parts of the world) obviously don’t apply if you on the other hand e.g. have consensual sexual experiences between two adults of the same sex.
Obviously sexual acts between adults and kids are not okay, no argument there. That is why we outlaw it, rightfully so. We can, (usually want) and definitely should protect all babies, childen and young adults in our societies. Doesn’t mean you are a waste of oxygen if you have pedophilic urges, but don’t act upon them. There is also without a doubt a higher rate of suicides among those people. It is not a net positive.
The human sex drive is very strong, so despite having rules against non consensual or considered unacceptable sexual urges, people live those out. Sexual harassment is a better example for this.
My hope would be that someday we can somehow effectively help people who are sexually attracted to babies, kids and underage people without incarceration. There is already drugs that can supress any kind of sexual desire. We just don’t do enough research on this topic, because helping people struggling with pedophilic thoughts (especially those not having done anything wrong and never choosing that life) is a very unpopular topic. So we rather avoid it.
That goes for a lot of other mental illness like narcissistic or psychopathic disorders that tend to cause harm if lived out as well.
Not helping people afflicted by what we consider malfunctions of the human brain and letting them slide into more mental health problems, which might ultimately lead to their suicide is NOT a net positiv, is is a net negative. Always will be, unless you got your priorities wrong or can’t feel empathy.
There is still a lot research to be done, but it is possible that poedophilia is not so different fron being sexually attracted to people of your own gender.
Societies outlaw living out these sexual desires for obvious reasons
Oh wonderful, the regressives are here with their whole “homosexuals are pedophiles” shtick.
Since we clearly reached the “no, you!” stage of this argument and there is evidently no point in going forward, let me wish you a great day and you take care of yourself.
My statement wasn’t about what’s “morally right”, it was an example of a suicide that the average person will consider a net gain for society.
A civilized society should obviously not have as its’ goal to make parts of its’ inhabitants kill themselves - the podcast that I got the statistic from was actually an interview with a police officer who worked on monitoring related internet activities, and proactively confronting said individuals to offer preventative chemical castration and therapy sessions. That still doesn’t change the fact that most would rather just see those kinds of people gone, at least after they’re convicted/proven to act upon their urges.
Okay, I see that as valuable context to what you wrote before and mostly agree. Thanks for adding that.
Though I also want to protect children from sexual abuse by adults, which is about the worst thing one can do, I do believe nevertheless it is still the right thing to try and help even the worst among us after they served their time, need rehabilitation more than ever and if they want and can be helped of course.
That’s a whole different topic to what happened to the man in thr article and I don’t want to go down this specific rabbithole any further. I hope that’s okay with you.
It is not like I shed tears for bad people dying. You don’t have to either.
I just don’t want suicide to be celebrated. And I want suicide to be understood as (in the vast majority of cases) a very bad thing people commit, because their are mentally ill. Science is also backing up that celebrating or even covering suicide can bring other people to kill themselves too, who are good peoole, simply ill and shouldn’t.
While I agree that suicide should never ever ever be encouraged. I don’t think it’s necessarily a mental illness. This person was going to or already had lost everything they had ever known and worked for. They would have been a pariah in their town. They very likely would have been disowned by family and friends. It’s a little late in life to be starting all over somewhere new. I don’t think it’s crazy to contemplate unconventional exit strategies in that case.
Source: I am from small rural town Alabama.
I also think that we should remove the negative stigma behind suicide. After all, even bringing it up with a mental health professional can and will get you essentially arrested for 48 to 72 hours which discourages people from seeking help.
Are you trying to make a case that suicide can be a well reasoned and appropriate solution?
Euthanasia might be appropriate in the context of some medical illnesses, but I think there’s very few people that would agree that suicide is a reasonable course of action when one encounters challenges like that described here.
I’ll just pull you up on some of the phrasing or terms you’ve used. I’m not trying to be an ass, I’m just concerned at the way you’re phrasing things and maybe you don’t realise?
He hasn’t “lost everything”. Sure I’m sure he’s lost his current position and standing with some political parties, but he still has whatever wealth he had, and given his experience can probably look forward to a lucrative career in some kind of political support role in another state.
A “pariah” is an outcast. He might have found it hard to make eye contact with some people at the shops but he wouldn’t have been banned from entering the city.
He may have been “disowned” but some of his friends, but not all of his friends and family.
It’s never too late to move and turn the page on a new chapter. He wouldn’t be “starting over” he would be making a change and continuing on.
Additionally, the term “crazy” doesn’t help anyone. People who are clinically depressed and suicidal are not “crazy”.
Words and phrasing is important and means things, whether you realise it or not your phrasing and framing is very catastrophic or black and white. Life happens in the grey.
Finally, you absolutely can talk to a mental health professional about thoughts of suicide, and they’re not going to lock you up. Usually the barrier beyond which someone needs to be detained is when they’re an “imminent risk to themselves or others”. There’s a whole spectrum from “wonders whether suicide is a solution” to “likely to harm themselves today” and in most of that spectrum locking someone up is not the right solution.
I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you. I originally typed out a bunch of stuff, but I deleted it because I think it may break some TOS. But, suffice it to say that sometimes things go wrong and there is no coming back from it. I know because I’m there.
Also, did you go to 1819 news website? Because outing them for being trans isn’t the only thing they did. They also did an article about a fictional story they wrote where they killed a woman that exists in real life and took over her life.
Hey! One quick correction - I’m currently a therapy student. You are correct that if a therapist thinks you are in imminent danger of suicide, you can be detained for a period of time for your own safety. But we are taught only to do that if the danger is imminent. If you are just depressed and occasionally have suicidal ideation, but likely will not act on it immediately, a good therapist would not have you detained. That would be counterproductive.
Definitely just be super blunt and honest with your therapist. They are trained to handle things appropriately. You might hear about shitty therapists occasionally, but most of us are really well trained and really want the best for people.
“Definitely just be super blunt and honest with cops. They are trained to handle things appropriately. You might hear about shitty cops occasionally, but most of us are really well trained and really want the best for people.”
Could you explain? I’m legit confused because doctors have the same authority to detain someone on medical/mental grounds. Should you lie to doctors as well?
When I go to doctors at least, it’s because of a physical injury. They’re not going to detain me and lock me away because my broken leg is a threat to me.
Doctors have the same authority as therapists to detain people if they believe they are a danger to themselves. I get what you are saying though.
Statistically, depressed people who see mental health professionals have better overall happiness and lower suicidality than people who do not.
I guess I’m kinda sad, which is why I feel defensive about this. I apologize if it came off as abrasive earlier. Lol also I got like 2 hours of sleep last night bc my gf’s dog is probably dying and needed to go to the vet. It’s been a day.
Could you explain what you are worried about? Like, just because they have the authority to detain you, are you afraid they absolutely will if they have the chance?
Also, can we just acknowledge how fucked up it is that this person felt they had no other way to deal with the situation, all because a group of people cared what clothes he wore in private.
I get that he decided to be part of this group, but even still… No one deserves that.
Where as I agree with you. It’s also funny that you say that. I have some friends that moved from Oregon to Alabama because it’s so cheap to live here.
I didn’t say suicide always happens, because you are mentally ill. You are twisting my words to suit your argument, maybe unintentionally. There is good reasons why people want to die, e.g. when they suffer from an illness that is only going to cause pain and suffering and want to go on their own terms.
I am not and was never in his head, but I am quite positive he didn’t suddenly develop, let’s say relatively severe Alzheimer’s disease and wanted to die why he still had controll over his life.
And yes, suicide should be allowed in my opinion as well. You should be the one who decides when and how you go. I agree with you insofar.
Though mental health professionals don’t admit you against your will, because it is a fun joke to them, but because the vast majority people are mentally ill when they are contemplating suicide. It is not a normal thing to want to die.
I don’t know how things are where you live, but in my tiny spot of the world people usually don’t get admitted against their will because of suicidal tendencies, but chose to after they talked to a mental health professional. You usually only get admitted against your will here, when e.g. police, firefighters and/or medical services had to talk you down or save you from an attempted suicide attempt. If that is not the case in your small town in rural Alabama, then you should inform yourself as well as possible and try to teach others about a better alternative. Just my two cents on your comment.
I apologize if i misunderstood what your comment said it’s late and I’ve had , well, a day. I wasn’t trying to twist your words. So, I do apologize for that.
In my experience getting locked up for talking about suicide is subjective. What is serious to one mental health professional may not be serious to another. So, you never really know if you are crossing a line or not. I’ve always felt like it’s best to just avoid the subject all together. But in my experience it keeps me from building a relationship with the therapist. It says to me that there are things that are ok to talk about and things that are not.
No need to apologize. I assumed it was unintentionally. I sincerely hope things improve in general when it comes to mental health in society and in your life if things are not great.
Stop white washing this shithead. He was a horrible person who was perfectly fine persecuting others BUT THE FUCKING IMSTANT IT CAME BACK ON HIM HE OFFED HIMSELF.
In most rural areas of the South, it’s a racial divide between which are Republican or Democrat. Where I’m from, a white person being a Democrat would be, and are, actively threatened and hurt if they voice their opinion (by white Republicans).
Are you kidding me!? “He had to be part of the anti-LGBTQ party because of where he lived”. Fuck out of here with that nonsense. I deleted my longer comment, let me sum it to for you:
He didn’t have to live in Alabama
He didn’t have to be part of the anti-LGBTQ+ (or any) party
He didn’t have have to run for political office
He didn’t have to engage in crossdressing
If any of those conflict with each other, well; life is about choices. Anything less is cowardice.
Get a grip. I asked for a source that the person, who you all are celebrating the suicide of, was actually a terrible person or partook in the persecution of others.
That was the assertion that I was responding to, and none of that was mentioned in any source in this thread besides wild assumptions by people simply for being in the republican party in a small town.
None of those words backs up your assertion, which was that there was “no plausible alternative” to being a GOP politician in Alabama. You can’t defend it because it’s complete nonsense.
Also, I didn’t celebrate his death, and I haven’t seen anyone else do so either…
Meh sometimes people just hate someone for not understanding them. And that’s enough. You don’t always need to pretend to have a good reason for hating someone, you just decide and then one day someone asks you why, like asking about babies crying in Africa, people often prefer not to have their beliefs challenged or broken to pieces by any kind of paradigm shift
Is it implausible that perhaps this person wished to hide within the GOP to escape its suspicions about their personal life? A Democrat mayor in a deeply Republican area would attract a lot of distrust and hostility simply by virtue of being a Democrat. A Republican mayor, not so much.
Is every trans person morally obligated to leave every institution that persecutes them? Even when to do so would scrutiny?
You heard it here folks, association by organization means you did the same thing some other shitheads did.
The secretaries for concentration camps?They gassed the Jews themselves, might as well have anyways, based on that logic.
Let’s take it even further, all Germans are bad because of what Hitler did to the Jews, after all, they are ASSOCIATED with the SS, being in the same country and culture and all, they all obviously have symmetrical views because all people really believe the same thing even in a party such as the GOP.
(Don’t you dare try to pretend those analogies flew over your head, work with me here)
Grow up, it’s not about him “being a hero”, nobody here is claiming that. The fact you came to that conclusion somehow on your own is evidence enough that you are celebrating his death. Have some respect, it seems pretty clear to me that he had second thoughts atleast some point in his life about his political decisions, had no way out, and when someone threatened to take even that away, made the last mistake you can ever make on your own accord. Please have some respect just as you would wish for yourself.
(Don’t you dare try to pretend those analogies flew over your head, work with me here)
lmao I loved this part.
You have a good point, I’m starting to think I was in a hateful mood yesterday. I still don’t think this person was a hero but it’s truly very sad that they had to hide this part of their life, and were so scared of the public’s opinion that they killed themselves.
When the time comes that you are on the other end of the blade, the people you despise will show you the exact same level of mercy you showed them. Problems do not have to be solved with death and violence, suffering and misery.
People like you are exactly what’s wrong with this country, that same kind of hatred is what enables mass shooters to commit the atrocities that they commit, the same kind of hatred that allows Israel to bomb innocent civilians to fruitlessly take out ten times less that number of hamas fighters.
You have some soul searching to do, and if you find that you still have the same anger and hatred in your heart, you will never find true happiness, satisfaction, it will never be enough. You will grasp for more and more, clawing at every little thing until it consumes you and all others around you.
Who am I exactly with? Do you even know? Or are you making assumptions because you’re an angry piece of shit redditor who walked to the wrong platform to spout the bullshit that you are?
more dumb unrelated shit about “nazi apologists”
Would you please shut the fuck up about the Nazis? The words I am reading from your post are legitimately the stupidest fucking things I’ve ever seen on the internet.
WAAAAHHH, ME ANGRY BECAUSE ME GOT CALLED OUT FOR BEING A BLOODTHIRSTY ANGRY PIECE OF SHIT HUMAN
You don’t even know who I’m with, stop kidding yourself. You seem to still have a lot of growing up to do. Stop being a fucking baby ffs. Ironically the fact that you see things in black and white makes you similar to the Nazis.
Sounds more like you lack the intelligence to hold your own in a conversation so you’re reaching for the “you’re a nazi” card.
You realize you’re basically calling everyone who lived in Germany from the late 30’s to mid 40’s a Nazi, right? You realize how smoothbrained that is.
If you can generalize a group of people and say “they’re all basically the same” then where does that end? Do you think all Italians are the same? What about Britons? Considering the fact that you’re basically saying that all Germans from that time period are Nazis just because they lived in a country run by the Nazi party, that sounds an awful lot like racism to me.
But the rest of the small minded fucks in his small minded town who were laughing and pointing? And the asshole who outed him? Now THAT’S a different story, and I hope their laughter becomes a curse to them.
How many of those are also hiding their sexuality/gender just because of the same reasons that you mentioned?
Im sorry for the guy that shot himself, but he was part of the problem. It doesn’t matter the reason why someone is a church goer, Trump supporter, one less of them is always good.
You can blame that on the US’s bipartisan system rather than the multiparty system it is supposed to be.
What other option would he have, the democrats? What if there are things that they did he didn’t agree with either? 3rd party is out the window because it would take minimum 2 elections to get their candidate in office.
Plenty of options. Didn’t have to be a shaman, didn’t have to live in a sheit tier state, didn’t have to run for public office, didn’t have to support the GOP. He went up to the leopard and screamed “eat my face”.
I mean, he was 62 years old you know, not like he could just turn his life around on a dime given the position he was in.
The dude was not hurting anyone. He clearly wanted to help operate the city, you have zero chance of winning with the democratic party in the vast majority of deep south states. Being a part of a party does not mean you believe in every single view that someone in your party holds, why do you think half the GOP is trying to get rid of Trump?
And would you stop with this leopard eating shit? I have read it here like 40,000 times. Suicide isn’t a joke, this is borderline not even a story about politics FFS. Save it for actually funny shit.
I am mentioning the church. He was a leader for a denomination of Christianity infamous for the degree of its anti-LGBT stances. Decades feeding the hate machine. And I bet you anything that today they those people who said a thousand good morning to him are happy that he killed himself.
The final unavoidable conclusion of Christianity is to kill its own.
What an uneducated comment. Baptists don’t inherently mean Anti-LGBTQ, it’s a common low-church denomination which mainly subscribes to the doctrine of grace by faith alone and is characterized by the belief in credo-baptism. It’s got nothing to do with LGBTQ politics.
Jesus Christ you are something else. Fine citation needed that BAPTIST are pro-LGBT. There, can you do that now or is there some other dodge you would like to try first?
To mine, me. Jesus Christ, how did you see this going? You are going to convince me that they aren’t foaming at the mouth homophobes by trying to find some other religion that is even more so?
You can’t bullshit me on this. I have been around and attended Baptist services throughout my childhood. I know what their stance is on this issue because I have seen it. People who openly call gay people slurs I won’t repeat, who joke and celebrate HIV.
Very well. Please show me the passages that backup your claim. You can use English, been a while since I studied Greek. I will start
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Is NKJV acceptable translation for you? I know the NIV is a bit more accurate so I understand if you want to use that instead.
At what point does that say to call gay people slurs and to judge them? How does this justify implementing discriminatory laws against them? It even says “and such were some of you”, showing that they were likely guilty of this at one point.
These commands also only applied to Christians. They weren’t to be enforced outside of the Church. You cited 1 Corinthians 6, however turning back a book to 1 Corinthians 5, the following is stated at verse 12&13:
What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked person (someone who was having sex with his father’s wife who was unrepentant and without shame) from among you.’
So basically, it’s not really a Christian’s business what non-christians do. It’s only their business to bring them to Christ. Christ can then work within them, and it will be up to a Christian to help support them in resisting temptations to commit those sins.
I love what John Oliver said on his segment about I believe Lindsay Graham.
Paraphrasing, he could have helped usher in the change that would have made his lifestyle more acceptable and more inclusive. But he wanted power.
These people choose to be a Republican. They choose to associate with a party that is actively trying to eliminate the very people they are and the sad thing is that they think they are the exception. They think the party will accept them.
And the hard, harsh truth is that they are only accepted so long as it’s convenient. I think he knew this and that’s why he chose to end his life.
It’s sad that he felt he had to do that. But I’m not holding my breath for the GOP to say that they learned a lesson from it.
Being a mayor of a small town and being a US Senator or even House Rep are two very different things. It is very likely that, despite being Republican, he did nothing to further Republicanism with the power that he did have.
Most of the time, mayors really just do small town mayor shit like approving a tree to be cut down or asking the state for a road to be fixed. They’re not usually involved with politics in the way Lindsey fucking Graham is.
Also a pastor, "shot himself in front of police during a welfare check." It also appears that his wife was aware and involved with the hobby (not with the suicide), presumably in a supporting way.
I may disagree very strongly with this guy's politics, but fuck the assholes who make this shameful.
The blog reported that Copeland, a Republican, confirmed that the accounts were run by him, saying they were a “hobby” he used for “getting rid of stress.” 1819 News reported that Copeland asked them to not out him, but they did so anyway, even though it does not appear he had taken any public positions against LGBTQ issues that could be construed as hypocritical.
It's not a "rare example", it's the whole point of the leopard-eating-face thing. People support a political party and then react with shock when the party carries through with its promises in a way that hurts them.
It's not news when someone votes for the leopard and then sits back smugly while the leopard eats the faces of other people.
I’m referring specifically to the act of him killing himself.
Republicans have a track record of voting against their own interest and shocked pikachu oh no! These policies are hurting me??
This guy took it a step further by being the one to pull the trigger.
…if only that wasn’t rare. If our nation’s trash made a habit of taking itself out as this fucker did, a lot of problems would get fixed very quickly. The opposite is usually what happens - evil shits are like cockroaches.
Your comment here is seriously making me rethink ever partaking in political discussion, let me just wrap my head around this for a second;
So you think this guy deserved to kill himself or die because of some of his political beliefs? How are you better than they are exactly? Look at me, no tolerism bullshit or anything like that when I say this.
Nobody deserves to die because of social issues or image.
See, every time that objection pops up, it’s always wrapped up into “just because of political beliefs” or “a difference of opinion” like the core of the problem is a disagreement over spending a city’s budget on a new bridge vs a new rail station; or whether or not pineapple belongs on pizza.
This guy’s “political beliefs” is that life should be hell for a long list of out-groups. Working toward that goal makes him evil, and being evil means he should be removed from power by whatever means available. In this case, he did us all a favor by eating a bullet. Ideally he would have taken all this as a point of self reflection, realized the hypocrisy of his dilemma, and abandoned the evil shit to go on to advance policy that actually made his community a better place. Instead he decided to abandon his life. And in doing so, this world became a little less evil, which is a win for the rest of us.
Personally I’m over the sentiment that no one deserves to die. It keeps villains in power, which feeds into the suffering and deaths of everyone else. When one of those assholes decides to commit suicide for whatever reason, or fatally runs their car into a tree, or gets hit by a well-placed meteor, etc: the loss of evil is worth celebrating.
But anyway, what is with this. Is it that this secretive cross-dressing thing seems correlated with repressed sexual desires or what?
JCS covered that one Canadian colonel serial killer who would cross-dress, sneaking into women’s homes.
Then I just watched this 48 Hours case about a dad who killed his son after they found pictures of him cross-dressing and literally eating his own shit.
People tend to sexualize the taboo. In a society where gender is seen as set in stone and comes with a bunch of stupid bullshit like what clothes it’s socially acceptable to wear some people will sexualize violating the taboos
You’d think some empathy would be in order. However, judging from the comments made on the bird website, many people are actually proud of this happening.
Do we know if he was anti-trans? It’s super sad that he had to actually kill himself because he couldn’t be himself. The GOP has created a really shitty life for a lot of people.
Because they (wrongly) believe that being “one of the good ones” will save them from being targeted by republicans and their proposed legislation like Project 2025
That doesn’t mean people who have previously voted red are in the wrong (lots of internalized homophobia can lead to opposite beliefs). But once you realize your identity and continue to vote against yours and other people’s human rights, you’re absolutely in the wrong.
Pretty sure there were slaves that actively sought to maintain slavery. In some cases, they had relatively decent lives compared to other slaves and even some free black people.
Disagreeing on policy is one thing; disagreeing on human rights is another. You cannot be a Republican and have respect for queer rights at the same time. It has to be a 100% deal-breaker.
I’m not sure what you’re talking about. There are tons of Republicans who support gay rights in some fashion, even if it’s not a majority position within the party.
No, there are precisely zero Republicans who support gay rights. What you’ve cited is a poll showing some who claim to, but are lying. Their deeds, not their words, prove their true intentions.
But it's not just "an issue". We are talking about a demographic and their legal recognition. No I'm sorry but we cannot agree to disagree on something so fundamental as equal treatment of people.
How likely are those Democrats to get bullied to the point of suicide if their "secret" of being against increased gun control was to come out? Or to preemptively commit suicide in anticipation of the bullying they're going to receive?
This is not the same thing. Democrats are, generally speaking, flexible about a lot of their positions. It's how they wind up with problem members like Manchin and Sinema. The Republican party is very different.
That’s not the right comparison. He didn’t commit suicide because he was ashamed of supporting gay rights, he was ashamed of wanting to cross dress and of having engaged in the activity. Regardless of politics, that’s a pretty uncommon behavior. Most people don’t want other people to know they’re a sexual deviant of some kind. I’d guess that this behavior is much more maligned in conservative circles than liberal or left, for sure, but the point is that it’s not just the breaking from the standard beliefs of that side.
It’s basically the same as how Drag Queens aren’t trans. They aren’t fully conforming to the idea of being a ‘woman’, just the fashion and expression of it. Many prominent drag figures use she/her pronouns while in drag but immediately switch back to he/him when out of drag.
That makes sense to me, one is who they are and the other is just being playful with how they present themselves, at least that’s how I perceive drag queens. I think that’s what you’re saying anyway. I get the sense though, he was so seriously taking the “cross-drossing” because it was more of a reflection of who he is. But I’m just guessing and we’ll probably never know.
I’ve known a lot of people who really get into cross dressing but would never consider themselves trans.
I never really got into a serious conversation about it, but I always took it like when you get into a video game. It’s just a lot of fun pretend to be them for awhile while knowing that in reality it’s fiction.
'Course, then there are the folks for whom crossdressing is entirely different from being trans until suddenly it’s not. (I’m thinking of crossdressing comedian Eddie Izzard – who is now Suzy Izzard – as I write this.)
The main thing is that all possibilities are possible, and it’s really more about letting folks do their thing instead of trying to categorize.
By no means am I an expert, especially on the intricacies of being trans and I don't want to cis-splain their experiences, but I do know that cross dressing has an overlap of necessity with them, but it's a ven-diagram/intersection rather than a circle.
People who are trans typically explain it as having always felt like they've always been in the wrong gendered-body. Wearing clothes that correspond to the gender they feel they are
(also, keep in mind MRI's have shown brain activity that more closely matches the gender they feel they are than the gender they were born with, as well) is way for them to try and reconcile the way they feel with the way they were born. It's usually an early stage in socially transitioning, whether they later choose to chemically/medically transition or not (and keep in mind, this is not always the end goal for people ... simply being acknowledged as the way they see themselves is enough for some people and they shouldn't be afraid to be in public because of that!).
People who cross dress on the other hand may be doing it because they're trans and feeling out the early stages OR ... just because. It could be the way a textile feels, it could be sexual, it could be non-sexual, it could be because they just like it, it could be because ... you see where I'm going with this? There are as many reasons that people cross dress as there t-shirt designs (I may be exaggerating a bit with that one, but you get my meaning, I think).
I know NOFX is problematic, but I feel like "I’m a Transvest‐Lite" explains it decently (for one particular person anyways!):
I'm not transgender, I'm a lazy crossdresser
Who thinks makeup is too much of an ordeal
I paint my toes and wear shiny tight clothes
Not for the look, but how it makes me feel
I don't need things just right, I'm a tranvest-lite
I only shave to do the Time Warp midnight Saturday
I'm done with self-pity, I don't have to feel shitty
'Cause I wanna look pretty, so I give it the old city College try
Don't get me wrong, I still wanna be a guy
Who sometimes likes to dress like a girl
(He sometimes likes to wear diamonds and pearls)
Don't think I don't know I'm not fooling anyone
(He's a cross between Adele and Charlie Chaplin)
You gotta know it's not just girls who just wanna have fun!
Also, the beginning of the song is about the shame felt early on about it and is generally about getting the courage to not give a flying fuck about what people think.
Hopefully I did a decent enough explanation without trampling on anyones lived experiences. The simple truth is that both groups of people have completely individualized experiences and it's a different journey for every single person.
Crossdressing and/or drag is you like to be outwardly a woman/other gender. Trans is you ARE a woman. Full stop. Your meat suit just happens to not agree with it, thus the term gender dysphoria.
Note: I do not speak for a trans people. Nothing is black and white. This is just how I understand it best and figured it got the point across.
You where born in the wrong body but the technology isn't there yet to change that fact. That's why it's still called Transgender. if you could just switch Cis bodies I'm not sure anyone wouldn't try it out.
I'm with famous cross dresser Barry Humphries in considering gender affirming surgery self mutilation, but at the end of the day it's none of my or anyone else's fucking business what someone does with their own meat suit.
FYI, I am looking to learn and not state anything as fact here. I am just going to explain my current understanding and if it is incorrect, please correct me.
I think gender dysphoria just describes any feelings of distress and anxiety caused by suppressing the feelings of actual gender identity. The disconnect between mind and body may not always be traumatic.
So, if a trans woman has fully embraced being a woman in all aspects of life with no second thoughts, gender dysphoria may not be an issue.
However, if a trans woman feels socially pressured to maintain the lifestyle of a man, that could be a source of stress, anxiety and initial confusion.
There are probably millions of nuanced scenerios that do, or, do not result in gender dysphoria. However, it has been my experience that most people who are anti-trans use gender dysphoria as a generalized blanket term. (Obviously, that doesn’t mean that anyone who used the term is anti-trans, but just covering that base regardless.)
Crossdressing and drag are related to gender expression. Cis and trans are terms relating to a person’s gender identity and may or may not align with gender expression.
For some people, there are only ever two sides, one all good, one all bad and there can not be people in-between or on each side that aren't 100% a walking trope integrated with all traits of the "side". It's quite sad really.
We seriously need to do away with our two party system. Everything wrong with the country and the division is due to that. Ranked choice voting needs to be a priority.
I feel pity for this person, they deserved better.
That said. You cannot be supportive of LGBT people, and vote for the Republican party. Republicans are quite openly hostile to LGBT people, both in rhetoric and in policy. You can't say you are supportive of a group while voting to strip them of their legal recognitions and protections.
I take small umbrage with the idea that you cannot support LGBTQ people and vote in a way that doesn't support your personal beliefs.
We are all of us paradoxical and hypocritical. Maybe they weren't pro-republican they were anti-democrat. I don't fucking know.
That aside, I get what you're saying, but your political stance is not the end all and be all of who you are, and as the Republican party has proved beyond any shadow of any doubt being hypocritical is the name of their game.
This one person could have been very pro-trans and yet still support the Republican agenda in every other way.
Plus, we don't know if they were pro-trans or LGBTQ, all that we know is that they were not publically anti-trans.
I take small umbrage with the idea that you cannot support LGBTQ people and vote in a way that doesn't support your personal beliefs.
I don't care.
You cannot vote to make someone's life measurably worse, and claim to support them.
That's not my "personal beliefs", this is people's lives and wellbeing.
We are all of us paradoxical and hypocritical.
That is fair. And that is why I pity this person. And why I'm not talking about Leopards Eating People's Faces. This person was clearly troubled.
That doesn't change what I'm saying though. I'm not trying to morally judge this individual with what I'm saying. All I am saying is that the net effect of the actions of someone who votes Republican, is not supportive of LGBT people, regardless of their personal beliefs.
Maybe they weren't pro-republican they were anti-democrat. I don't fucking know.
That's worse. You understand how that's worse, right?
This one person could have been very pro-trans and yet still support the Republican agenda in every other way.
Human rights are pretty much a deal-breaker. Or at least they should be.
Plus, we don't know if they were pro-trans or LGBTQ, all that we know is that they were not publically anti-trans.
You have misinterpreted my comment. I'm not trying to judge this person.
I'm making a general statement that it is not possible to support a demographic while simultaneously voting to take away their legal recognitions and protections.
So telling someone what dose of estrogen to take makes up for voting to oppress people? Throwing someone a rope while kicking their head is not support.
I agree with your comment, and I don’t think you’re saying otherwise. But definitely important to note that a lot of LGBT+ folks start off on the wrong side because of how they were raised, religion, etc. and the internal trans/homophobia that causes.
That said, there are also though a sizeable number of LGBT+ “one of the good ones” who think their support of republicans will keep them from being targeted by the laws they want to introduce (it won’t. This case itself is proof of that.)
I think that’s the important lesson to learn here for anyone voting republican and being a part of the LGBT community. The people you are voting for will not let you be just because you’re voting for them.
Reading other articles it seems like no, he was generally very positive and encouraging to others online. The impression I get (from 10 minutes of reading, not saying this conclusively) is that he was not overtly hostile whatsoever to trans people.
There are enormous social pressures in small conservative towns, and the man was 63. I can imagine life leading someone otherwise pro-trans into being a republican preacher in that environment. An awful tragedy
It says he hasn’t posted or supported anything publicly so he wasn’t a hypocrite, he belonged to the wrong party though, I do feel bad for his family because he doesn’t seem to be a right wing asshole
This is really fucking sad. A man who should have been able to express his true self but couldn’t because of the twisted shackles of religion that led to his own death. Fuck religion.
The guy’s “true self” was posting pictures of literal children calling them whores and sluts and writing stories about the children being given forced gender changes to be sold into sex slavery.
Yes religion twisted him into what he became. I’m not condoning the guys actions, just sad that he ended up where he did because of religions influence. Who knows how he would’ve ended up if he didn’t have all that fucked up shit twisting him. May have still turned out to be a piece of shit
It’s a really weird situation. … Here we have a conservative who is writing the kind crime novel that conservatives tend to write about trans people that utilizes a bunch of fairly stereotypical transphobic narratives that internally within the trans community would elicit disgust and ridicule and then appearing to act it out.
While it’s possible they could have been trans themselves this feels a lot more like someone treating the conservative stereotype of trans people as a kink and acting on it. JK Rowling writes this kind of shlock the key difference being she, at least as far as we know, didn’t write it as part of some sort of LARP. This person was in a complicated situation, even if they weren’t trans they were caught doing things the right would look at as definitive evidence as trans and they likely had trans or trans ally commenters telling them that what they were doing was not okay. So you either have a trans hypocrite willing to set their own community on fire because of their subscription to conservative values and tropes or you have a rather stupid conservative secretly treating a trans psychokiller trope as their personal fetish or trying to use it to add realism to fuel their hobby of writing transphobic fiction and got caught by a community that is both extremely transphobic and equally not empathetic to it just being a kink.
For those who are claiming cognitive dissonance in the audience there are a few things at play.
Suicide is a tragedy. Many of us know what the impacts of that are on communities and loved ones. This person did some bad shit but not the sort of thing we would execute someone for doing. This is still a tragedy.
In a conservative run world being closeted and driven to suicide is a thing that has happened to generations of trans people who were not this person. It is okay to register that is not something we want to keep or return to. Feeling some empathy for trans people caught in this situation is normal.
We don’t really know what this person’s actual situation is but in absence of context they effectively died becoming the sort of bogeyman the right loves to spread. They effectively died making the trope seem more real which isn’t great for the trans community particularly regardless of this person’s potential transness.
Stalking isn’t fucking cool. Neither is writing this kind of shit.
However you want to feel about this on the spectrum of “fuck this person in particular” to “that poor person, this shouldn’t have happened” this all is valid. But it isn’t hypocrisy, it’s nuance and the right does not fucking understand nuance.
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