Fred L. “Bubba” Copeland was an American politician and pastor who served as mayor of Smiths Station, Alabama from 2016 until his death in 2023.
Bubba Copeland: Alabama mayor and Baptist pastor shoots himself in the head after being outed as ‘transgender curvy girl’
A small-town Alabama mayor died apparently by suicide just days after a conservative news site published pictures of him allegedly wearing women’s clothes and makeup, officials said Sunday.
Smiths Station Mayor F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, who was also a pastor at First Baptist Church of Phenix City, fatally shot himself and was pronounced dead at 5:01 p.m. CT Friday, Lee County Coroner Daniel Sexton told NBC News in a statement.
An autopsy was scheduled for Monday. Copeland died two days after the 1819 News published a story with photos of the mayor donning women’s clothes and makeup.
“It is sad and disgusting how he was treated by” 1819 News, former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., said in a statement Saturday. “We live in a mean, bitter world where the self-righteous tend to throw the largest stones.”