Or, rather, who was he? Fred Copeland was a white male, a Baptist pastor, a twice married father of three, and a Republican who was elected and re-elected as Mayor of Smith’s Station, a small town in Alabama. His nickname was Bubba; everyone knew him as Bubba. Another interesting thing about Bubba Copeland? He liked to wear women’s clothes in his spare time, which makes a few of the above facts tragic, because not only was he cruelly outed by a conservative Republican muckraker, the so-called Christians in his regional Baptist synod responded to his being outed with judgement, calling his dressing in drag ‘un-Biblical behavior’ among other characterizations, instead of showing compassion and love, or even just patience, curiosity, concern. These factors ended in Mayor Bubba Copeland taking his own life. He was forty-nine years old.
Drag. What exactly is the big fucking deal? In some states, the whackos on the right are making it a big deal because they can, safe in deep red states where they control their districts, discourse and policy making. Unfortunately for Bubba, he liked to dress in women’s clothes and he lived in the deep south, in Alabama, a state which, in 2022, passed the following laws regarding trans children and gender: Senate Bill 184, a law making it a felony – punishable by up to ten years in prison – to provide gender-affirming care, which is recommended by pediatric medical associations and guidelines. SB 184 also requires educators to “out” children to their parents should they reveal gender dysphoria or queerness, which would include, one presumes, a desire to wear non-gender conforming clothes. Another law Alabama passed was House Bill 322, a law that bans K-12 students from using bathrooms and school facilities consistent with their gender identity. Additionally, the law bans conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms for grades K-5, similar to Florida’s recent “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill.
In other words, Alabama is a state that has shown hostility toward gay and trans people, and in April of this year, Alabama introduced a law (HB 401), which reads “Any sexual or gender oriented material that exposes minors to persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd or lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities, including but not limited to topless, go-go, or exotic dancers, or male or female impersonators, commonly known as drag queens or drag kings.” This is not a place where a person – anyone who is not straight and gender conforming – is safe in being who he or she is, particularly after being exposed publicly.
How is it possible that wearing a blond wig and heels in the privacy of one’s own home so deeply threatens other people not living in the home (if his wife is okay with it, who TF is anyone else to judge), that narrow-minded bigots believe they have to out, shame, and punish a fellow human being in this way? I don’t get it. I do not understand the level of hatred this innocuous behavior, dressing up – which granted, I did professionally for many years – engenders in these folks. Why is what someone else wears – women, girls, trans people, drag queens, etc. – anyone other than the wearer’s business? Do their eyes burn when they see a man in a wig and dress? Do their souls blacken when a woman dares to wear a man’s suit and tie, or a skirt so short you can see the thong or bathing suit she’s wearing? Of course not. Threatened, ignorant, rigid, binary tyrants, haters, and losers. No wonder we love Halloween or a costume party so much; it’s when anyone who wants can take of the mask of conformity and have some fucking fun, however that is defined.
We all wear masks. In astrology it’s generally designated as the aspect revealed by a person’s rising sign. I have Leo rising, the sign ruled by the sun, concerning public events, politicians (Clinton and Obama are both Leos), the theatre, and the archetype of the father. My mask is of a big, sunny, extroverted personality but, under the mask, my essence is introverted, reflected by my actual sun and moon placements, both in Cancer, the sign ruled by the moon, the archetype of the mother, concerning the home. All I wanna do is stay home, y’all, however bright and sunny my mask might be! Taking our masks off, in intimate relationships and settings, is essential to having a full and happy life. I have always wondered what it would be like, feel like, to wear a suit and tie daily, imagining that necktie as a kind of noose, constricting my ability to move and breathe. We all wear masks, but a truly integrated life requires that we find friends, lovers, family, clubs, community where our masks aren’t needed, can slip, are relaxed and abandoned, if only for a short time. Fred Copeland loved his community, but did his community love him back? I wonder. Perhaps his death will move the needle. Perhaps not.