Friday’s apparent suicide of F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, the mayor of Smiths Station, Alabama, and a pastor at First Baptist Church Phenix City, came just days after conservative Southern news site 1819 News published photos of him in women’s clothing and makeup, alongside allegations of sharing explicit content online without consent. The pastor and community leader, who was described as an active member of the community in social media posts from people in the small Alabama community that knew him, is just one story among dozens of public figures being publicly outed shortly before they took their own lives. As the community grapples with this devastating loss, questions arise about the impacts of revealing an individual’s private life without their consent and the potentially fatal consequences. For years, the correlation between public outings and suicides has been well-documented. In a 2014 report by the National LGBTQ Task Force, the narratives of several prominent transgender individuals are outlined, shedding light on the devastating consequences of being publicly outed before tragically taking their own lives. What is happening in the larger political landscape and why it matters The issue of public outing has become increasingly prominent within politics, with some policymakers advocating for policies that would potentially force LGBTQ+ youth to disclose their identities to their parents. This, in turn, could have dire repercussions on their home life, mental well-being, and overall safety. A poignant article on supporting LGBTQ youth, featured on Parents.com, illustrates the profound impact such policies can have, turning a once supportive and nurturing home environment into one fraught with confusion and discord. One of the real consequences queer youth face after being outed to their families is homelessness. LGBTQ+ youth experience a 120% higher risk of becoming homeless after coming out to their families, and are twice as likely to experience homelessness at some point in their lives, according to 2018 data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. As of fall this year, 19 states have implemented laws that could cause students to be outed to their parents, according to 2023 data from the Movement Advancement Project. Tennessee has repeatedly been rated as the worst state for LGBTQ+ people, as it was listed by RollingStone this year. The Volunteer state has the most anti-LGBTQ laws of any state, and has been described as a “lab” for anti-LGBTQ legislation, Human Rights Campaign state legislative director Cathryn Oakley. “For every kind of bad bill that has passed over the last several years, Tennessee has an example,” Oakley told Rolling Stone on July 15. “They try things early. Sometimes they don’t pass them right away, but they’ve got a little bit of everything. They’re a lab for this stuff.” North Carolina and Oklahoma, which have bills that would require a student to get parental permission to use a different name at school, parents, teachers and trans students have said the bill could put students questioning their identity in danger of abuse or homelessness instead of parental support. Several states including Indiana, North Carolina and North Dakota require school officials to notify parents if their child tells a school official they believe they are transgender, according to the MAP report. “I know that our community knows how to fight, to survive, to be joyful, and to build community outside of the state. And it keeps me hopeful that no matter what happens — even when the state doesn’t support us — we will always support each other,” said MAP senior policy researcher Logan Casey, in a Medium post on the 2023 legislative session. Despite the growing movement to out LGBTQ kids, some young people are fighting back. It’s not just largely conservative states where policies to out kids to their parents are being implemented. Celeste Stoller, an agender 7th-grader in the Murrieta Unified School District, in Riverside, California, addressed the school’s recently-approved policies that would force trans students to come out. The district is one of several California school boards enacting similar policies, the Advocate reported on Sept. 8. “You are the adults here, and the children of this school district are leaning on you to ensure that they aren’t put directly into harm’s way,” Stoller told the board in September. “All I want is for myself and others to feel safe. But that simply can’t happen when the adults in the situation could only feel comfortable when children fear their teachers, their parents, their peers, and worst of all, themselves. I’m scared. What does that say about you?” History of outing politicians and celebrities Throughout history, the outing of politicians and celebrities has been a contentious issue, often exposing the vulnerability and discrimination faced by LGBTQ+ individuals. This practice has raised pertinent questions about privacy, consent, and the right to self-identification. Historians estimate nearly 100,000 LGBTQ civil service and armed forces members were outed and fired from their jobs between World War II and 2011. This number was included in a 2021 bill proposed by Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine that asked the government to publicly acknowledge its anti-LGBTQ hiring practices. During the 1950s and 60s, thousands of LGBTQ government workers were fired for being gay in what is now referred to as “the Lavender Scare.” In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association declared homosexuality a mental illness, and in 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an executive order that made “sexual perversion” a fireable offense for public service workers. Sen. Lester Hunt took his own life in his senate office in 1954 after he was threatened with political retaliation. Hunt’s son had been arrested for sexually soliciting an undercover officer, and Wisconsin’s Joe McCarthy warned Hunt he would make his son’s sexual solicitation a campaign issue if he ran for a second term, according to Senate records. And it’s not just about public officials, celebrities have felt the fallout of getting outed involuntarily. For instance, Hot 97’s DJ Mister Cee, who hit tabloids in 2011 over reports he has relationships with transgender women, told GQ being publicly outed made him feel “like an actual dead person.” More recently, actors like Tyler James Williams and Rebel Wilson have spoken publicly about the dangers of public outing after their own experiences with being pressured to declare their sexual identity. While neither experienced major loss or physical harm, both took the opportunity to address how serious public outing can be. Wilson was forced to come out in June 2022 by a journalist who threatened to out her in an article for the Sydney Morning Herald. “Basically, with the situation where a journalist is threatening to out you, you’ve got to hurry, and some people we didn’t get a chance to tell before it came out publicly. And that’s not ideal,” Wilson told The Australian. Williams addressed questions about his sexuality in a post in June, using the opportunity to address the dangers of public outlings. “I’m not gay, but I think the culture of trying to ‘find’ some kind of hidden trait or behavior that a closeted person ‘let slip’ is very dangerous,” he said in the post. What’s next In Virginia, state senate Democrats secured the most seats held since 2000, following the results of Tuesday night’s elections. Narissa Rahaman, executive director of Equality Virginia, told the19th on Nov. 6 that keeping Democrats in control of the senate was important for protecting LGBTQ people from discriminatory laws. “This year, specifically this session, we had over 12 anti-trans bills introduced in the state legislature, and that was the most we have ever had, even when we’ve been under previous Republican trifectas,” she told the 19th. Those bills were blocked in the Democrat-controlled state Senate. Locally, in response to Copeland’s death, former school board superintendent Larry DiChiara told Reckon he was bothered by the onslaught of judgmental posts, memes and banter shared on social media among members of the east Alabama community following the 1819 News report. DiChiara knew Copeland from his work as the superintendent of Phenix City Schools, which neighbors the Lee County School District, where Copeland served on the school board for 11 years until 2016, when he left the position and was elected mayor of Smiths Station, the position he held until his death Friday. He said he hopes people, especially adults, can see the deeper reality of online bullying in the wake of the pastor’s death. “It was such a senseless death. People were like sharks [online]. It was a frenzy taking place. One person says something then others are emboldened by that statement then it’s on. You’ve gone to a new level of bullying when you drive someone to kill himself,” he told Reckon. If you or someone you know is being bullied because of their sexuality, consider these resources for support: Transgender Students: Know Your Rights | ACLU of Indiana Resources for Families of Transgender & Gender Diverse Children | Movement Advancement Project Trans in the South: A Directory of Trans-Affirming Health & Legal Service Providers