Tribe in Oklahoma sues city of Tulsa for continuing to ticket Native American drivers

SEAN MURPHY
November 15, 2023 

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Muscogee (Creek) Nation filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the city of Tulsa, arguing Tulsa police are continuing to ticket Native American drivers within the tribe's reservation boundaries despite a recent federal appeals court ruling that they lacked jurisdiction to do so.

The tribe filed the lawsuit in federal court in Tulsa against the city, Mayor G.T. Bynum, Chief of Police Wendell Franklin and City Attorney Jack Blair.

The litigation is just the latest clash in Oklahoma over tribal sovereignty since the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2020 ruling, dubbed McGirt, that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's sprawling reservation, which includes much of Tulsa, remains intact. That ruling has since been expanded by lower courts to include several other Native American reservations covering essentially the eastern half of the state.

Since that ruling, Tulsa began referring felony and criminal misdemeanor offenses by Native Americans within Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s boundaries to the tribe for prosecution, but has declined to refer traffic offenses, according to the lawsuit.

“Tulsa’s prosecution of Indians for conduct occurring within the Creek Reservation constitutes an ongoing violation of federal law and irreparably harms the Nation’s sovereignty by subjecting Indians within the Creek Reservation to laws and a criminal justice system other than the laws and system maintained by the Nation,” the suit states.

A spokesperson for Mayor Bynum said he is eager to work with tribal partners to resolve the issues and that the litigation is unnecessary.

“This latest lawsuit is a duplication of several lawsuits that are already pending in state and federal courts to decide these issues,” Bynum spokesperson Michelle Brooke said in a statement. She declined to comment further.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in June that the city lacks the jurisdiction to prosecute Native Americans within tribal jurisdiction, siding with a Choctaw Nation citizen who was cited for speeding in 2018.

"We will not stand by and watch the City disregard our sovereignty and our own laws by requiring Muscogee and other tribal citizens to respond to citations in Tulsa city court because of the City’s make-believe legal theories,” Principal Chief David Hill said in a statement.

Experts on tribal law say there is an easy solution — for Tulsa to enter into prosecution agreements with various tribal nations like many cities and towns in eastern Oklahoma already have.

Under the agreements with municipalities, the portion of the revenue from tickets that is typically remitted to the state of Oklahoma is instead sent to the tribal nation whose reservation the city or town is located in. The rest of the money can be retained by the city or town.

Other municipalities within the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s boundaries have referred 1,083 traffic citations to the tribe for prosecution, but not Tulsa, according to the tribe's lawsuit.

Senator wanted to fight Teamsters president during union hearing with UAW's Fain

Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press
Tue, November 14, 2023 

UAW President Shawn Fain and other union leaders testified during a U.S. Senate committee hearing Tuesday on union gains in recent contract talks and the prospects for future organizing, but it was a U.S. senator's animus toward the head of the Teamsters union that briefly stole the show.

Shawn Fain (L), International President of the United Auto Workers, and Sean O'Brien, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, testify during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Unions on November 14, 2023, in Washington, DC. Union leader testified before the Committee at a hearing titled, "Standing Up Against Corporate Greed: How Unions are Improving the Lives of Working Families."More

U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, stood up at one point and appeared to be ready to rumble with Teamsters President Sean O'Brien who, like other witnesses, remained seated, prompting committee Chair U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, to remind Mullin that he's a senator and to sit down and that "we’re not here to talk about fights."

Mullin had opened his questioning by referring to social media posts he attributed to O'Brien, which Mullin apparently considered a personal challenge following a testy exchange between the two at a prior hearing. Both then called the other a "thug" and O'Brien called Mullin "an embarrassment."

Senator Markwayne Mullin and former President Donald Trump attend the NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championships at the BOK Center Saturday, March 18, 2023 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Despite the uncharacteristically lively moment, the hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions otherwise focused on issues of unionization, collective bargaining, some debate about proposed federal legislation known as the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and whether the electric vehicle transition would be good for U.S. workers. The committee hearing's title, "Standing Up Against Corporate Greed: How Unions are Improving the Lives of Working Families," was clearly designed to set the tone, although Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, questioned its purpose, calling it a "a taxpayer-funded pep rally for big labor unions.”

Sanders, in his opening remarks, however, had painted issue as one where the working class has struggled even as enormous wealth has flowed to the super rich in recent decades.

"How do we create an economy that works for all of our people and not just the few?" he said. "We have more wealth inequality than the Gilded Age."

In his testimony, Fain was joined by O'Brien and Association of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson in discussing recent and ongoing contract fights, including gains in the recent tentative agreements between the UAW and Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis as well as the contract that the Teamsters inked with UPS.

UAW President Shawn Fain testifies before a U.S. Senate committee on Tuesday in this screen shot from the livestream.

Fain spoke on his personal history, the agreements that union members are now voting on and the way that other nonunion automakers like Toyota and Honda have announced wage hikes and other improvements in the wake of those agreements. Fain also highlighted the need for "a pro-worker Congress," and he pointed to three crises he said are linked — income inequality, the transition to a green economy and retirement insecurity.

"They are the fight for our future," he said.

Retirement security or a lack of it for many Americans is one area that Fain has said the United Auto Workers union would be circling as an issue when the union returns to bargaining with the Detroit Three in 2028. He has said it would require the involvement of the federal government to help solve.

During one exchange, Fain was asked about the announcement Monday by Stellantis, owner of Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat, that it would offer buyouts to 6,400 of its 12,700 non-bargaining U.S. employees, those with five or more years of service, in light of agreement with the UAW.

Shawn Fain, International President of the United Auto Workers, greets U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) as he arrives to testify during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Unions on November 14, 2023, in Washington, DC. Union leader testified before the Committee at a hearing titled, "Standing Up Against Corporate Greed: How Unions are Improving the Lives of Working Families."

Fain, tying the move to "short-sighted goals" to recognize corporate profits, said it has "nothing to do with our contract ... they made $12 billion in the first six months of this year."

Diana Furchtgott Roth, director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at the conservative Heritage Foundation, was a key witness in opposition to union priorities. She questioned the UAW's stance on the electric vehicle transition, saying it's not justice to make cars so expensive that Americans can't afford them and that it would benefit China, and reminding the audience of the corruption scandal, which had sent former UAW leaders and auto executives to prison.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: UAW, Teamsters leaders testify on unions at Senate committee hearing

Bernie Sanders stops GOP senator from fighting teamster president at hearing: 'You're a United States senator!'

Madison Hall

BUSINESS INSIDER
Tue, November 14, 2023 


Bernie SandersChip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A Republican senator and the president of the Teamsters almost got into a fist fight Tuesday.


The almost-skirmish was snuffed out, however, before it could even begin by an 82-year-old senator.


"You're a United States senator!" Bernie Sanders yelled at his colleague.

Sen. Bernie Sanders stopped a fight from breaking out in the middle of a Senate committee meeting on Tuesday when a Republican senator stood up from his chair to fistfight a labor leader who was testifying.

The incident occurred during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing titled "Standing Up Against Corporate Greed; How Unions are Improving the Lives of Working Families," where Teamsters President Sean O'Brien and other labor leaders were scheduled to speak.

During the hearing, Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma read aloud a post O'Brien previously made to X, formerly known as Twitter, where he called the Republican senator a "Greedy CEO who pretends like he's self made."


"In reality, just a clown & fraud," O'Brien wrote. "Always has been, always will be. Quit the tough guy act in these senate hearings. You know where to find me. Anyplace, Anytime cowboy."

In June, Mullin drafted his response to O'Brien's comments onto X, challenging him to an "MMA fight for charity," though the brawl never actually took place.

After reading out the post on Tuesday, Mullins responded to the criticism in person, particularly to the claim that he was pretending to be self-made. He then stared down the labor leader, saying "Sir, this is a time and this is a place. If you want to run your mouth we can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here."

"Ok, that's fine, perfect," O'Brien said.

"You want to do it now?" The senator replied.

"I'd love to do it right now," the labor leader responded.

"Then stand your butt up then," Mullin said.

"You stand your butt up, big guy," O'Brien said, leading Mullin to stand up and play with the ring affixed to his hand in preparation for a fight.

"No, no, sit down," Sanders said. "You're a United States senator."

The almost-brawl comes approximately eight months after a previous committee hearing in March where O'Brien accused Mullin of being a "greedy CEO" who "hid money."

Watch Bernie Sanders Stop a Republican Senator From Fighting a Union Leader

Trudy Ring

ADVOCATE
Tue, November 14, 2023 

Senator Markwayne Mullin Challenges Teamster Fight

Far-right U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma challenged Teamsters union leader Sean O’Brien to a physical fight during a Senate hearing Tuesday, and the two might have exchanged blows had Sen. Bernie Sanders not intervened.

The dustup happened during a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. The topic was how unions have helped workers economically and can continue doing so. But Mullin, a Republican who’s a former mixed martial arts fighter, took the opportunity to call out O’Brien, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, on tweets O’Brien had posted after a previous hearing.

Mullin, who owns a plumbing company, read aloud one of O’Brien’s tweets about him: “Greedy CEO who pretends like he’s self-made. In reality, just a clown and fraud. Always has been, always will be. Quit the tough guy act in these Senate hearings. You know where to find me. Anyplace, anytime cowboy.”

Mullin then said, “Sir, this is a time, this is a place. You want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here.”

“OK, that’s fine. Perfect,” O’Brien said.

“You want to do it now?” Mullin asked. “Stand your butt up, then.”

“You stand your butt up,” O’Brien responded, and Mullin did stand up as if he were going to fight the union leader. Then Sanders, the committee chair, spoke up.

“Hold it. No, no, no, sit down. Sit down! You’re a United States senator, sit down,” said Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats, while banging his gavel.

'Stand your butt up': GOP Sen. Mullin challenges Teamsters boss to fight at Senate hearing www.youtube.com

Mullin and O’Brien traded more insults, calling each other a “thug,” and Mullin suggested a cage match while Sanders sought to restore order.

“Excuse me, hold it,” Sanders said. “Sen. Mullin, I have the mike. If you have questions on any economic issues, anything that was said, go for it. We’re not here to talk about physical abuse.”

After the hearing, both Mullin and O’Brien stood their ground. “He called me out. … He said anytime, anyplace,” Mullin said, according to The Hill. “You don’t call me out and say ‘anytime, anyplace,’ and then not back it up what you said.”

Asked about standards of behavior for senators, Mullin said, “I’m still a guy. He called me. He said it. I just answered the bell. That was all.”

O’Brien said the two should discuss their differences over coffee.

Mullin is a first-term senator who previously served five terms in the U.S. House. He is deeply conservative, and as such is an opponent of LGBTQ+ rights. He received a score of 30 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard during his first term and all zeroes in his subsequent terms. In 2020, as a House member, he sponsored legislation that would have barred transgender students from playing on the school sports teams matching their gender identity. It went nowhere.

Among his recent actions, he and another Republican senator, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, sent a letter to the National Association for the Education of Young Children denouncing the group for “promoting the teaching of controversial, far-left ideology on topics like race and gender to children as young as two years old.”

Sanders, for his part, tweeted thanks to the union leaders who appeared at the hearing today — O’Brien, United Auto Workers International President Shawn Fain, and Association of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson.

— (@)

GOP senator challenges Teamsters president to fight during hearing

Alexander Bolton

YAHOO
Tue, November 14, 2023

Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R), a former mixed martial arts fighter, nearly came to blows with the president of the Teamsters at a Senate hearing Tuesday, forcing Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to step in to stop a brawl from breaking out in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee room.

Mullin challenged International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien to a fight on the spot after the senator read aloud O’Brien’s tweets calling him out as a “clown” and a “fraud.”

“Sir, this is a time, this is a place. You want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here,” Mullin said from the hearing room dais.

“OK, that’s fine. Perfect,” O’Brien shot back.

“You want to do it now?” Mullin asked. “Stand your butt up then.”

“You stand your butt up,” O’Brien retorted, prompting Mullin, who is 46 years old, to stand up from his chair as if he was preparing to spring into the middle of the hearing room to trade blows with the Teamster.

At that point, Sanders tried to take control of the hearing to stop an impromptu cage match from breaking out.

“Hold it. No, no, no, sit down. Sit down! You’re a United State senator, sit down,” Sanders yelled while banging the gavel to restore order in the room.

“This is a hearing. God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress, let’s not —” Sanders fumed before being cut off by more bellicose cross-talk between Mullin and O’Brien.

Mullin then tried to challenge the Teamsters official to a real cage match with the proceeds going to charity, but Sanders gabbed the mic to interrupt his Republican colleague.

“Excuse me, hold it. Sen. Mullin, I have the mic. If you have questions on any economic issues, anything that was said, go for it. We’re not here to talk about physical abuse,” Sanders said.

The purpose of the hearing, which was called for by Sanders, was show how unions are improving the lives of working families.

Mullin argued that he was trying to expose O’Brien as a “thug” after the Teamsters leader tweeted at him after a prior contentious Health, Education and Labor Committee hearing in March, when O’Brien called Mullin, who previously owned a plumbing company, a “greedy CEO,” and Mullin told the union official to “shut his mouth.”

The Oklahoma senator didn’t back down or apologize when later asked about his conduct.

“He called me out. … He said anytime, anyplace. You don’t call me out and say ‘anytime, anyplace,’ and then not back it up what you said,” Mullin said.

“I answered his call. Period,” he added.

Asked if he should be held to a higher standard as a member of the U.S. Senate, Mullin said: “I’m still a guy. He called me. He said it. I just answered the bell. That was all.”

At the hearing, the Oklahoma senator held out printouts of O’Brien’s posts on Twitter, which has been rebranded as X.

“You tweeted at me, one, two, three, four, five times,” Mullin said at the hearing. “Let me read what the last one said: ‘Greedy CEO who pretends like he’s self-made. What a clown, fraud. Always has been, always will be. Quit the tough-guy act in these Senate hearings. You know where to find me, anyplace, anytime.'”

The senator insisted he spent long hours in his plumbing truck building his business, while his wife managed the office.

O’Brien didn’t back down from his tweets, either, calling Mullin “an embarrassment” and telling him to “grow up.”

“You want to fight me? Let’s have coffee, discuss our differences,” he said.

A Republican Senator Is Going Viral For Trying To Physically Fight A Witness During A Senate Hearing

BuzzFeed
Tue, November 14, 2023

The United States government is essentially a barely functioning circus.

Westend61 / Getty Images/Westend61

We're talking about a total clown car show!

Stevies / Getty Images/iStockphoto

The latest buffoonery happened during a Senate hearing where a Republican senator from Oklahoma tried to get into a physical fight with a union leader.

Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images

This clip of Senator Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma challenging Teamster boss Sean O’Brien has since gone mega-viral:

CSPAN/ Twitter: @NoLieWithBTC

I like how he even adjusted his ring.

CSPAN

The drama of it all!!

CSPAN

As you can see, 82-year-old Bernie Sanders had to step in and try to calm him down.

CSPAN

"God knows Americans have enough contempt for Congress, let's not make it worse!" he said.

CSPAN

And, yep, Bernie is right on this one. We've all had enough.

CSPAN

I guess the show must go on!

Chanakon Laorob / Getty Images

GOP Sen Mullin, union boss almost come to blows in Senate hearing: 'Stand your butt up'

Andrew Miller

FAUX NEWS
Tue, November 14, 2023

A Senate committee hearing appeared to be on the brink of a physical altercation on Tuesday as a Republican senator stood up and threatened to fight a labor leader as the committee's chairman, Sen. Bernie Sanders, tried to play peacemaker.

"Sir, this is a time, this is a place. You want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults and we can finish it here," GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told Teamsters President Sean O'Brien during a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing after reading a tweet in which O'Brien said he could take the senator "any time" or "any place."

"OK, that's fine, perfect," O'Brien responded.

"You want to do it now?" Mullin asked.

BERNIE SANDERS REFUSES TO CONDEMN TLAIB COMMENTS DEEMED 'ANTISEMITIC'

Teamsters President Sean O'Brien, left, and Sen. Markwayne Mullin

"I would love to do it right now," O'Brien said, prompting Mullin to say, "Well, stand your butt up then."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"You stand your butt up, big guy," O'Brien said.

Mullin, a former MMA fighter, stood up from his chair and seemed set on making his way over to where the Teamsters president was sitting.


Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin rises from his seat during Tuesday's Senate Health Committee hearing with the president of the Teamsters.

"Stop it, hold it, no, no, sit down," said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the chairman of the committee, in an attempt to calm the pair down. "You're a United States senator. Sit down."

Both Mullin and O'Brien asked permission from Sanders to respond to each other after Mullin sat down, but Sanders denied their requests.

The two continued to go back and forth for several minutes.

"You challenged me to a cage match, acting like a 12-year-old," O'Brien said after Mullin accused him of being "quiet" in the face of a challenge.

"Excuse me, hold it," Sanders said, shouting over the Oklahoma senator. "Sen. Mullin, I have the mic."

"We're not here to talk about physical abuse," Sanders said.

Mullin then pointed a finger at O'Brien and called him a "thug," which caused O'Brien to call Mullin "disrespectful."

The two then told each other that they both don't respect one another, causing Sanders to interject again.

"Hold it," Sanders said while banging his gavel. "This is a hearing to discuss economic issues … we're not here to talk about fights or anything else."

The two continued to bicker, despite the pleas from Sanders, until the hearing eventually moved on to the next line of questioning from other members of the panel.

O'Brien and Mullin have a contentious history dating back to March when the two sparred in a heated Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing over O'Brien's salary compared to that of his union members.

Sanders was forced to intervene in that argument as well.

The two ignored Sanders and continued talking over each other, appearing to grow increasingly frustrated, before Mullin said, "Sir, you need to shut your mouth because you don't know what you're talking about."

"You're going to tell me to shut my mouth?" O'Brien responded before mocking Mullin's opening statement in which he said he wasn't "afraid" of a physical altercation.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders

Sanders eventually quieted the two and made Mullin provide O'Brien time to speak.

Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Mullin and Sanders as well as the Teamsters but did not immediately receive a response.

Fox News Digital's Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.

McConnell: Not my ‘responsibility’ to police aggressive behavior of other Republicans

Ian Swanson

The Hill
Tue, November 14, 2023 


Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said he doesn’t view it as his “responsibility” to police the behavior of other Republicans, especially aggressive physical behavior, acknowledging it’s “very difficult to control the behavior of everybody who’s in the building.”

McConnell said he was not aware of two incidents from earlier in the day in which Republican lawmakers made headlines for acting aggressively.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) had to be verbally restrained by Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) from getting into a fight with the president of the Teamsters during a heated committee hearing.

And Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) accused former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) of giving him a kidney shot by elbowing him in the back while he was talking to reporters.

“It’s very difficult to control the behavior of everybody who’s in the building. I don’t view that as my responsibility. That’s something the Capitol Police will have to deal with,” McConnell told reporters.

Mullin sprang up out of his chair at the Health Committee hearing earlier on Tuesday and invited Sean O’Brien, the general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to turn their social media spat into fisticuffs.

“You want to do it now? Stand your butt up then,” Mullin, challenging the labor leader.

O’Brien didn’t shy away from the challenge, telling the Oklahoma senator: “You stand your butt up.”

Sanders, in breaking up the battle, reminded Mullin that he is a U.S. senator.

On the House side, Burchett, who joined seven Republican colleagues in voting to oust McCarthy from the Speakership last month, accused the former Speaker of getting physical with him.

“I was standing there and McCarthy elbowed me in the back,” Burchett told reporters after the encounter.

“I said, ‘Hey, what the heck would you do that for?’ And he acted like, ‘Oh, I didn’t do anything, you know, and he’s just, he needs to go home back to Southern California,” Burchett said.

McConnell appeared surprised when later asked about these two incidents.

“Frankly, I hadn’t heard what you just indicated,” the Senate GOP leader said when asked about those confrontations.

Pastor's suicide brings grief, warnings of the dangers of outing amid erosion of LGBTQ+ rights

SMITHS STATION, Ala. (AP) — After the 2019 suicide of a local teenager, small-town mayor and pastor F.L. “Bubba” Copeland helped students place roadside signs in his Alabama community to try to reach others who might be hurting.

“You are worthy of love.” “Don’t give up.” “You matter.”

Those were the same messages friends said they tried to get through to Copeland before he took his own life along one of those county roads two days after a conservative news site exposed social media posts where he appeared in women’s clothing, a wig and makeup.

The disclosure bombarded Copeland, 49, with online ridicule and his death, experts said, underscores the dangers of outing people in an era that has seen the erosion of LGBTQ+ rights as states across the country introduce legislation based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Copeland's friends said they hope it prompts a wave of self-examination about how we treat others.

“I just want to ask you people who thought it humorous to publicly ridicule him. Are you happy now? What crime did he commit?” Larry DiChiara, a former school superintendent who knew Copeland from when he served on a county school board, wrote in a pointed Facebook post.

Related video: LGBTQ+ Community Grieves Loss of Leader (KJRH Tulsa, OK)

Duration 2:45  View on Watch

Copeland, the mayor of Smiths Station, a city of 5,300 near the Georgia border, ran a small grocery store and was pastor at First Baptist Church in nearby Phenix City, where a sign proclaims to passersby, “Jesus Loves You. All Are Welcome.”

His public social media presence detailed baptisms, family gatherings, homecoming parades and sales at his country store.

State Rep. Jeremy Gray, a legislator from nearby Opelika, said Copeland had been a “steadfast presence” after a 2019 tornado devastated rural sections of the county, killing more than 20 people. Copeland was photographed with then-President Donald Trump when he toured the area.

But Copeland's private online life became public on Nov. 1 when a conservative news blog posted the first of several items describing posts he made using an alias on Instagram and Reddit as a “transgender curvy girl” with photos of him wearing women’s clothing and makeup.

After the disclosure, the state Baptist organization said it was aware of allegations of “unbiblical behavior” involving the pastor. And a nationally syndicated radio show said Copeland should be ashamed because the Bible teaches that it is an “abomination” for a man to dress in women’s clothing.

An additional post on Nov. 3, the same day Copeland killed himself, accused him of using the names and photos of local residents, including a minor, without permission in posts, including the real name of a local businesswoman in a fictional story about a man who develops a deadly obsession with taking over her identity.

Copeland told the news site that he donned women’s clothing as a way to release stress but was not transgender. He stood before his congregation on Nov. 1 to apologize and said that the photos taken in the privacy of his own home were an attempt at humor.

“This will not cause my life to change. This will not waver my devotion to my family, to serving my city, to serving my church,” Copeland, a husband, father and stepfather, said in the livestreamed service.

Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said that at the time of the suicide, deputies were attempting a welfare check on Copeland because of concerns he might harm himself.

Friends said Copeland acknowledged he was struggling in the days before his death. DiChiara said he reached out to Copeland by text last Thursday and the mayor responded that “it’s been some very dark days.”

“When this story came out, it was already painful and hurtful just to see it and know that, that this is going to cause a lot of grief for Bubba and his family. But as I read what was out there, it just was getting progressively worse, and I just saw some real ugliness in people and their comments,” DiChiara said.

Jack Drescher, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and the author of “Psychoanalytic Therapy and the Gay Man” said outing can be an act of violence and in this case it “precipitated a violent response.”

Drescher said people can have reasons to keep sexual or gender identities and behaviors, such as cross-dressing, secret because they don’t feel like they would be accepted.

“It was probably a great source of shame and embarrassment to be outed like that,” Drescher said.

Chad Peacock, a former Auburn resident, said Copeland was one of the few elected officials to show support for a local Pride event he organized. He said he believed the anti-LGBTQ climate in the state bears some responsibility for Copeland's suicide.

“You have to fit the box. You can be who you are, but you should be ashamed of who you are if you're different,” Peacock said of the atmosphere.

Alabama lawmakers have imposed bans on transgender women playing on female sports teams in schools and colleges and approved a ban, now in litigation, on treating transgender minors with gender-affirming hormones or puberty blockers. The state in 2019 changed the process for obtaining a marriage license because several probate judges had refused to issue them after the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex couples to marry.

“The unrelenting anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric coming from state legislative houses and high-profile politicians has real life consequences in the form of online and in-person bullying, harassment and violence,” said Sam Lau, vice president of communications for LGBTQ+ advocacy group The Human Rights Campaign.

Lau noted the long history of outing public figures in the U.S., which he said "consistently causes harm — forced outing is a direct attempt to endanger the person being outed.”

Earlier in the week, flowers sat piled in a memorial against a wooden cross outside the church where Copeland’s funeral service was held Thursday. The church, like Copeland, has been targeted with hateful comments on social media, church member Dr. David White said.

“The anonymous nature of the internet seems to make a lot of people without sin. There are people that cast stones from across the horizon that you can’t respond to and you can’t defend. So I hope it makes us all reflect,” White said.

At his funeral, friends and family remembered Copeland as a boisterous man known for saying “ain’t God good,” doting on his family and going out of his way to spread kindness in their community.

“A person’s legacy is not created in a moment of despair. It is defined by his friends and those that love him,” White said.

Kim Chandler, The Associated Press

Researchers studying children’s health related to chemical exposures

Funding from the U.S. EPA will create the Children’s Environmental Health Center in the U.S. Southern Great Plains, which includes Oklahoma and Texas

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

 

IMAGE: 

PHOTO OF AN EDUCATOR READING TO PRE-SCHOOL STUDENTS.

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CREDIT: PROVIDED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. – OU researchers have received a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish a research center to address children’s cumulative health impacts from agricultural and non-chemical exposures. This grant will create the Children’s Environmental Health Center in the U.S. Southern Great Plains, which includes Oklahoma and Texas. The Center will focus on mitigating the chemical and non-chemical stressors that affect school absenteeism caused by gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases.

This collaborative center will be under the direction of Changjie Cai, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health in the Hudson College of Public Health on OU’s Health Sciences Center campus; Diane Horm, Ph.D., director of the Early Childhood Education Institute at OU-Tulsa; and Dan Li, Ph.D. from the University of North Texas College of Education.

Research has shown that children in underserved, rural, and agricultural communities face increased health risks due to the combination of agricultural pollutants in the air, water, and soil, as well as non-chemical stressors such as poverty and limited access to health services. This project addresses an urgent need to investigate the cumulative health impacts of chemical and non-chemical exposures for children in these communities to help keep children healthy.

“Our team will investigate the cumulative health impacts of early exposure to pollutants and the added effect of non-chemical stressors among children in these communities across the United States,” Cai said. “The goal of the Center is to reduce the environmental health disparities and promote environmental justice for children living in underserved, rural agricultural communities.”

Through a multidisciplinary approach, the center will use techniques such as low-cost sensors, satellite observations, air quality modeling and more to establish and evaluate impact assessments. Utilizing those results, affordable interventions will be assessed to reduce school absenteeism and address health disparities.

“At the Early Childhood Education Institute, it has always been our goal to advance and support equity for all children through research,” Horm said. “The opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Cai, Dr. Li, and others on this grant to establish the Children’s Health and Social Vulnerability Index (CHS) will allow us to better assess children’s health disparities in rural schools.”

The CHS will be stakeholder-and data-driven and will focus on children’s health disparities in rural school systems and focus on chemical and non-chemical stressors that lead to absenteeism in school due to gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases.

This research grant is part of EPA’s larger effort to advance children’s environmental health and environmental justice by effectively reducing early childhood and lifetime health disparities in these communities. 

“This collaboration of OU researchers from various disciplines highlights OU’s commitment to supporting our faculty researchers so that they can deliver science-based recommendations to improve the lives of our youngest learners,” said Darrin Akins, vice president for research at the OU Health Sciences Center. “This research will have a strong focus on chemical and non-chemical environmental stressors that children in the Southern Great Plains face every day.”

Learn more about the Hudson College of Public Health and the Early Childhood Education Institute.

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About the Hudson College of Public Health

The Hudson College of Public Health is located within one of the nation's premier academic health centers, comprising seven professional colleges. Established in 1967, it stands as the sole accredited college of public health in Oklahoma and is nationally recognized, ranking No. 6 in the Top 10 Colleges for Public Health Degrees by College Magazine. The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center serves over 4,000 students across more than 70 undergraduate and graduate degree programs on campuses in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. As Oklahoma’s flagship comprehensive academic health system, it remains committed to education, research and patient care, shaping the future of health care.

About the Early Childhood Education Institute

The Early Childhood Education Institute (ECEI) at OU-Tulsa is an applied research institute with multiple ongoing projects designed to advance and support equity in early childhood programming and policies by generating and disseminating high-quality, meaningful research. This research is vital to ECEI’s partners and the early childhood field to drive improvements in early childhood education and improve the lives of the children it serves.

About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. OU was named the state’s highest-ranking university in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent Best Colleges list. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu.