Fake News: Michelle Obama is a Trans Woman
Since before Barack Obama became president rumors and fake news have circulated about him and his family. In June of this year, a man named Jason Whitlock put out a podcast episode dedicated to spreading more rumors about the Obama family, specifically centered around questioning Michelle Obama’s gender identity. He claimed that she was in fact attempting to hide that she was a trans woman. The thumbnail for this episode on YouTube shows a rainbow flag waving behind Barack and Michelle Obama. It also has the word “Obamination” plastered across the couple. Within the podcast episode, which has over 300,000 views, neither Jason nor his guest on the show, Royce White, shows any evidence for their claims. With further research, this rumor has been proven false time and time again and is considered fake news and disinformation.
Research Results:
With my research, I found that it was actually very easy to debunk this lie. The rumor of Michelle Obama being a trans woman can be disproven with a simple Google search and you can see images of Michelle from a young age, very obviously a girl. Michelle posted images from her childhood on her personal Instagram account, so it is not like these are very difficult pictures to find. Sources like Snopes and other factual sources were quick to label this rumor as false. People questioning Michelle’s gender identity started extremely early on in the Obamas’ political career with altered images of her physical features to look more “manly”. Images have also been generated to look as though Michelle has male reproductive organs.
Snopes adds a quote from Newly Paul who is a media professor from the University of North Texas where he states “These claims will likely not go away. They seem rooted in spite, sexism, and racism, which fact-checks cannot cure.” These podcasters and fake news sites who continue to spread this lie even after it has been proven false countless times believe that they will strip Michelle of her femininity with their ignorance. Snopes states that this rumor began circulating the internet around 2008 when they first received a request to research its legitimacy. However, the claims really took off in 2014 when comedian Joan Rivers was making bold statements in the streets that Michelle was a closeted trans woman. This made the rumor fly off the rails and Alex Jones blew it up even further by agreeing and restating Jones’ claims. Conservative politicians picked up on it as well and forced it into mainstream media as an attempted smear campaign.
Fake documents like the two pictured above were circulating as “proof” that Michelle Obama was born as a man. However, after some research, reputable fact-checking site PolitiFact proved these to be fabricated. PolitiFact quotes Matt Dietrich who is a public information officer for the Illinois State Board of Elections that “the agency doesn’t keep original voter registration cards like the one that appears in the posts. We have no record of this voter’s record ever indicating any gender other than female.” Throughout her political career, Michelle has been faced with those who don’t want to see her or her family succeed. As stated earlier it is rooted in racism, sexism, and ignorance.
The internet can be an amazing place where there is so much at your fingertips that you can soak up all this information at an incredible speed. This can be a great thing — if you are intaking information that is true. That is why you must research everything you see on the internet and ensure you are getting all the facts. Fake news sites will always be around and it is important to always take everything with a grain of salt.
Works Cited:
22, Facebook posts stated on February, et al. “Politifact — Michelle Obama Was Never a Man.” @politifact, 28 Feb. 2023, www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/feb/28/facebook-posts/michelle-obama-was-never-man/ Accessed 18 October 2023.
LaMagdeleine, Izz Scott. “Michelle Obama Isn’t a Trans Woman. Here’s Why Some People Believe Otherwise.” Snopes, Snopes.com, 18 Oct. 2023, www.snopes.com/news/2023/10/17/michelle-obama-is-trans/ Accessed 18 October 2023.