About

Michelle Obama Is a Man refers to a transvestigation conspiracy theory that claims Michelle Obama is secretly a transgender woman. The theory began to spread online in early 2013 when conspiracy theorist YouTuber WebFlixsGuy began posting videos claiming to show evidence that Michelle Obama is trans. The theories were further popularized in mid-2014 when comedian Joan Rivers joked to the paparazzi that Michelle is trans, becoming widespread two months later when Rivers died, with some conspiracy theorists hypothesizing that she was killed for telling the truth about Michelle. Some adopters of the theory also believe Michelle's real name is Michael after a video of her husband Barack Obama seemingly calling her Michael went viral, although the video is reportedly taken out of context. The theory continued to prove prominent online throughout the 2020s.

Origin

Barack Obama Calls Michelle "Michael"

On September 30th, 2011, the official The Obama White House YouTube^[8] channel uploaded a video of then-President Barack Obama welcoming the new Joint Chief of Staff Chairman, Mike Mullen. At the 13:09 mark, Obama says, "Most of all, Admiral Mullen, Deborah, Michael, and I also want to also acknowledge your son Jack, who’s deployed today" (shown below). In later years, this clip would be used as evidence that Michelle is trans and used to be named Michael.^[9] However, according to Reuters,^[10] this clip is taken out of context and Obama is actually talking about Mullen's son, who is also named Michael.

WebFlixsGuy

On February 19th, 2013, YouTuber^[1] WebFlixsGuy posted a video titled "Message To Michael Obama- Michelle Obama Is A Transvestite!" The video shares several images of Michelle Obama that he believes show evidence of her being a trans woman, including a few photos where he claims her hands are photoshopped to look more feminine, garnering over 360,000 views in 10 years (shown below). In the video description he links to his website firstladyisatramp.webs.com,^[2] although the site has since been removed from the web and is only partially archived.

The YouTuber^[3][4] uploaded seven more videos on the topic between February 19th and March 18th, including a February 20th video that gained over 340,000 views (shown below, left) and a March 18th video that gained over 610,000 views in 10 years (shown below, right).

Spread

On March 11th, 2014, YouTuber^[11] CastleJen Bassett posted a video titled "IRREFUTABLE PROOF that Michelle Obama IS A MAN 24/7," in which they "transvestigate" various images of Michelle Obama, claiming that her physical features suggest she is male. The video gained over 300,000 views before it was removed, with a reupload gaining over 40,000 views in seven years (shown below). The video gained viral spread on sites like Twitter,^[5] where the link was spammed numerous times by multiple accounts in March 2014.

Joan Rivers' Death

On July 3rd, 2014, Joan Rivers made a joke to the paparazzi that Barack Obama was the first gay president and that his wife Michelle is transgender (shown below). Her joke was taken as a serious statement by some, who used it to fuel the conspiracy theory. After Rivers died on September 4th, 2014, some people online began to speculate that Rivers was killed because she revealed that Michelle Obama was transgender,^[6][7] becoming one of the driving pieces of supposed evidence that Michelle is transgender going forward.

Infowars host Alex Jones helped spread the conspiracy theory prior to Rivers' death. On July 14th, YouTuber David Pakman Show uploaded a clip reacting to Jones claiming Obama is trans, garnering over 150,000 views in nine years (shown below). On August 25th, 2017, the Independent^[12] reported that Jones claimed to have "proof" that she is transgender. In the video, Jones purportedly tries to point out what he believes is the outline of a penis in Michelle Obama's pants and repeats talking points about her physique looking masculine.

Altered Michelle Obama Photograph

On January 17th, 2019, Barack Obama tweeted^[13] an old photo of himself and Michelle for her birthday (shown below, left). As early as October 10th, 2020, pages on Facebook^[14][15] began sharing an altered version of the photo that makes Michelle look more masculine, including a post by the Eddie Jernigan Facebook page, which gained over 2,200 shares in three years (shown below, right). On October 12th, Reuters^[16] published an article debunking the photo's legitimacy.

On May 27th, 2021, another altered version of the same photograph began spreading online, including through an image macro posted by Instagram^[17] user gunsbeerliberty on that day (shown below). The photograph was debunked by PolitiFact^[18] on May 19th, 2023.

Alley Carter Interview

On November 10th, 2021, Stew Peters posted an interview on Rumble^[23] with Alley Carter, who alleges that she was trafficked and abused by multiple elite and powerful men and women, including Barack and Michelle Obama, the latter of whom she says is "a man." The video gained over 700,000 views in two years (shown below).

Alexa "Michael LaVaughn Robinson"

On November 15th, 2022, PolitiFact^[19] debunked a claim alleging that, when you ask Alexa, "Did Michelle Obama start out as Michael?" it will say, "Michelle Obama, first lady of the United States, was born Michael LaVaughn Robinson." The claim is based on a now-deleted video of someone recording Alexa giving this answer. According to Politifact, the creator of the video likely gave Alexa a custom response to the question.^[20]

2023 Continued Spread

On January 8th, 2023, a Redditor uploaded a meme to /r/terriblefacebookmemes^[21] suggesting that Michelle Obama is trans, garnering over 2,100 upvotes in five months (shown below). On May 23rd, Twitter^[22] user @DrLoupis reposted a video of Barack supposedly calling Michelle "Michael," garnering over 3,700 likes in a month. Reuters^[10] debunked the video that day.

On June 12th, Twitter^[24] user @dom_lucre made a post suggesting he would be "exposing" Michelle Obama, garnering over 46,000 likes in three days. That day, he reposted the Alley Carter interview to Twitter,^[25] garnering over 14,600 likes in three days. He also made a post to Twitter^[26] claiming that Sasha and Malia Obama are not Michelle's children. Michelle claims in her memoir that she had her daughters through IVF.

The theories stem from a November 2013 article by Fellowship of the Minds^[27] questioning where their birth records are after doing an Ancestry.com search and finding no links between Michelle and her daughters, which was speculated on further in November 2016 by Educate-Yourself.org.^[28]

On June 14th, Twitter^[29] user @shaneyyricch posted a photo of Michelle, writing, "I am offering $10,000 to the first person who finds me a picture of Michelle Obama pregnant," garnering over 27,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References