Four famous LGBTQ+ conspiracy theories that prove they’re definitely not a new phenomenon
Chemicals turning frogs gay and Larry Stylinson are amongst some of the most widely-spread LGBTQ+ conspiracy theorists. (Getty)
In recent years, LGBTQ+ conspiracy theories have become regular discussion topics, despite the fact that most of them are completely ridiculous.
Infowars host Alex Jones’ famous soundbite “chemicals in water are turning the friggin’ frogs gay”, is a good example. As is the oft-repeated conspiracy theory that Michele Obama is actually a trans woman.
This “accusation” about Michele Obama is a transvestigation conspiracy theory.
The term transvestigating – a mash-up of trans and investigating – refers to conspiracy theories that falsely claim individuals, typically women, are transgender and are hiding their “true” gender identity.
Recently, amidst the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Imane Khelif faced untruthful rumours that she was actually a man – in an attempt to discredit her.
However, conspiracy theories targeting the LGBTQ+ community are nothing new; from an LGBTQ+ chemicals conspiracy theory to the Lavender Scare, these unhinged theories date back many years, and are usually always easy to unravel as false and fake news.
The rise of the internet has helped to spread LGBTQ+ conspiracy theories; they have become fiery debate topics online in the past decade. Here are some of the most prominent LGBTQ+ conspiracy theories, their history and how these rumours have been proven to be fake.
Classroom litter boxes
One of the most ridiculous conspiracy theories that has been spread in recent years is that North American schools are providing litter boxes for students who “identify as cats”, or participate in furry subcultures.
Though this rumour is particularly absurd, the idea that litter boxes are being provided for “furry” pupils is a way for anti-LGBTQ+ bigots to mock bathroom protections for trans students.
The cat litter box theory became a popular talking point thanks to conservative media outlets and right-wing politicians who amplified this hoax to further ramp up the rhetoric against LGBTQ+ students.
Well-known figures such as Joe Rogan have continued to perpetuate the hoax, although even he eventually admitted it was total nonsense.
These claims have been repeatedly debunked, with every school mentioned confirming the rumours are false.
Though it is hard to identify exactly when this urban myth began, some date it back to the early 2000s with a sudden spike in circulation in the 2010s when schools began to make accommodations for trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming students by providing unisex toilets.
Though the conspiracy theory initially targeted Canadian and US educational institutions, it spread to the UK in 2023.
An Aberdeenshire council were forced to respond to social media claims that students had performed ‘dirty protests’ after little boxes were not provided. Parents of the school were notified that no such litter trays existed.
Larry Stylinson
As mentioned above, celebrities and high-profile figures are often the centre of LGBTQ+ conspiracy theories.
“Larries” are shippers of former One Direction bandmates Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson who are firmly convinced that the pair are in a long-term and secret romantic relationship.
The ship name for the alleged couple became Larry Stylinson, Larry for short.
The theory originated in 2010, as the five individual singers were grouped up to form the band.
The conspiracy theory claims that the pair’s management company keeps them closeted and refuses to allow their years-long relationship to go public.
Some devotees have taken this shipping to extremes, creating tribute videos, artworks, and fan-fiction featuring the pair as a gay couple.
Styles, who has refused to label his sexuality, has widely refused to comment on the rumour while Tomlinson has repeatedly slammed the romance rumours and resorted to blocking Instagram comments that included the “ship name”.
Though on the surface this sort of shipping might seem less malicious or actively harmful than transvestigation or the cat litter box hoax, this conspiracy theory as led to “Larries” harassing Styles and Tomlinson’s girlfriends and even claiming Tomlinson’s child is fake.
LGBTQ+ chemicals conspiracy theory
In the early 2010s, baseless online theories began to claim that chemical pollutants in water supplies were increasing the LGBTQ+ population.
This theory alleged that exposure to endocrine disruptors in national water supplies were leading to altered sexual development.
Somewhat predictably, there is no scientific evidence to back this claim. Instead, the conspiracy theory misattributes research surrounding whether endocrine disruptors can have a feminising effect on the genital development of non-human animals.
Disgraced broadcaster Alex Jones’ 2015 much-parodied, passionate rant about gay frogs was born out of this theory. If nothing else, we at least got a laugh out of that.
He got very riled up on his show and exclaimed that the government were “putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin’ frogs gay.”
He claimed the US government was waging a “chemical warfare operation” in a bid to increase the LGBTQ+ population and became an internet meme for the absurdity.
In 2017, he continued to hammer home these points with absolutely no evidence he furthered: “The majority of frogs in most areas of the United States are now gay.”
In the 2016 journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a review of this sentiment confirmed there is “no persuasive evidence that the rate of same-sex attraction has varied much across time or place”
Furthermore, the presence of homosexuality in animals is nothing new; gay flamingos and lesbian geckos have existed long before Jones’ frog obsession.
Lavender Scare
The Lavender Scare describes the moral panic surrounding gay people in the US in the mid-20th century.
The belief at the time was rooted in the idea that LGBTQ+ folks in the US government were national security risks, “moral weaklings” and potential communist sympathisers.
The Lavender Scare occurred alongside McCarthyism – a panic about a cabal of communist sympathisers potentially existing within the US – adding to a witch-hunt paranoia that meant institutionalised homophobia was accepted, and which led to a mass dismissal of LGBTQ+ people from government service.
Many people falsely believed that homosexuals and communists were working together to undermine the government.
Government officials across the State Department, the Defense Department, the Civil Service Commission and military intelligence were questioned about their sexuality.
The language of the Lavender Scare was kept as vague as possible. Instead of being referred to directly, homosexuals were often called “moral weaklings,” “sexual misfits,” “moral risks,” “misfits,” “undesirables,” or persons with “unusual morals.”
Under Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration, a number of government agency principles were put in place, including the creation of a dual loyalty-security test.
One of the ‘security principles’ under review included “sexual perversion” (read: queer) which lead to homosexual discrimination becoming part of the State Department’s DNA.
It’s believed between 1947 and 1950, over 1700 applicants to federal jobs were denied the positions due to allegations of homosexuality.
Between late March and May 1950, the head of the DC Metropolitan Police Department’s vice squad stated 5,000 gay men lived in Washington DC and that 3,700 of them were employed by the federal government.
The investigations continued until 1975 when the Civil Service Commission put in place rules that ensured LGBTQ+ people could not be barred or fired due to their sexuality.
The continued lack of LGBTQ+ representation in the US government is still tied to the Lavender Scare.
