QAnon supporters are peddling the false
conspiracy theory that COVID-19 vaccines turn people gay or
transgender.
BBC investigative reporter Shayan
Sardarizadeh posted screenshots from Telegram – the new home of
many conspiracists kicked off mainstream social media platforms such
as Twitter and Facebook after the January 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol
– promoting the false narrative that vaccines turn people LGBT.
“Two of the biggest QAnon channels on
Telegram, with 180,000 and 56,000 subscribers respectively, have
endorsed the baseless conspiracy theory that vaccinating children
increases the probability of them identifying as homosexual or
transgender at a later stage,” Sardarizadeh tweeted along with the
screenshots.
One screenshot is a response to a story
about claims Iranian
cleric Ayatollah Abbas Tabrizian made on the subject.
“Don't go near those who have had the
COVID vaccine,” he told his more than 210,000 followers on
Telegram. “They have become homosexuals.”
“IMO He's not far off,” an
unidentified poster responded. “This is why we have Gender
confusion among our youth. Research how they put in hormones and
alter DNA with their vaccines. Then pump our kids full of 50+
vaccines from birth!”
Another poster claimed that the
vaccines must be responsible because being LGBT is increasing and
“homosexuals by and large don't procreate.”
“Truly if [being gay] were genetic
then the rate should be decreasing, but it's increasing, indicating
something in their environment is pushing in that direction,” the
poster said. “You've already received 50 vaccines by [age 4] in
2020.”
Tabrizian isn't the only religious
leader promoting the unfounded claim. An ultra-Orthodox rabbi in
Israel told his followers that taking the vaccine might “turn”
people gay.
(Related: Israeli
Orthodox rabbi claims COVID-19 vaccine might turn people gay.)