Brigitte Macron is set to take legal action over an
internet conspiracy theory that she is a transgender woman and was born male.
The French first lady has been targeted on social media
with false claims after they were published on a far-right website in
September and then circulated by conspiracy theorists.
The rumours claim she was born male under the name
Jean-Michel Trogneux. The name has trended on social media with tens of
thousands of mentions.
A lawyer for Mrs. Macron – who is the mother of three adult
children from her first marriage – confirmed she is taking action.
“She has decided to initiate proceedings, it is in
progress,” lawyer Jean Ennochi confirmed to the AFP news agency.
The lies about the 68-year-old have been spread by accounts
opposed to her husband, President Emmanuel Macron, including those on the
political far-right, anti-vaccine groups and the QAnon conspiracy
movement.
French media have traced the story to an article written on
a far-right journal by a woman named Natacha Rey. It then found a wider
audience after being discussed in a much-viewed YouTube broadcast with views
shared online by an assortment of anti-vaxxers, Covid-sceptics and far-right
activists, according to Libération newspaper.
What many people are asking is why Brigitte Macron is going
to law at all to suppress so ludicrous a fabrication. Did Elvis’s relatives
file suit when told he was alive and well, having been spotted eating ham and
grits in a Memphis roadhouse?
Filing a suit before the courts can give the impression to
the conspiracy-minded that there is indeed something to suppress. Otherwise,
why would they be taking it so seriously?
But in truth, there is no evidence that anyone – beyond a
handful of idiots – regards the Brigitte transgender story as plausible.
Journalists and internauts alike can overstate the
importance of internet traffic. So the story got a lot of hits? That doesn’t
mean anyone actually believed it.
And as Le Monde pointed out, France’s conspiracy theorists
have other fish to fry. They are currently obsessing about the approaching
election, and how it might or might not be fixed by the
“establishment”.
For bona fide QAnon believers, the Brigitte story is at
best a distraction, at worst a plant so unbelievable that its real purpose can
only be to discredit them. Aha! Another conspiracy theory!
