Comedian Joan Rivers was wrong about the Obamas

We’re again debunking an old claim about the Obamas — this time, linked to another false claim about the late comedian Joan Rivers.

In footage from 2014, Rivers claimed that former President Barack Obama is gay and former first lady Michelle Obama is transgender. An Instagram user sharing that video said Rivers was killed for revealing "the truth." 

The user posted the video Jan. 11, which shows Rivers being interviewed on the street. In the clip, Rivers was asked about having officiated a gay wedding the day before. 

The off-camera person interviewing Rivers then asked, "Do you think that the United States will see the first gay president or the first woman president?" 

Rivers answered, "Well we already have it with Obama, so let’s just calm down. You know Michelle is a t—-," using a slur that’s a reference to transgender people. 

When the interviewer asked for clarification, Rivers said, "A transgender. We all know. It’s OK." 

Featured Fact-check

Threads posts

stated on October 26, 2024 in a Threads post

Four Florida counties had “zero results” Oct. 26, and “something underhanded might be happening.”

A text overlay on the video reads, "It’s a shame they bumped off Joan Rivers because she revealed the TRUTH!" And the post caption says, "Telling the truth in #HollyWEIRD can be dangerous. It can even get you killed. Case in point: the magnificent #JoanRivers." 

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook.) 

Rivers, who died in September 2014, was not murdered, and the Obamas are not gay or transgender.

Rivers died from complications after a medical procedure that was meant to evaluate her vocal cords. Her daughter, Melissa sued the doctors and clinic where the surgery took place for medical malpractice, saying doctors ignored warning signals that Rivers’ surgery had gone wrong. The family reached a settlement with the clinic in May 2016. 

As for the Obamas, this is not the first time this claim has circulated and been debunked. We previously rated two claims that Michelle Obama is a man Pants on Fire! Photos and accounts from her memoir show that she is a cisgender woman. 

We rate the claim that Rivers was killed for revealing that Barack Obama is gay and Michelle Obama is transgender Pants on Fire!