MAGA social media influencers are spreading a lie from a parody account on X claiming that gay Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is HIV-positive. While nothing substantiates this claim, right-wingers have begun recirculating it to make sexually explicit, homophobic attacks. In response, his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, urged his own social media followers to keep working to elect the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. Related Russia hired anti-LGBTQ+ rightwingers to push propaganda to U.S. audiences The Department of Justice revealed that Tenet Media was mostly funded buy Russian state media. It regularly platforms anti-LGBTQ+ broadcasters. The lie originated from an October 1 post by the X account Breaking 911. The post simply read, BREAKING: Pete Buttigieg reveals that he is HIV-positive. The post didnt link to or mention any sources. The accounts bio says, The king of the gays. Parody artist. If you fell for my bait, you owe me eight dollars. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The post has since been reshared from the account at least 795 times and viewed over 1 million times as of Thursday evening. The account has since posted other false headlines, including ones that former President Donald Trumps wife filed for divorce, the Pope resigned, and that Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz was accused of sexual assault. None of these claims are true. BREAKING: Pete Buttigieg reveals that he is HIV-positive. pic.twitter.com/KDzxlIpDN7 Breaking 911 (@Breaking911OnX) October 1, 2024The accounts Buttigieg post was also shared by Stew Peters, a right-wing influencer who has over a million and a half followers across various platforms. The Anti-Defamation Leaguedescribes Peters as an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who regularly promotes anti-LGBTQ+ and white supremacist beliefs on his show and social media and has engaged in Holocaust denial. He is currently being sued for claiming that a gay father raped his own children. Peters post repeating the lie about Buttigieg has been shared over 3,900 times. Today I saw a MAGA pundit credulously share a post about Sec. Pete having HIV. 500k views, gay political strategist Tim Miller noted in an X post about viral right-wing misinformation on social media. My husbands HS friend shared an [artificial intelligence-generated] pic of Trump wading thru the water doing hurricane relief and asked why media wasnt covering. Pretty concerning view into MAGA info space pre-election.Chasten Buttigieg reposted Millers message on X and commented, This is not how you win hearts and minds. Stay the course, folks. Keep telling your stories, having the hard conversations, and knocking doors. Theyve got lies, weve got momentum. This is not how you win hearts and minds. Stay the course, folks. Keep telling your stories, having the hard conversations, and knocking doors. Theyve got lies, weve got momentum. https://t.co/cj0Vvert2y Chasten Glezman Buttigieg (@Chasten) October 2, 2024While theres nothing defamatory or shameful about living with HIV, 85% of Americans believe stigma persists around the disease. Anti-HIV stigma treats HIV-positive people as dangerous and sexually promiscuous. This stigma is perpetuated by HIV criminalization laws, a lack of HIV-positive characters on TV, and a lack of health education that leaves people unsure about how the disease is transmitted, GLAAD reported.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.