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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke March 13, 2024

Social media post makes baseless claims about Albert Einstein, others

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  • This claim is baseless. Albert Einstein’s birth certificate identifies him as a "child of the male sex."

Physicist Albert Einstein is considered one of the most influential scientists in human history, but a social media post citing no proof proclaims he had a secret.

"Albert Einstein was a transgender," the March 6 Facebook post said. "This has been going on for a very long time." 

The video cites no source. Instead, what follows is a three-minute video in which photos of celebrities and other public figures, including some women whom the video labeled "male."

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

"We are all being played, I’m telling you," a voice could be heard saying in the video as images of Einstein are followed by images suggesting that actors Marilyn Monroe and Julia Roberts, former first lady Michelle Obama, and singer Beyoncé were born as males.

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We did not find any evidence to back up the claim Einstein was transgender.

Rather, documents held by Princeton University show an English translation of Einstein’s 1879 birth certificate that discloses that "a child of the male sex was born, which was given the first name Albert."

We’ve previously debunked numerous unfounded claims that Michelle Obama was a man. They’re wrong, and this claim about Einstein also lacks any corroboration.

 We rate this post Pants on Fire!

 

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Social media post makes baseless claims about Albert Einstein, others

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