Tag: AP Fact Check

CLAIM: KitchenAid has stopped offering its famous stand mixers and other familiar appliances at Target stores following backlash over the retailer’s support of the LGBTQ+ community.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The claims originated from a satirical news website that labels its content as “fiction.” KitchenAid products are still for sale on Target’s online store.

THE FACTS: Social media users are claiming Target is facing another setback following the ongoing backlash over its seasonal Pride month collection.

Many are sharing posts that include the screenshot of a headline that reads: “American Icon KitchenAid Pulls Its Products From Target: ‘We Have Different Values’.”

“In another serious blow to the Target Corporation, KitchenAid Appliances has decided to pull its stock from the shelves and discontinue doing business there,” wrote a Twitter user in a widely shared post.

But the headline comes from an article on the Dunning-Kruger-Times, a website that labels itself as satire and whose content is often mistaken as real.

“Dunning-Kruger-Times.com is a subsidiary of the ‘America’s Last Line of Defense’ network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery,” the “About Us” section of the website reads.

Several blogs that do not include the satire warnings republished the article, and these posts were shared as real by many social media users.

Spokespersons for Target and KitchenAid didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Friday, but there’s no evidence on either company’s websites that they’ve parted ways.

There was no statement from KitchenAid about any change regarding Target, and a wide range of the company’s wares were readily available on Target’s website as of Friday afternoon, from its classic mixers to pots and pans, cheese slicers and other kitchen gadgets.

The satirical article had included an alleged comment from KitchenAid’s CEO, identified as “Joe Barron” — a name frequently used in the site’s parody articles. KitchenAid is owned by Michigan-based Whirlpool, whose CEO is Marc Bitzer.

Both companies are among the familiar names targeted by conservatives on social media over promotional campaigns featuring transgender people.

KitchenAid is one of the companies that partnered with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer known for documenting her gender transition on social media.

She also promoted Bud Light on her social media accounts, prompting calls for boycotts of the beer company.

Target, meanwhile, has faced protests, hostile outbursts and other threats to its workers and customers over its LGBTQ+friendly Pride month collection.

The Minneapolis-based retail chain has also seen its fair share of falsehoods in recent weeks, from false claims that the Pride collection features a bathing suit for kids that’s “tuck-friendly” to claims that it was selling satanic-themed apparel for young children.

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: Mel Gibson is making a multi-part documentary on child sex trafficking

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The actor’s publicist says he isn’t making any documentary about child sex trafficking. The founder of a Utah anti-trafficking nonprofit has previously suggested the actor provided initial support for a documentary in development, but he confirmed to The Associated Press that Gibson is not involved in making the film.

THE FACTS: Social media users are lauding Gibson for helping combat child sex trafficking with claims that he is making a documentary exposing the illicit industry.

Many are sharing posts purporting to deliver the scoop.

“BREAKING: Mel Gibson is allegedly making a 4-part docu-series on the $34 billion global child sex trafficking market involving countries like Ukraine,” reads one widely shared post on Twitter.

“Jeffery Epstein is the tip of the iceberg,” wrote another Twitter user who shared the claim, referencing the disgraced financier who committed suicide in a Manhattan jail while facing federal sex trafficking charges. “IT’S TIME TO EXPOSE THE TRUTH!”

But a publicist for the former A-List actor, who faced criticism following antisemitic and racist tirades in the 2000s, denied Gibson is making any such film.

“He is not making any documentary,” Alan Nierob, Gibson’s longtime publicist, wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The claim appears to stem from comments made earlier this year by the founder of an anti-child sex trafficking nonprofit that has been developing various film projects, including a documentary.

Tim Ballard, founder of Operation Underground Railroad, has said Gibson sought the organization’s help in getting about a dozen orphans out of Ukraine during the Russian invasion last year.

At a January appearance at the conservative Utah Eagle Forum in Salt Lake City, the former Department of Homeland Security agent said he had known Gibson because the actor helped edit “The Sound of Freedom,” a movie about Ballard and his organization that’s slated to be released this summer.

The movie, incidentally, stars James Caviezel, an actor who played Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ,” the 2004 Bible epic that Gibson produced, directed and co-wrote.

Ballard said in the January remarks that he asked Gibson for money to film the Ukrainian rescue effort, and the actor agreed.

“He said ‘No problem,’ and he helped get us started and filming,” Ballard said. “Four months later, what I thought was maybe going to be a documentary about Ukraine ends up being a four-part docu-series that’s almost done.”

Nierob declined to comment on Ballard’s remarks or elaborate on Gibson’s ties to the anti-trafficking nonprofit, but he stressed the actor is “not financing a multi-part documentary of any kind.”

“No knowledge of charity but he did not finance any documentary,” Nierob wrote in a message, referring to Operation Underground Railroad.

The Utah-based organization is among a number that’s found success in recent years raising money off conspiracy theories that arose out of QAnon, the AP has reported.

The Davis County Attorney’s Office in Utah also investigated allegations that the group was exaggerating its role in law enforcement arrests involving child predators, but closed its probe last month without filing any charges.

Ballard, in an emailed statement after this story was published, said he stood by “every word” in the January video in which he described Gibson’s role in helping rescue children at risk of being trafficked in war-torn Ukraine.

But he also acknowledged the actor isn’t involved in making the forthcoming documentary, which he said is being produced by Nick Nanton, of DNA Films, and a number of others serving as executive producers.

“Mel deserves all the credit for taking the initiative to further the critical work that we do,” Ballard wrote. “I am personally grateful for his support as we worked on this documentary, however reports this four-part series is actually being produced by Mr. Gibson are not accurate.”

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This story has been updated to include a statement from Operation Underground Railroad.

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: Photo shows a participant at a Pride event wearing a T-shirt with the words “trans kids are sexy.”

AP’S ASSESSMENT: Altered image. The photo was digitally manipulated to change the T-shirt. The original image shows the individual was wearing a plain white T-shirt.

THE FACTS: As the LGBTQ+ community and allies mark Pride month, social media users are sharing misrepresentations relating to the weeks-long celebration.

One image shared on Instagram and other platforms in recent days is purporting to show an attendee at a Pride event wearing a shirt that says “trans kids are sexy.” The individual is also wearing sunglasses and a rainbow wristband.

But the photo has been digitally manipulated.

Searches show the original image was published by The Desert Sun, a newspaper in California, in 2021, and that the person in the photo was wearing a plain white T-shirt.

“The Desert Flaggers perform along Palm Canyon Drive during the Palm Springs Pride Parade in downtown Palm Springs, Calif., on November 7, 2021,” reads the caption on the image.

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: Pfizer was caught “funneling” $12 million to CNN host Anderson Cooper to promote COVID-19 vaccines.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. There is no evidence to support that claim, which is an outgrowth of comments made by anti-vaccine activist and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy’s campaign said his remarks were intended as a “rhetorical” comment about the pharmaceutical industry’s influence through advertising.

THE FACTS: As Kennedy mounts a longshot campaign for president, social media users are suggesting he revealed that Pfizer has directly paid Cooper millions of dollars to promote the company’s vaccines.

“BREAKING: Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. claims Pfizer funneled $12 million dollars to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper as part of a deal to promote mRNA COVID jabs to the American public,” one widely shared tweet reads.

An unreliable website with a history of spreading misinformation, meanwhile, published a headline reading: “Pfizer Caught Funnelling $12 Million to Anderson Cooper To Promote mRNA Jabs to Americans.”

But there is no factual support for that claim, which a CNN spokesperson called “completely false and fabricated.”

The allegation is an outgrowth of remarks that Kennedy has made in interviews, but his campaign now says were not intended to be taken literally.

Kennedy said during an October 2022 video interview with podcaster Brian Rose that “75% of advertising revenues now in the mainstream media are now coming from pharma and that ratio is even higher for the evening news.”

“Anderson Cooper has a $12 million a year annual salary,” he continued. “Well $10 million of that is coming from Pfizer. His boss is not CNN. His boss is Pfizer.”

Kennedy made similar comments in another 2022 interview with Dr. Drew Pinsky.

While social media users shared his remarks as literal — suggesting Pfizer actually provided Cooper with millions of dollars — Kennedy’s campaign said the Democrat’s words were “rhetorical.”

“This was a rhetorical comment, based on the huge proportion of television advertising revenue that comes from pharmaceutical companies,” the campaign said in a statement. “Since they contribute as much as 80% of TV ad revenue, close to $10 million of Mr. Anderson’s salary originates in Big Pharma. To use ‘Pfizer’ as a stand-in for ‘Big Pharma’ was a rhetorical flourish and not technically accurate.”

The campaign, when asked, did not provide a citation for the statistic on TV advertising revenue from the pharmaceutical industry, but instead noted that the industry spends billions on TV advertising — and argued that Pfizer advertising on CNN helps to fund Cooper’s salary.

CNN declined to comment on Cooper’s salary. The $12 million figure has been floated online without clear sourcing.

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: A video of a helicopter dropping flames on treetops in Canada shows wildfires in the country are “a set up.”

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The footage shows firefighters conducting a planned burn last weekend on the Donnie Creek wildfire in northeastern British Columbia. The ignition was being used to help contain the fire by taking away fuel, not to spread it.

THE FACTS: As more than 400 blazes burned across Canada on Thursday, social media users misrepresented footage of containment efforts to baselessly claim it shows that the fires were deliberately lit.

A video shared on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter shows a yellow helicopter flying above a forest filled with smoke, as a helitorch suspended from the chopper emits flames. The next shot shows a forest ablaze. Text overlaid on the footage reads: “it was a set up.”

However, the footage was taken from a video shared by the British Columbia Wildfire service on June 4 on YouTube. In the video, members of the fire service explain how they are using “planned ignitions” to fight the Donnie Creek blaze.

In the video, Mike Morrow, an ignition specialist with the service, says firefighters are stopping the conflagration from spreading by using planned burns to rob the fire of fuel. “We’re taking the fuels out on our terms rather than letting Mother Nature guide the project,” he says.

Sarah Budd, a spokesperson for the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, confirmed to The Associated Press that the clip circulating online matches the video from the planned burn that took place last weekend, on June 1 and 2, on the Donnie Creek wildfire in northeastern British Columbia.

“When the decision is made to conduct such a burn operation, the wildfire is usually beyond the initial attack stage,” Budd said in an email. “The goal is to remove the majority of available fuel ahead of the wildfire so there’s less fuel available for the wildfire to burn.”

Similar videos of planned burns have been shared in the past to spread conspiracy theories during major wildfires or to discredit climate change.

This Canadian wildfire season is predicted to become the worst on record. The fires burning across the country have already displaced 20,000 people.

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Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in New Jersey contributed to this report.

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: Norway has banned gender-affirming care for minors.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The country has not changed its guidelines on gender-affirming care for minors, which currently includes non-surgical treatments but recommends against surgery for under-18s in most cases. An independent Norwegian healthcare board not associated with the government recently proposed increased restrictions on such care — though not an outright ban — but it has no authority to institute the changes. Norway’s health agency is considering the recommendations but confirmed nothing has been banned.

THE FACTS: As Republican lawmakers across the U.S. ban gender-affirming care for minors, social media have in recent days shared a misleading article to falsely suggest Norway has made similar changes to its laws.

“Norway joins Sweden, Finland, UK, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Tennessee in banning gender affirming care for minors,” reads one tweet sharing the article that had more than 81,000 likes as of Thursday.

The article was published on May 13 by SOTT.net, a website that has previously shared misinformation. The article’s text is an opinion piece first published by the Washington Examiner two months earlier, which never claims Norway has banned such care. But SOTT had changed the headline from “Norway offers a step forward in eliminating gender ideology” to “Norway bans child sex changes, joins Finland, Sweden, and UK in rejecting gender ideology.”

Reached for comment, SOTT.net acknowledged in a statement that the proposed changes do not include a ban, and changed the headline.

The Norwegian Directorate of Health, the governmental body that develops health guidelines in the country, has not instituted any bans related to gender-affirming care for minors, spokesperson Thomas Berg confirmed. Instead, the headline and social media users are misrepresenting recommendations made by an outside advisory board.

The current guidelines say minors with gender dysphoria should undergo an interdisciplinary assessment by a team of healthcare specialists, and from there may receive puberty-delaying treatment once puberty has started, and estrogen or androgen hormone therapy no earlier than age 16. The guidelines say surgical treatment is generally “not applicable” for minors under 18, but chest surgery may be appropriate in special cases, based on a comprehensive assessment and parental consent.

An independent organization, The Norwegian Healthcare Investigation Board, released a report in March that recommended increased regulations for such care. The report did not propose an outright ban on any treatment, and the board does not have the authority to enact any of its proposals.

“It is not true that the proposals or implementation of the requirements suggested will represent a ban,” Dr. Stine Marit Moen, the board’s medical director, told the AP in an email. “On the contrary, our report highlights the need to ensure safe help and secure the treatments given in Norway.”

One of the board’s recommendations is to declare treatment for minors including hormones, puberty blockers and surgery as “exploratory” or “experimental,” which local LGBT+ advocacy groups say would make it much harder for youths to access care.

Christine Marie Jentoft, an advisor on gender diversity with The Norwegian Organization for Sexual and Gender Diversity, also known as FRI, explained that this would mean these treatments would need to be connected to research or a study, and would make it impossible for private and municipal healthcare providers to provide such care.

“In this case the children would need to get an individual assessment, and the treatment would need to be in connection with research,” Bjarte Espeland Horpestad, a member of the LGBT+ network for the Norwegian Liberal Party, told the AP in an email.

The Norwegian Directorate for Health said on Sunday that it is considering whether it will follow the board’s recommendations, the advocates noted, citing news outlets in Norway.

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Associated Press writer Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark contributed to this report.

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: The majority of AIDS patients died from medication developed when Dr. Anthony Fauci led the nation’s response to the emerging epidemic, not from the virus itself.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. While it’s true that Fauci had been a leading researcher when AIDS emerged in the 1980s, the claims that azidothymidine, commonly known as AZT, killed more people than the virus itself are baseless. Public health agencies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the World Health Organization, as well as prominent AIDS organizations and researchers, told The Associated Press the drug remains in use today as it’s been shown to be effective at keeping HIV in check when used in combination with other medications.

THE FACTS: Social media users are once again sharing the long debunked notion that Fauci, the face of the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, advocated decades earlier for a drug to combat the emerging AIDS epidemic that turned out to be more deadly than the virus itself.

Many are sharing a video clip from a newly-released conspiracy theory film called “Plandemic 3,” a sequel to a 2020 video that spread misinformation about COVID-19 online.

The clip features old footage of a young Fauci speaking about the safety and efficacy of AZT, which at the time was the first drug developed to treat HIV, the virus that causes the immune system-damaging disease AIDS.

The caption of the clip includes the claim that “hundreds of thousands of innocent people died” as a result of the medication, which it said Fauci “pushed” on the American public.

“AZT is what killed a majority of the AIDS patients. Not the virus,” wrote one user on Instagram who shared the video clip.

“Same actors. Same performance. Same pusher…From AZT to Covid,” wrote another Instagram user who also shared the video clip.

But public health officials, AIDS advocates and longtime researchers of the virus say the claim that AZT was responsible for most AIDS deaths is not backed by scientific evidence.

Kathy Donbeck, a spokesperson for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the false claim has “long been trotted out by AIDS ‘denialists’ and debunked repeatedly over the years.”

Chanapa Tantibanchachai, a spokesperson for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which approved the antiretroviral drug in 1987, concurred, adding that AZT remains an approved drug for the treatment of HIV.

She noted that the FDA-approved package label for Retrovir, the brand name for the drug, which is also known as zidovudine, states that the drug wasfound to reduce the risk of HIV progression compared to a placebo.

A New England Journal of Medicine study from 1987 also concluded that patients who received AZT died at a much lower rate compared to those who received placebo.

Fauci, who served as director of NIAID from 1984 until his retirement last year, declined to comment. But health experts also acknowledged the development of better medications to treat HIV diminished AZT’s use over the years.

Longer-term research, such as a 1994 study published in Lancet, found that AZT’s effectiveness waned when used as a standalone treatment, explained Marlène Bras, a director at the International AIDS Society, an advocacy group based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Many patients in the early years of its use ultimately developed AIDS and succumbed to the illnesses as the virus became resistant to AZT.

“As a single drug treatment it turns out it wasn’t that great,” Bras wrote in an email. “We wouldn’t say that it ‘killed people,’ but there’s not a lot of evidence that as a single drug treatment it was helpful.”

Researchers eventually came to understand that a combination of medications — not just one — was needed to keep HIV in check, said Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesperson.

Today, AZT is among some 40 drugs approved for HIV treatment, he said, though it’s generally reserved for patients for whom new medications fail. The drug is also used to prevent disease transmission in certain situations, such as from an HIV-positive mother to a developing fetus.

“This claim is completely inaccurate and there is no evidence that AZT caused the death of people with HIV who took it,” Jasarevic wrote in an email. “In fact, despite not being largely used anymore, this drug has avoided many HIV infections and significantly helped to reduce the suffering and increased the survival of millions of persons living with HIV.”

Health experts weren’t able to provide any statistics or estimates for how many people died as a result of AZT, but Kristen Nordlund, a CDC spokesperson, said a number of factors contribute to AIDS-related deaths, including late diagnosis, limited access to healthcare and co-infections.

“It is crucial to consider the broader context and advancements in HIV/AIDS treatment when analyzing the impact of specific drugs,” she wrote in an email. “AZT was just one component of the evolving treatment strategies for HIV/AIDS, and its use has significantly evolved over time.”

GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of Retrovir, similarly dismissed the claims as “unsubstantiated.”

“Did Fauci support the use of AZT? Yes,” wrote Warren Gill, a spokesperson for AIDS United, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. in an email. “Was that backed by science? Also, yes.”

But even as AZT prolonged the lives of early AIDS patients, it was far from painless, he acknowledged.

“I think it’s safe to say this history of AZT is nuanced. It wasn’t perfect,” Gill wrote. “Taking it alone extended people’s lives, but had some terrible side effects, including drug resistance. But as we discovered using it in combination with other drugs, it became more effective. And the science we learned through its use has allowed us to discover new drugs that are more powerful and have fewer negative side effects.”

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: The United Nations has replaced all of its members’ flags with Pride flags.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The photo shows Pride flags displayed at Rockefeller Center, not the United Nations headquarters or any other U.N. property. While the New York City center does regularly display the flags of the 193 U.N. member states, it also routinely swaps them out.

THE FACTS: Social media users are twisting the facts to erroneously suggest the United Nations itself took the unusual step of replacing its members’ flags with Pride flags. “The United Nations replaces all 193 country flags with LGBT flags,” reads text on an image shared on Instagram. One upload was paired with a caption calling it “ridiculous.”

But the flags in the photo are not at the United Nations headquarters.

Searches show the photo appears on the media repository Wikimedia Commons, where it is dated 2019 and indicates it was taken at nearby Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown, Manhattan.

In addition to the fact that displaying Pride flags isn’t new to Rockefeller Center, the flagpoles are often used to carry flags for different occasions.

The flagpoles at the center carry white-and-gold flags in the winter, for example, and in April carried flags printed with food-inspired artwork from the public, according to the center. They’ve also been changed to display all U.S. flags.

The U.N. also confirmed it has not made changes to the flags of its member states at its headquarters.

“The photo does not show flags outside of the United Nations,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in an email. “It appears to be flags outside of Rockefeller Center. The only flags that fly outside of the UN compound are those of the 193 member states, the two official observers and the flag of the organization itself.”

That set up has remained since 1945, Dujarric said.

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: A Connecticut bill to change the state’s anti-discrimination laws will lead to pedophiles becoming a protected class.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The bill will not change any laws that criminalize acting on pedophilia, nor will it provide pedophiles with protections against discrimination, legal experts told The Associated Press. Its intent, according to the bill’s co-sponsors, is to modernize the definition of “sexual orientation” in Connecticut’s anti-discrimination laws by removing language seen as unnecessary and having offensive connotations. The bill also adds age as a protected class.

THE FACTS: Connecticut is the latest state to be falsely accused of changing its laws to condone pedophilia, as social media users are claiming a bill that recently passed the state’s House paves the way for nefarious conduct with minors.

Many of the posts cite an article titled, “Connecticut follows Minnesota in first step to normalize pedophilia,” that was published on conservative news site Hot Air.

Although the article acknowledges that “the changes do not legalize pedophilic acts,” it alleges that the bill lays “the groundwork for including pedophilia as a state-recognized sexual orientation worthy of protection.” It also questions whether employers or landlords will be allowed to refuse to hire or rent homes to pedophiles.

But the bill, which was passed by the Connecticut House on May 9, would not make pedophiles a protected class, according to legal experts.

Connecticut’s anti-discrimination laws currently define sexual orientation as “having a preference for heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality, having a history of such a preference or being identified with such a preference,” while excluding behavior that constitutes a sexual offense, including any related to minors.

The bill in question, HB 6638, removes the reference to sexual offenses and provides an updated definition that defines the term more broadly in terms of gender.

“‘Sexual orientation’ means a person’s identity in relation to the gender or genders to which they are romantically, emotionally or sexually attracted, inclusive of any identity that a person (A) may have previously expressed, or (B) is perceived by another person to hold,” it reads.

HB 6638 also adds age as a protected class in Connecticut, along with existing classes such as religion, national origin and sex.

A report by the House’s judiciary committee outlining the reason for the changes says, in part, that the reference to criminal offenses “plays into stereotypes connecting homosexuality, bisexuality, and criminal deviancy.”

Reps. Jeff Currey and Dominique Johnson, both Democrats and co-sponsors of the bill, told the AP that claims linking this legislation to protections for pedophilia are unfounded.

“While this new definition does remove the reference to the criminal statutes, it adds in this specific reference to gender which doesn’t actually exist in the current definition to make things crystal clear,” Currey wrote in an email. “And of course, this definition applies solely to discrimination in the workplace, housing, etc. – it doesn’t do anything to legalize any behavior that is currently illegal.”

Johnson added that pedophilia would not be protected under this legislation because it does not “have anything to do with gender.”

Anya Bernstein, a professor of law at the University of Connecticut, confirmed that the online claims misinterpret the bill’s possible impact.

“This bill will have no effect on pedophilia whatsoever,” she told the AP.

Bernstein also noted that the new language only protects people’s identity with respect to the gender of the people they’re attracted to.

“It says nothing about the age of those people, so there’s just no way to read children into its scope,” she said.

A recent bill in Minnesota that proposed similar changes to the state’s definition of “sexual orientation” led to the same erroneous claims.

Mike Steenson, a professor of law at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, told the AP that allegations about the Minnesota bill are false and agreed that statutes governing the sexual assault of minors in Connecticut will remain intact even if HB 6638 becomes law.

“There is a continuing tendency to associate same-sex sexual orientation with pedophilia, of course, which seems to be at the root of the claims that the definition of sexual orientation endorses pedophilia,” he wrote in an email. “Of course it doesn’t!”

Hot Air did not answer questions from the AP regarding the article on the Connecticut bill.

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.