Is it true that Mel Gibson called for a ban on LGBT and BLM symbols in American schools “as soon as possible”?

After the US presidential election, reports circulated on the RuNet that Donald Trump asked his supporters whether rainbow flags and the Black Lives Matter logo should be removed from schools. Actor and director Mel Gibson allegedly agreed with this. We have verified the accuracy of such posts.

On November 5, 2024, presidential elections were held in the United States, which were won by won Republican Party candidate Donald Trump. On November 9, in the Russian-language segment of the Internet, publications about the politician’s alleged tweet and comments left under the post by actor and director Mel Gibson went viral. Telegram channel Voblya (139,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) presented the news as follows: “Trump on the social network X conducted a survey on whether LGBT symbols and the BLM movement should be banned in American schools. "Do you agree that flags BLM And Pride should be banned from classrooms?" the president-elect's account wrote. The first to comment on the post was actor Mel Gibson, who said that this should be done "as soon as possible."

According to the TGStat service, at the time of writing this analysis, at least 360 similar Russian-language posts appeared on Telegram, with a total of about 3 million views. Gibson's comment to Trump's alleged tweet, among others, was reported by the channels "Uncle Slava"(174,000 views), "Release the KrakenZ!" (148,000), "Belarusian security officer"(139,000), "Veronica Stepanova"(138,000), "Sheikh Tamir"(126,000), "Country politics"(104,000), Gura Anton (87,000) and "Tsargrad-TV"(67,000). Notes on this topic appeared on the websites “Regnum", EADaily, News.ru, "Rambler news", "Zavtra.ru" And "Public television of Russia" A writer wrote on VKontakte about Gibson’s agreement with Trump’s proposal Zakhar Prilepin (7200 views), as well as publics “TV channel "Tsargrad""(35,000), Life.ru (34,000), "Russian spring (rusvesna.su)" (5300), "Newspaper "Tomorrow""(3200), etc. This news is also found in "Zene"

In a 2011 interview with Deadline, Gibson statedthat he “quietly supports candidates” in elections and “doesn’t beat his drums for them.” Before the presidential 2016 elections, in which Trump's Democratic opponent was Hillary Clinton, actor told, that he would not vote at all, since he was not satisfied with any of the candidates. In particular, he criticized the Republican initiative to build a wall on the US-Mexico border. At the end of 2020, when Trump lost to Joe Biden, the artist spoke with Fox News notedthat not publicly supporting any of the parties is his conscious choice. “Who the hell cares what I think? I’m not an expert—what can I talk about?” Gibson said at the time. Nevertheless, in the summer of 2021 on the Internet got infected video in which capturedhow he salutes Trump at a mixed martial arts tournament, and in 2023 - photo, in which the actor interacts with a politician during a similar event. Before the 2024 elections in a video published by a tabloid TMZ, Gibson open supported Republican candidate. In the video, the actor said: “I don’t think anyone will be surprised who I’m voting for.” When the video's creator mentioned Trump, the artist responded, "I think that's a pretty good guess." And then he added: “I know what will happen if we choose her (apparently Kamala Harris. - Ed.). And that's not good. Pathetic track record. No politics to speak of. She has the IQ of a pillar." Trump himself on his social networks earlier called Gibson is great.

Previously, the actor repeatedly became involved in homophobic and racist scandals. For example, in 1991 he made derogatory remarks comments about the LGBT community in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País, which caused criticism of the artist. Later Gibson refused apologize and added that his words may have been misinterpreted in translation. In 1995, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) accused filmmaker is homophobic for his film Braveheart, but Gibson himself makes such accusations rejected. However, already in 1996 GLAAD announced, which will hold a joint event with him: ten homosexuals starting their careers in the film industry will visit the set of Gibson’s new film “Conspiracy Theory” and throughout the day they will be able to observe the work of more experienced colleagues. Also, actress Winona Ryder repeatedly told about the actor’s anti-Semitic and homophobic statements. According to her, once at a party she talked with a drunken Gibson, who asked her gay friend if he would infect him with AIDS, and when it came to Jews, he called the actress a “stove dodger.”

Regarding viral reports that Gibson allegedly supported Trump’s idea to ban LGBT and BLM flags in American schools, some similar publications (for example, on the website of the Russian Public Television channel) as a source indicated artist page @MelGibsonFilms on social network X. However, in the description of this profile and in the pinned message it says, that he is in no way related to the actor: “Please read the bio. I'm not Mel, this is a fan page dedicated to him. Mel is not on any social network. There are no official pages. They are all fan-made or fake.” In 2023, analyzing a similar news (only not about support for Trump’s supposed idea, but about a commentary on the war in the Middle East), the Associated Press also reportedthat Gibson does not have public accounts on any social networks.

However, most of the viral posts contain a screenshot of two tweets that the actor and politician allegedly published on November 8. The tweet is shown at the bottom account with the nickname Mel Gibson 🇺🇸 News and the username @MelGNews. This profile was registered in October 2024 (first post appeared on October 29), and as of November 14, it has more than 37,000 followers. Description of the page reads: “I subscribe to all patriots! Click on the bell to make sure you receive the latest news daily! No affiliation." Moreover, all tweets from this account are somehow related to profile Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 News (@DonaldTNews), whose post takes up most of the screenshot. This page appeared in May 2023, she has over 1 million followers and has the same description as Mel Gibson 🇺🇸 News. Verified account Trump (@realDonaldTrump) was registered on X (then Twitter) back in March 2009, and now over 94 million users follow the politician.

Moreover, some of the posts mentioned at the beginning of the analysis claim that this fake Gibson account was the first to commented recording of Trump's fake page (November 8 at 16:39:58 Moscow time). But even this turned out to be untrue - “Verified” discovered replays others users, which were left earlier (for example, in 16:39:23 And 16:39:51).

Thus, Mel Gibson did not call for a ban on LGBT and BLM flags and symbols in American schools as quickly as possible. In fact, this was posted by the actor's fake X account in response to a post from a fake profile of Donald Trump.

Cover photo: frame movie "What Women Want"

Not true

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