No, a ‘trans dolphin’ didn’t drown in Table Rock Lake

Rumours that a self-professed “trans dolphin” drowned after swimming in Table Rock Lake are too fishy to be true, PinkNews can confirm.

Claims that a 29-year-old woman, who purportedly identified as a “trans-dolphin”, drowned in the US lake earlier this month, spread like wildfire across social media despite being completely false.

The rumours, which primarily spread across Facebook, claimed witnesses saw the woman swim into the lake, which stretches between Missouri and Arkansas, dressed in a “dolphin costume” and a “snorkel fashioned as a blowhole”, and began eating fish.

It finishes by purporting that witnesses looked in horror as she began “thrashing in the water before vanishing beneath the surface.”

Not only is the claim that she drowned in Table Rock Lake completely false, but the “trans dolphin” does not exist at all. There is no such thing as a trans dolphin.

The fake story originally came from a Missouri-based satirical Facebook page, the Branson Area Breaking News, which uses AI-generated images to fabricate news stories based on the city of Branson, Missouri.

Other fake headlines include “Joe Exotic announces tiger sanctuary in Branson after prison release,” and “mysterious underground city unearthed beneath Branson.”

Many of the page’s fake stories appear to mock both the trans community and overweight people. One of its recent posts depicts an AI-generated image of a trans person, who does not exist, being kicked out of a furniture store for claiming they’re a “trans La-Z-Boy.”

Its trans dolphin story, also completely fake, uses an AI-generated image showing a woman in a dolphin costume swimming in a lake and eating a fish. The image features mistakes, such as the fusing of the woman’s rainbow-coloured hair and a swimming cap, and an indecipherable piercing on the woman’s nose.

Fact-checking site Snopes reported that, while Branson Area Breaking News is clearly satire, the page’s Facebook posts often get misinterpreted as real, with this fake story being no exception.

The post received over 11,000 comments and shares, with Snopes reporting that a chunk of those responses appeared to believe the story was a “factual recounting of real-life events.”

The page’s anonymous creator, known as ‘Margaret’, has previously told local outlets that some residents “don’t realise the page is satire.”

“Even those who do realise the humour sometimes still get upset with select content,” they continued. “I don’t let the negativity bother me.”

Trans dolphins don’t exist, despite misinformation claims

False claims, satire or otherwise, about trans people identifying as animals are nothing new. Numerous hoaxes have purported that trans people, typically children, identify as cats or dogs and are using litter boxes in public schools.

The claims often derive from misinformation around furries, a typically online subculture about cartoon anthropomorphic animal characters, which sees people dress up as or create art of characters known as “fursonas.”

Identifying with the furry subculture has nothing to do with a person’s gender identity, sexuality, or any innate characteristic about them. It is simply about engaging with a community based on personal interest.

Anti-LGBTQ+ groups have also attempted to equate trans and non-binary people with “Otherkin” communities, who identify as either partially or entirely nonhuman. While some otherkin may identify as such, this group has no explicit connection to LGBTQ+ or trans people and is an entirely separate subculture.