Are social media posts claiming that a long list of athletes called the mandatory wearing of LGBT armbands a "political charade" and said they play for their team, not any movement, real? No, that's not true: None of the sports stars named in the posts made any such statement. The claims came from AI-generated Facebook posts produced by a spam operation managed from Vietnam.
Among the false posts Lead Stories found is a post (archived here) making the claim about Elly De La Cruz shared by the "Big Red Spotlight" Facebook page on, May 20, 2026. It read:
🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Elly De La Cruz of the Cincinnati Reds has ignited nationwide debate with a blunt statement that split baseball fans across the United States and beyond -- calling the mandatory wearing of LGBT armbands a "political charade" and stating that he plays for his team and the Cincinnati Reds jersey, not for any movement.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed May 27 19:48:55 2026 UTC)
(Image source: Big Red Spotlight Facebook page)
The image included a caption that read:
"I'M HERE TO PLAY BASEBALL. I'M HERE TO REPRESENT THE CINCINNATI REDS, MY FAMILY, MY TEAMMATES, AND EVERY SUPPORTER WHO STANDS BEHIND US EACH WEEK. BUT I WILL NOT BE A PAWN IN WHAT I CONSIDER TO BE A POLITICAL CHARADE. MANDATORY PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IS NOT WHY I COMMITTED MY LIFE TO THIS SPORT. I PLAY FOR MY TEAM, MY CLUB, AND THE JERSEY - NOT FOR ANY MOVEMENT."
Elly De La Cruz -
A Google search (archived here) for Elly De La Cruz and "mandatory wearing of LGBT armbands a political charade plays for" returned no credible reporting that any such statement was made.
Lead Stories searched Facebook to identify other fake posts in the series, including with a search (archived here) for the keywords "mandatory wearing of LGBT armbands a political charade plays for." The false posts named 19 sports stars, including:
- Aaron Boone
- Audrey Vandagriff
- Bryce Harper
- Caitlin Clark
- Colson Montgomery
- Devin Booker
- Elly De La Cruz
- Isa Torres
- Isaiah Evans
- Juan Soto
- Munetaka Murakami
- Mya Perez
- Nick Larkey
- NiJaree Canady
- Nikita Kucherov
- Ronald Acuña Jr.
- Samuel Hoiberg
- Shohei Ohtani
- Sophie Cunningham
(Image source: Facebook)
The Facebook pages that distribute these posts have a common origin: Vietnam. For example the Meta transparency data on the Cornhusker Chaos Theory (archived here) profile page, which posted the claim naming Samuel Hoiberg of the Nebraska Cornhuskers college basketball team, confirmed it is managed from Vietnam.
The De La Cruz post and others lead to an article (archived here) on a website that discloses on its terms of service page (archived here) is also published from Vietnam.
(Image source: jervisfamily.com/tos)
The article titled "Elly De La Crυz Igпites Baseball Firestorm After Blυпt Statemeпt oп Maпdatory LGBT Armbaпds" uses lookalike Cyrillic letters used in place of Latin letters, which may be an attempt to evade automated content moderation.
(Image source: jervisfamily.com)
The Vietnam connection is significant, since fact-checkers, including Lead Stories, have identified a major source of AI-generated false stories coming from a single operation based in that Southeast Asian country. Recent reporting and fact checks mentioning that country are available here.
Lead Stories has published a primer -- or a prebunk -- on how to identify these kinds of fake posts exported from Vietnam. It is titled "Prebunk: Beware Of Fake Fan Pages Spreading False Stories About Your Favorite Celebrities -- How To Spot 'Viet Spam.'"
