Rumor Control: Did a Detroit Woman Give More Than 500 Men HIV?

Not hardly. The story surfaced in mid-January on MediaTakeOut.com, one of the biggest Black gossip sites. In the video clip, a woman calling herself Jackie said she contracted HIV in 1998 and deliberately transmitted the virus to more than 500 men.

She claimed to have "full-blown AIDS" and said she wanted revenge because she had "lesions on her skin" and "there is no cure for this shit." The story went viral across the Internet and was reported by The Detroit News, UPI and other leading news websites. The only problem: It was a hoax.

Twenty-three-year-old Jackie Braxton was tracked down by the police and submitted to an HIV test. The results were negative. Jackie claimed the hoax was to "raise awareness about AIDS"--oh, and to create some free publicity for her pornographic website.

AIDS activists criticized the media for reporting Jackie's claims without consulting experts. Female-to-male transmission is less common than male-to-female, although it accounts for about a quarter of all new HIV infections among Black men. But infecting 500 men? Please! And the "lesions" she'd pointed to on her skin were nonexistent.

No charges were filed against the woman because apparently no laws were broken.

The bizarre hoax did have one positive result: The Detroit Health Department claims the number of walk-ins for HIV testing doubled after local news reports. But trying to get the public to check out her porn videos by reminding them of the dangers of anonymous, unprotected sex? Child, please.

Rod McCullom blogs on Black lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender news and pop culture at rod20.com.