Millie Bobby Brown is once again at the center of a viral internet hoax, and no, she did not donate $1 million to “find a cure” for the LGBTQ+ community.
Over the weekend, a post from parody X (formerly Twitter) account @DropPopNet claimed that the Stranger Things star had donated a million dollars “to the LGBTQIA+ community,” supposedly adding, “I hope they find a cure.” The tweet quickly blew up, amassing more than 230,000 likes and sparking outrage and confusion online.
But the entire post was fake.
The account’s bio clearly states that all of its content is “satirical and not factual.” There are no credible reports, statements, or donations from Brown suggesting she ever said, or did, anything of the sort.
This isn’t the first time Brown’s name has been swept up in false claims related to the LGBTQ+ community. In fact, the now 21-year-old actress has been the target of a long-running internet meme that falsely portrays her as homophobic. The so-called “Millie Bobby Brown is homophobic” meme first emerged in 2018, when users began attaching fabricated anti-LGBTQ+ quotes to her photos as a form of dark online humor.
The harassment became so intense that Brown deactivated her X account that same year. She briefly returned in 2019 with a single tweet — “Hi, I missed you” — before stepping back from the platform entirely.
Far from being homophobic, Brown has repeatedly voiced her support for queer fans and characters. Since her breakout role as Eleven in Stranger Things, she has publicly backed her co-star Noah Schnapp and his character, Will Byers, whose sexuality became a key part of the show’s emotional arc.
In a 2022 interview with Variety, Brown emphasized that Will’s journey reflects the real-life experience of many young people still figuring out who they are. “Can I just say, it’s 2022 and we don’t have to label things?” she said. “So many kids out there don’t know, and that’s OK. It’s OK not to know. And it’s OK not to label things.”
Following Schnapp’s public coming out in 2023, fans once again rallied around both actors, calling for an end to the hurtful meme and misinformation targeting Brown.
