A picture has been shared on social media in Nigeria alongside a claim that it shows the “new” US ambassador to Jamaica and his spouse. The claim is false: the photo shows Austrian singer Conchita Wurst and her business manager at the 2019 Vienna Opera Ball. Nickolas Perry, who has served as the US ambassador to Jamaica since 2022, bears no resemblance to anyone in the post.

“This is the new US ambassador to Jamaica and his wife (sic),” reads a message posted on July 28, 2023, on Twitter, which is being rebranded as ‘X’.

The message, published by an account with 25,000 followers, has been reposted more than 300 times.

The post was shared alongside a photo showing a bearded person in a ball gown holding the hand of a man in a black suit as they climb up a red-carpeted staircase.

“Jamaica is in a rage over this but the US says they will cut off all aid to Jamaica if they do not let him and his wife go there to do their job,” reads another part of the message.

LGBTQ people face discrimination in Jamaica, where sexual acts between people of the same sex are criminalised (archived here).

But the claim that the picture shows the US ambassador to Jamaica is false.

Austrian singer

Using reverse image searches, AFP Fact Check found the original photo attached to news articles from 2013 which shows Conchita Wurst, an Austrian singer and drag queen.

The photo was published by the Austrian newspaper Kurier (archived here) on February 28, 2019. The article’s headline translates as: “...

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