Even among people who accept that Barack Obama is a US citizen, a sort of “spinoff” idea keeps coming up in our discussions of the Nirther craziness: that Barack Obama “won’t release” his original birth certificate (some people refer to it as a “long form” certificate) because there’s something on it he wants to hide.

The two most common explanations suggested by LGF commenters for this “hidden info” are that the birth certificate: 1) lists Obama’s religion as “Muslim,” or 2) lists his race as “black” or “white” (both possibilities have been argued).

Here’s an image pointed out by LGF reader “keithgabryelski” that definitively debunks the Hidden Info corollary to the Nirth Certifikit Theory.

The image shows an original state of Hawaii “Certificate of Live Birth” from 1962, posted at a site that provides information on obtaining passports, as an example of a valid birth certificate. It’s a reasonable assumption that the Hawaii birth certificate form didn’t change much (or at all) from August 1961 (when Barack Obama was born) to June 1962, and that Obama’s original birth certificate had the same information on it.

Note that there is no space on the form for any kind of religion, and no space for either the religion or the race of the baby, although the race of both parents is listed. (Click the image for a larger version.)

If you compare this to the officially stamped “Certification of Live Birth” for Barack Obama released by the Hawaii Health Department, you see that all of the vital information from the original form is indeed listed on the Obama document — both parents’ races included — and nothing important has been left out.

Status: debunked.