Video of Woman Throwing LGBT Flag in Trash Can Sparks Controversy, But It's Fictitious: AFP Investigation

Anti-LGBT+ rhetoric is intensifying in the United States and this community is very regularly targeted by disinformation, sometimes relayed by Republican party figures. Since mid-September, a video showing a woman entering a classroom in the United States to throw the rainbow flag of the LGBT community into a trash can while verbally attacking the teacher has been circulating on social networks. The video sparked the reaction of many Internet users who believed they were seeing a real scene. But this video is fiction. It is part of a series of scripted comedy videos intended to address societal issues.

A video showing a woman bursting into a classroom in the United States to tear the LGBT flag off the wall before throwing it in the trash has been circulating on social networks since mid-September. Taking the teacher to task, she exclaims in English: “I don’t pay my taxes to fund this. Why did you hang this? […] We pay you to teach history and that is what you should teach. […] I’m teaching my son to be a man and I don’t want you hanging this flag“, after tearing off the rainbow flag and throwing it in a trash can.

“Congratulations to this courageous mother“, writes an Internet user by publishing the video on Facebook on September 20, accumulating a thousand comments and shared at least 9,000 times. Other netizens also posted the video on Facebook like ici or ici on September 19.

On X (formerly Twitter) also, the video was posted ici , September 18 or ici on September 17. Internet users also took over the video on TikTok, posted on September 18 ici , ici or ici on September 19.

The video also reached Instagram, where it was posted notably on September 18. This publication has received more than 4,000 likes and nearly 1,500 Internet users have shared it. The account that posted the video also posted it on YouTube on September 18. We also find it on Telegram on September 19.

Screenshot from Telegram taken on September 21, 2023

In the United States, the video was even relayed by Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News journalist known for spreading conspiracy theories. “Parents are fed up with imposed classroom work schedules“, she says in a tweet in English.

Marjorie Taylor Greenea Republican elected official from the state of Georgia, known for her support for the small conspiracy group Qanon in the United States, also shared in a post in English : “GOD BLESS THIS MOM!!!!! I agree with her ! Teachers are paid by taxpayers – PARENTS! !! Get LGBTQ propaganda out of schools!“, she wrote. Both had previously broadcast of the incorrect informationdemystified by AFP.

The LGBT+ community is very targeted by disinformation, particularly in the United States, as explained in this AFP dispatch (archive).

But as we will see, this video is fictitious.

Screenshot taken from Facebook on September 21, 2023

Fictitious video

A search on TikTok using the following English keywords: #school #teacher #viralvideo #class and #student allows you to find several videos filmed in the same classroom setting, as on this account (archive ici). We discover several videos there, which feature the same woman as in the video we are examining, such as for example this one(archive ici).

In these videos, the woman discusses subjects having nothing to do with the LGBT flag. In one of them (archive ici), she plays the role of a teacher and questions a student’s clothing. In another one(archive ici) she debates with a student about the personal pronoun she used.

She therefore seems to change roles regularly, the videos tackling different social subjects.

To find the origin of the video we are examining – where a woman is supposed to throw an LGBT flag – a reverse image search thanks to InVid-WeVerify allowed us to come across a Facebook account (archive ici) belonging to a certain “Jibrizy”. In fact, we find there the video (archive ici), published on September 16, 2023.

Screenshot taken on Facebook on September 21, 2023

On the description of the Facebook page, we can read (in English): “I am a director who makes realistic videos on social issues“. Additionally, the page describes itself as a “comedy“.

In the latest publications of the page, we discover a video (archive ici) posted on September 21, where a woman enters a room with a church decor, where Christian crosses appear on a wall in the background. Two women are in front of a priest, one in bridal attire and the other in a costume. “Haven’t you read the Bible? This is disgusting“, the woman shouts in English after tearing an LGBT flag from the wall before stomping on it.

Further down the page, there is a photo showing the person who presents himself as the owner of the Facebook page, Jibrizy. He poses next to the woman visible in the video we are looking at. In the caption, the author writes: “I’m Jibrizy, the director of these viral videos!“.

Finally, by watching the video in its entirety on the author’s page, we see, around the sixth minute and thirtieth second, the latter appear with the woman present in the video, to his left facing the camera. “This is all just a sketch.”, he says in English. “

In the caption, the author of the publication writes in English: “Mom tears up the pride flag“, which may lead Internet users to think that this is a real scene.

Screenshot taken on Facebook on September 21, 2023

By examining the comments under publications on TikTok, AFP also managed to trace a Facebook page called “Kenyon’s Friends.”

The page’s information indicates that it was created in 2019 and was called “The Trump Show.” It still includes a series of sketches of John DiDomenico,(archive ici), an American comedian, known for imitating and parodying former President of the United States, Donald Trump.

Here again similar videos made in the classroom with the same woman are regularly published (archive ici).

The legend of a sketch published in August 2022 (archive ici) noted : “Please note that the videos on this page are intended for entertainment purposes only. The videos on this page include scripted dramas, satires, parodies, magic tricks, pre-recorded videos, and other forms of entertainment.“

The message continues: “Names, characters and incidents are often figments of the director’s imagination, so any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental..”

In the United States, false information about the LGBT community regularly circulates on social networks. In June 2023a doctored image made it appear that an adult participating in the Pride march in California was wearing a t-shirt with the face of Desmond, 16, and a worrying inscription: “Transgender kids are sexy“.

This retouched image which had circulated on social networks had caused a deluge of hateful comments accusing the man of “pedophilia” and echoing a far-right conspiracy theory that members of the LGBT+ community psychologically manipulate children with a view to sexually abusing them.

In 2022, by analyzing data collected by human rights associations, the American channel NBC News (archived link ici) had determined that 238 LGBTphobic bills had been introduced in the United States since January 1, 2022, or more than three per day.

The same year, bills limiting discussions on homosexuality or transidentity with children multiplied in the United States, reigniting the culture war which is fracturing the country, where anti-LGBT+ rhetoric is intensifying.

She understands, beyond the false allegations of “pedophilia”an avalanche of laws against transgender people brought by conservative elected officials and targeted boycotts of brands, such as that of Target supermarkets, which supported LGBT+ causes.

The AFP has repeatedly debunked false information about this community ici.

2023-09-21 16:28:57

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