Digitally altered pride parade photo fuels anti-LGBTQ rhetoric

[Behind the Aegis]

Screenshot from Twitter taken June 7, 2023 © Provided by AFP Fact Check

An image spreading across platforms purports to show an LGBTQ pride event participant wearing a T-shirt that says "trans kids are sexy." But the photo has been digitally altered; the original shows the person in plain white at a November 2021 parade in the US state of California, and the supposed T-shirt about transgender children is a fake that exploits a child's image.

"'We're not after children, we just want to live our lives,'" said one June 7, 2023 tweet, which accumulated thousands of retweets.

The tweet was subsequently deleted, but other posts spreading the same picture ricocheted across Twitter and other social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Truth Social and Gab.

The posts come amid surges in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and disinformation, including spikes in posts spreading the narrative that LGBTQ people are "grooming" children, and right-wing boycotts that in recent months have targeted Anheuser-Busch, Target and other brands over their support of LGBTQ causes.

But the photo from the pride parade has been digitally manipulated.


Screenshot from the Palm Springs Desert Sun, taken June 7, 2023 © Provided by AFP Fact Check

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