Social media users have shared footage that appears to show a parent storming into a classroom and taking down an LGBTQ flag. But the video is scripted; it is part of a series of fictional classroom skits.
"They need to stop teaching this stuff to our children. Are you glad this mother did this? I am," says a September 17, 2023 post with the clip from an Elon Musk parody account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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The video gathered hundreds of thousands of interactions. Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly and Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, both of whom have previously spread misinformation, amplified it.
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But the clip is a scripted, fictional scene -- it stems from a Facebook page for a show called "Kenyon's Friends."
The page was created in January 2019 and initially called "The Trump Show." It still features several skits (archived here and here) with Donald Trump impersonator John Di Domenico (archived here).
"Kenyon's Friends" uploaded and deleted the pride flag video several times. A September 18 post with the clip is archived here.
Around six and a half minutes into the video, the comedians say: "This is all the skit." The woman who took down the flag smiles on the right side of the shot.
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Similar footage with the same classroom layout and actors appears elsewhere on the "Kenyon's Friends" Facebook page (archived here).
"Please be advised that this page's videos are intended for entertainment purposes only," says the caption of a skit published in August 2022 (archived here). "The videos on this page include scripted dramas, satires, parodies, magic tricks, pre-recorded videos, and other forms of entertainment."
The post continues: "Names, characters and incidents are often the product of the director's imagination, so any resemblance to actual persons or actual events is purely coincidental."
AFP contacted "Kenyon's Friends" for comment, but a response was not forthcoming.
AFP has fact-checked other misinformation about the LGBTQ community here.
