In June 2023, claims began to spread across social media platforms that The Atlantic news magazine reported a New York City Pride (NYC) marcher had exposed his genitals to a 6-year-old.
"Wow," a Twitter user posted on June 25, 2023. Attached to the post was a screenshot that claimed to show a headline from the publication reading, "At this weekend's Pride parade a man exposed his genitals to my 6 year old. She was horrified. Am I raising a bigot?"
Wow pic.twitter.com/C3w0nwwBze
— Magills (@magills_) June 26, 2023
In addition to other Twitter posts about the claim, we also found posts about the claim on Instagram and TikTok.
We searched the publication's website using the words "pride parade" and found no evidence such an article had ever been written. We also checked the website's archives using the Wayback Machine digital-archive service and didn't find the article there.
Anna Bross, the magazine's senior vice president of communications, told the international news agency AFP that the screenshot was not real, calling it "crudely fabricated."
There were other indicators the screenshot wasn't real. The Atlantic's style is to capitalize the first letter of most words in its headlines, while the screenshot only capitalized the first letter in each sentence, the letter "I," and the word "Pride."
The photograph used in the screenshot, which showed people marching while holding balloons that spelled the word PRIDE in the colors of a rainbow, was also falsely attributed. The screenshot claimed the picture was taken by Reuters. Instead, it was originally taken by a photographer for the Indianapolis Star.
As such, we find the claim false that The Atlantic reported an NYC Pride marcher exposed his genitals to a 6-year-old.