On Friday, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states, just in time to make gay pride parades across a globe a little bit gayer. However, while covering the London’s pride parade, a CNN reporter came a cross a shocking sight: someone holding aloft the banner of the Islamic State.
In the segment, which has since been taken down from news network’s website (but is still available on YouTube), CNN editor Lucy Pawle said she saw the flag, which was being waved by a man dressed largely in black.
“I was trying to cross Regent Street, one of the main shopping streets in London… when, all of a sudden, this man, quite distinctive from the rest of the crowd because he was dressed in black and white whereas everyone else was brightly colored,” Pawle recalled. “This man was waving what appeared to be a very bad mimicry, but very clearly an attempt to mimic the ISIS flag, the black and white flag with the distinctive lettering. If you look at the flag closely, it’s clearly not Arabic. It looks like it could be gobbledygook, but it’s very distinctive… I seemed to be the only person who had spotted this and nobody seemed to be raising any questions or pointing it out.”
Pawle said she spoke to event organizers, as well as the police, and neither group was aware of the flag.
Of all the flags one could fly at a gay pride event, that of the Islamic State is among the most inappropriate. The radical Islamic group, which has taken over large swathes of Syria and Iraq, is among the least LGBTQ-friendly of any on the planet. The regime has been known to execute homosexuals by throwing them off of buildings.
Pawle was definitely on the right track when she talked about the flag being slightly off. Maybe Twitter can fill us in:
@PerezHiIton2Day CNN trolled by dildo covered fake ISIS flag at London Pride. pic.twitter.com/TlSX0PUrgf
— danarubbernyc (@danarubbernyc) June 27, 2015
CNN correspondent confuses ISIS flag with dildo parody at London Pride march: https://t.co/zcR7YpRRNM pic.twitter.com/H985zA6f2M
— Ruairí Casey (@Ruairi_Casey) June 27, 2015
ISIS flag at London Pride unnerves @CNN, who can't differentiate between Arabic letters and Dildos 😉 pic.twitter.com/ef99bv8bRA via @DrGooseEcon
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) June 27, 2015
@ErinBurnett how long did it take you to realize the "ISIS Flag" at the pride day in London was really just a bunch of dildo silhouettes??
— Nook (@GMWnuk) June 27, 2015
Representatives from CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What a time to be alive, folks. What a time to be alive.
H/T Mediaite | Screengrab via CNN/YouTube