Last Year’s Video of the LGBT Community March Shown as Sweden’s Accession to NATO
A video-material is shared as part of the post showing a gathering where individuals dressed in military uniforms carrying flags with the rainbow, the symbol of the LGBT community
The video shared in the post is not new, i.e., it was not recorded after Sweden’s accession to the NATO Alliance, but before that. To that end, Sweden’s approach to supporting freedom of choice, protecting all citizens, and fighting discrimination is not linked to NATO membership, which the country pursued to achieve additional stability, publishes Vistinomer.mk.
We are republishing the article in full:
We are fact-checking a post on the social network Facebook stating the following:
The Swedish Army after joining NATO.
A video-material is shared as part of the post showing a gathering where individuals dressed in military uniforms carrying flags with the rainbow, the symbol of the LGBT community.
However, as fact-checkers from Agence France-Presse report – more specifically from the Middle East Section where the video also circulated with the message that it displaying the Swedish Army after joining NATO – the video is not a new one, and it was not recorded after Sweden’s accession to the NATO Alliance.
Sweden’s accession to NATO occurred in 2024. The video in the post we are fact-checking, in fact, dates back to 2023 and was recorded during the annual march in support of the LGBT community, not recently.
The video shows a huge crowd of people dressed in military uniforms marching down the street, carrying rainbow flags.
On 26 February, the Hungarian Parliament approved Sweden’s membership into NATO, thereby removing the last obstacle to the Alliance’s enlargement after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sweden – announced its candidacy after Russia attacked Ukraine – is the thirty-second member of the Alliance. 188 members of the Hungarian Parliament voted in favour of this motion, while only six were against it. Sweden subsequently welcomed the decision and described it as a “historic day.” As fact-checkers report for Check Your Fact, the video dates back to August 2022 when the Swedish Army participated in the march as support to the LGBT community. This is not the first time the Swedish Army has participated in the annual march in support of the LGBT community. There are older video clips, including the one featuring the Supreme Commander of Swedish Armed Forces, Michael Bydén, participating in the march in 2018.
The way Sweden positions itself in relation to supporting freedom of choice, protecting all citizens, and fighting discrimination is not, in fact, linked to NATO membership, which the country pursued to achieve additional stability.
Based on all the above noted facts, we assess the post fact-checked as partially untrue.
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