A parody of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” composed of drag queens during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday sparked an uproar from Christians worldwide, echoing protests in recent years against drag performances.
Recall the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics held along the Seine River featured global stars such as Celine Dion and Lady Gaga, both considered queer icons. The ceremony blended historic and modern French culture with a touch of kitsch, culminating in a flotilla of barges carrying thousands of Olympians.
Nicky Doll, known for competing on the 12th season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and hosting “Drag Race France,” participated in a high-octane fashion runway segment along with “Drag Race France” Season 1 winner Paloma, Season 3’s Piche, and Giselle Palmer. Initially, they stood alongside the runway, gazing fiercely at the strutting models. Later, they joined in, showcasing their own style.
However, men on social media platforms were quick to point out that the Olympics rendition of “The Last Supper” was far from the first parody of the Da Vinci painting, a frequent target of satire, with more recent examples used by TV shows such as “The Simpsons,” “Billions” and “The Sopranos,” and with celebrities portraying the role of Jesus, from Freddie Mercury to Marilyn Monroe.
This led to outrage across the world especially among the Christians’ communities as many alleged mockery of the religion at the opening ceremony in Paris.
“Scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity”
French bishops complained on Saturday about the “scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity” during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games which has upset some conservatives and has drawn mixed reviews.
The opening had offered “wonderful moments of beauty, joy, rich emotions, and was universally praised”, a statement from the French Bishops’ Conference said.
“However, this ceremony unfortunately included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we deeply regret,” the bishops said.
While they did not refer to specific scenes, the ceremony featured a segment entitled “Festivity” which began with a group sitting at a table, including several drag queens, which was reminiscent of the Last Supper, the final meal Jesus is said to have taken with his apostles.
“To all Christians worldwide who watched the opening ceremony and felt insulted by this drag queen parody of the Last Supper, know that it is not France speaking, but a leftist minority prepared for any provocation,” far-right politician Marion Marechal wrote on X.
A spokesman for France’s far-right National Rally party, Julien Odoul called the ceremony “a ransacking of French culture”.
Arch-conservative Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban meanwhile railed against the “weakness and disintegration of the Western world” which he said was illustrated by the opening ceremony.
“Western values were considered for a long-time as universal but are seen as increasingly unacceptable and rejected by many countries in the world,” Orban said in Romania.
Show artistic director Thomas Jolly, who is gay, had pledged last week that the ceremony would celebrate “diversity” and “otherness.”
The deputy prime minister of Italy, Matteo Salvini, who also leads the right-wing anti-migrant League party, slammed the performance as “squalid” on social media on Saturday.
Donald Trump Jr. re-posted a photo of the depiction, saying, “They’re not even pretending anymore,” while billionaire SpaceX, Tesla and X owner Elon Musk called the parody “extremely disrespectful to Christians” in a post on his social media platform.
What you should know
Drag queens became the target of right-wing criticism in recent years, coinciding with right-wing pushback against companies that have embraced LGBTQ messaging, and as some GOP-led states push for anti-trans legislation, including bans on trans students in locker rooms and bathrooms that align with their gender identities.
Right-wing protests against drag have come partly in response to a series of so-called Drag Story Hour events, with some GOP lawmakers baselessly claiming the events sexualize children, and House Republicans introduced the “Stop the S3xualization of Children” Act in 2022.
The Anti-Defamation League later said those claims of “grooming children” are baseless and “bigoted.” But protests around the story hour events persisted, leading to the cancellation of some events, including a 2022 event in San Francisco disrupted by the far-right Proud Boys.
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