Olympics Drag Performance Draws Backlash From Conservative Leaders

Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Stephanie Lecocq – Pool/Getty Images

The Opening Ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games featured numerous performances, but there was one in particular that drew mixed reactions, including outrage from conservative leaders.

During the four-hour ceremony on Friday, drag queens and dancers at one point struck poses along a long table as a person painted sparkly blue, singing in French, was resting on a dinner platter in front. Some people quickly took to social media to say that the image resembled Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper portrait of Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles before he was crucified.

The table later transformed into a catwalk for models and drag queens to showcase Paris’ fashion scene.

House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X (formerly Twitter) following the performance, “Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. The war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today. But we know that truth and virtue will always prevail. ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ (John 1:5)”

French far-right politician, Marion Maréchal, denounced the performance on social media, writing, “To all the Christians of the world who are watching the Paris 2024 ceremony and felt insulted by this drag queen parody of the Last Supper, know that it is not France that is speaking but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation.”

Harrison Butker, the Kansas City Chiefs kicker who faced backlash earlier this year after giving a controversial commencement speech, also quoted the Bible on X after the ceremony: “‘Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting.’ Galatians 6:7-8.”

However, the official X account for the Olympic Games shared photos of the performance, noting that it was meant to reference the Greek god Dionysus, not The Last Supper.

“The interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus makes us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings,” the photo’s caption read.

Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the Olympics Opening Ceremony, also defended the performance during a news conference Saturday when asked about the criticism, saying he wanted to display “inclusion.”

“When we want to include everyone and not exclude anyone, questions are raised,” Jolly said. “Our subject was not to be subversive. We never wanted to be subversive. We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together. We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that.”

He continued, “In France, we have freedom of creation, artistic freedom. We are lucky in France to live in a free country. I didn’t have any specific messages that I wanted to deliver. In France, we are republic, we have the right to love whom we want, we have the right not to be worshippers, we have a lot of rights in France, and this is what I wanted to convey.”

Not everyone was offended by the performance, with some, such as Le Filip, the winner of Drag Race France season three, praising the artistic vision.

“I thought it would be a five-minute drag event with queer representation. I was amazed,” Le Filip told the Associated Press. “It started with Lady Gaga, then we had drag queens, a huge rave, and a fire in the sky. It felt like a crowning all over again. I am proud to see my friends and queer people on the world stage.”

The 2024 Paris Olympics kicked off with an Opening Ceremony that featured athletes from each country riding down the River Seine. Several artists also performed throughout the event, including Lady Gaga, who sang the French-language “Mon Truc en Plume,” and later Celine Dion, in her first public performance amid her Stiff-Person Syndrome diagnosis. Dion sang a rendition of the French ballad “Hymne a l’Amour.”