New Delhi, India

The opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics was a starry night featuring back-to-back performances by A-listers such as Celine Dion, Lady Gaga and Aya Nakamura. However, a set of performances from drag queens is drawing significant criticism on social media. 

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At the Summer Olympics opening ceremony, a set of drag queens including famous ones like Nicky Doll, best known for competing on RuPaul's Drag Race season 12 walked the fashion/runway segment of the ceremony.

Other well-known queens like Paloma, winner of Drag Race France season 1, and Piche, from Drag Race France season 3, made notable appearances alongside other drag performers.

However, the segment at the Olympics opening ceremony which had aimed to be a big moment for queer and drag representation earned major criticism when the 18 performances came together at a table as they depicted Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting of the 'Last Supper'.

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The segment in question shows the drag performers gathering at a table set against the backdrop of the Seine River and posing like Jesus and his Twelve Apostles in the painting.

The depiction triggered the masses, and what angered the audience most was a woman standing in the centre, wearing a blue dress with a large silver headdress resembling a halo, much like how Jesus is depicted in the painting. 

Another segment drawing backlash involved a man, covered in blue paint, who appeared at the table. The person wore flowers and fruit with a weird beard. He was said to have been depicting the dish served at the meal. 

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After the backlash, The Paris Olympics committee said the performance was an “interpretation of the Greek God [of wine and festivity] Dionysus” to make “us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings,'' according to the New York Post. 

Outrage on social media

The drag performance took the internet by storm with several A-listers and netizens seeing it as an "insult" to billions of Christians around the world. 

"This is outrageous. Kicking off your event by replacing Jesus and the disciples with men in drag is unacceptable," American podcast host Clint Russel wrote. 

Another wrote, ''What a hideous, aesthetically appalling, morally repugnant and overall disastrous @Olympics opening ceremony. Companies with strong affiliation to @france as a brand should be concerned. #FranceHasFallen.''

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Space X CEO and Tesla head Elon Musk also slammed the performance, calling it “extremely disrespectful to Christians.”

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The award-winning broadcaster said, ''I'm not religious, but the French depiction of the Last Supper is blatant disrespect and incitement. Jesus is portrayed as a woman and the disciples as transvestites. I wonder why they didn't mock Islam in a similar way. Actually, don’t answer as  I know why.''

 

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