Paris Olympics 2024: Global controversy on drag-themed depictions of historical and religious figures

Smoke billows near windows as performers participate during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Paris, France.

The opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics has generated global controversy due to its use of drag-queen-themed portrayals of religious and historical figures.

Amid the presentation of participating countries, the ceremony featured performances that played with France’s history and culture. The image of a headless Marie Antoinette—the last queen to be executed during the French Revolution—singing with her severed head adorned in drag-style makeup was particularly noteworthy. Drag queens were a recurring motif throughout the event, including three among the 10,000 torchbearers who carried the Olympic flame from Greece through French regions to Paris.

In a brand-new exhibit on Friday, a number of performers—including drag queens and a large woman wearing an aureole halo crown—parodied the famous Leonardo da Vinci painting "The Last Supper," which depicts Christ and his apostles.

Numerous well-known politicians from around the world, particularly those from the United States, have criticised the exhibit, claiming it is a sign of the deterioration of Western Civilization's culture.

Speaking at CPAC in the US, conservative French politician and member of the European parliament Marion Maréchal cautioned foreign spectators that this divisive exhibition did not reflect French people like herself.

"To all the Christians of the world who are watching the #Paris2024 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. #notinmyname," she said.

To all the Christians of the world who are watching the #Paris2024 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. #notinmyname

À tous les chrétiens du monde… pic.twitter.com/GusP2TR63u

— Marion Maréchal (@MarionMarechal) July 26, 2024

Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and recent purchaser of the X platform, criticized the display, stating, "This was extremely disrespectful to Christians."

This was extremely disrespectful to Christians

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 26, 2024

OutKick's Riley Gaines wrote on social media, "Men in wigs front and center at the Olympic Games. Don't ever tell me this group is 'oppressed' or 'marginalized' again." 

Men in dresses, the most marginalized and oppressed demographic in the world, have been included in the Olympics opening ceremony.

— Sall Grover (@salltweets) July 26, 2024

Ex-transgender influencer Oli London described the scene as follows: "The Olympics openly mocks Jesus' Last Supper, with drag queens dressed as women playing the role of the disciples, while a plus-size woman in the center, symbolizing Jesus, wears a giant crown."

Catholic bishop slams Olympics Opening Ceremony for mocking Christianity.

“Would they ever have dared mock Islam in a similar way?”

@breeadail

pic.twitter.com/2ZX3jq2ida

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) July 27, 2024

This is crazy. Opening your event by replacing Jesus and the disciples at the The Last Supper with men in drag. There are 2.4 billion Christians on earth and apparently the Olympics wanted to declare loudly to all of them, right out of the gate
NOT WELCOME pic.twitter.com/T88AmXbqXL

— Clint Russell (@LibertyLockPod) July 26, 2024

Reject degeneracy pic.twitter.com/Nizpj1dqH5

— Natalie F Danelishen (@Chesschick01) July 26, 2024