“Drag Race” star in Paris Olympics opening ceremony reacts to conservative backlash: 'We ain't going nowhere'

Rob Schneider, Candace Cameron Bure, and others criticized the performance for mocking "The Last Supper," but organizers said they intended no such thing.

There is a cultural back-and-forth raging in America about the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics — specifically, the sequence where French drag queens and other queer artists dressed as Greek gods in Louis Vuitton costumes to celebrate the history of French art and fashion. Many prominent conservatives, such as Rob Schneider and Candace Cameron Bure, criticized the performance as a desecration of Leonardo Da Vinci's painting of The Last Supper, which it was not actually referencing.

“I am sorry to say to all the world’s greatest athletes, I wish you all the best, but I cannot watch an Olympics that disrespects Christianity and openly celebrates Satan,” Schneider, who has done drag several times throughout his career, including in 2002's The Hot Chick, wrote on social media. “I sincerely hope these Olympics get the same amount of viewers as CSPAN.”

Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, also described the performance as "a mockery of the Last Supper," while the Full House actress said that seeing the ceremony "blaspheme and mock the Christian faith with their interpretation of the Last Supper was disgusting. And it made me so sad."

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This reaction has been rather confusing to the French event organizers, who said they never intended The Last Supper as a reference at all.

“It was pretty clear, [it was] Dionysus who arrives at the table,” Paris Olympics artistic director Thomas Jolly said in a French-language interview. “Why is he there? Because Dionysus is the Greek god of festivities and wine, and is the father of Sequana, the goddess of the Seine river.”

The event is, after all, called the Olympics, so an homage to the gods of its namesake Mount Olympus is only appropriate.

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Some right-wingers have gone even further with their criticisms, inspiring legal pushback from the performers. The British actor-turned-politician Laurence Fox called the drag performers pedophiles in a social media post, prompting a swift response from one of the performers in the tableau. Nicky Doll, a contest on RuPaul's Drag Race season 12 who now hosts Drag Race France, threatened Fox with legal action over his post and referenced the fact that he was successfully sued for libel by RuPaul's Drag Race UK star Crystal earlier this year.

"Since you didn’t learn the first time around when you called my friend @crystalwillseeu a pedo, I’m going to show you that you don’t get to write things like that about queer people for the fun and the misinformation of it and go away with it," Doll tweeted. "See you in court, again, @LozzaFox."

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"It was my absolute honor to perform in front of billions of people around the world, and celebrate our olympians," Nicky wrote on Instagram. "And remember, to the ones that had their feathers ruffled seeing queerness on their screen: WE AIN’T GOING NOWHERE ????"

Barbara Butch, the French DJ and performer at the center of the tableau, has also threatened legal action against slander.

"I was extremely honored to take part in the Paris 2024 opening ceremony as a top artist, and to share my vision of the party," Butch wrote on Instagram. "Through my DJ work and my activism, I’ve always promoted love and inclusivity — for me, this is what will save the world, even when it’s falling apart. Today, however, I’m the target of yet another — particularly violent — cyber-harassment. Although at first I decided not to speak out to let the haters cool down, the messages I receive are increasingly extreme."

Butch continued, "All my life, I’ve refused to be a victim: I won’t shut up. I’m not afraid of those who hide behind a screen, or a pseudonym, to spew their hatred and frustrations. I will fight them without ever trembling. I’m committed, and I’m proud. Proud of who I am, of what I am, and of what I embody, both for my loved ones and for millions of French people. My France is France!"

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