Paris mayor slams opening ceremony’s anti-LGBTQ+ critics: “F**k reactionaries’

The mayor of Paris did not hold back in condemning anti-LGBTQ+ pundits for their demonisation of the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony.

Anne Hidalgo made her feelings about the backlash to the opening-day extravaganza clear, saying: “F**k the reactionaries, f**k this far right, f**k all of those who would like to lock us into a war of all against all.”

Right-wing pundits and religious figures were up in arms over a portion of the ceremony in which drag queens paid homage to the Greek god Dionysus, which was misinterpreted as a queer depiction of Leonardo da Vinci’s world-famous The Last Supper.

Religious reactionaries described the event as “satanic” while others claimed it was blasphemous despite it possibly being one of the most re-enacted paintings in history.

However, the mayor was having none of it, saying that the backlash was unwarranted and ridiculous. In an interview with Le Monde, Hidalgo commended the opening ceremony as a way to present the French capital to the world.

“Paris is the city of all freedoms, the city of refuge for LGBTQI+ people, the city where people live together,” she said.

“There’s both admiration for this incredible city, which not many people understand, and, at the same time, orchestration of a hatred of Paris.”

But the reactionary backlash had not negated the success of the Olympics, she went to say. “The far right’s messaging has been crushed by these Games and by the opening ceremony. Something incredibly positive is happening.”

Critics of the ceremony include US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who called it a “satanic drag show”, and controversial influencer Andrew Tate, who claimed he was boycotting the Games.

Meanwhile, broadcaster Piers Morgan called it a drag queen mockery of The Last Supper, and Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker quoted a passage in Galatians that states: “God cannot be mocked.”

You can read all of our Paris Olympics 2024 coverage here.