The drag artist at the center of a Paris Olympics opening ceremony performance that drew right-wing outrage for apparently mocking Christ’s Last Supper is firing back.
Barbara Butch said through her attorney that she had been targeted with death threats, antisemitism and fat phobia and said she was planning to sue the people who had targeted her.
“Since the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, artist, DJ, and activist Barbara Butch has been the target of an extremely violent campaign of cyber-harassment and defamation,” a statement from her lawyer read. “She has been threatened with death, torture, and rape, and has also been the target of numerous anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and grossophobic insults. Barbara Butch condemns this vile hatred directed at her, what she represents, and what she stands for.”
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The statement finished, “She is today filing several complaints against these acts, whether committed by French nationals or foreigners, and intends to prosecute anyone who tries to intimidate her in the future.”
Butch added on her Instagram: “All my life, I have refused to be a victim: I will not remain silent. I am not afraid of those who hide behind a screen, or a pseudonym, to vomit their hatred and their frustrations.”
The controversial segment featured Butch and a group of other drag artists in what appeared to be a homage to Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” It drew complaints from Christian groups and prominent conservatives including Elon Musk and Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker. Donald Trump Jr. accused the opening of being “seemingly satanic” and of “using the games to push woke ideology.”
One Olympics spokesperson, Anne Descamps, told reporters after the ceremony that “there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,” and that “if people have taken any offense we are, of course, really, really sorry.”
The performers themselves, however, have shown no interest in apologizing.
Nicky Doll, a drag queen who served as torchbearer as well as performing in the controversial segment, posted on her Instagram page Monday morning, “The opening ceremony did ruffle some feathers… and I LOVE it. You know why? Because the Olympics are the biggest stage in the world and us queer people have always been the audience of other people’s life and achievement and it is time that we are welcome in the space.”
Previously, Doll posted: “It was my absolute honor to perform in front of billions of people around the world, and celebrate our Olympians. And remember, to the ones that had their feathers ruffled seeing queerness on their screen: WE AIN’T GOING NOWHERE.”
Butch is a lesbian activist and served as a celebrity guest judge in Drag Race France. Raised in a Jewish family in Paris, she has spoken out against antisemitism and talked about her lifelong aim to honor family members who were killed in the Holocaust.
“I’m a fat, Jewish, queer lesbian, and I’m really proud of all my identities, because they make me what I am now as a human,” she told Attitude magazine in 2023. “All the violence and negativity I’ve experienced, I can make it something bigger to help others go forward with a lot of love.”
