More than one year after their boycott of Bud Light for their backing of a single Instagram post by trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, the online right have set their sights on a new and much-bigger target: the Paris Olympics. This time it’s over imagery that featured drag queens and two boxers they implied were trans.
28.6 million people in the United States alone watched the start of the Paris games, seeing athletes waving from boats of all sizes on the Seine, a tribute to a popular French game franchise, and a series of lively dances that took place all over the city. The moment that drew public ire came later in the event. At the end of a runway show meant to show off Paris’ status as a center of fashion, the models and viewers – some of whom were drag queens – posed in a tableau that many saw as a nod to “The Last Supper,” a famous painting by Leonardo da Vici of Jesus and his 12 pupils.
The online right did not like this.
The next day, at least two shows on Fox News gave airtime to the blooming backlash, with one bringing in a bishop to encourage people to push back on “evil” and “gird their loins … and stand athwart this pretty clear attack on us.” By Monday, both Fox and Sinclair were discussing calls for boycotts of the entire Games.
Sean Hannity said that he wasn’t interested in watching. Daily Wire host Michael Knowles – who seemed to find the thing so grotesque that he blurred images of it on his show – suggested that because the Olympics showed a lack of respect for “the true God,” he would not watch it. Harris Faulkner on Fox’s Outnumbered stated that the planners of the events had a “disease,” and her co-hosts were newly outraged that Trans Day of Visibility, which is always on March 31, fell on Easter this year.