LGB Alliance CEO hits out at Olympic torch-bearer drag queen in furious ‘erasure of women’ rant
Parisian drag queen Minima Gesté, whose real name is Arthur Raynaud, under the statue of the Victory (sculpture by Louis Simon Boizot), was a torchbearer at the Musee Carnavalet in Maris during the Route of the Olympic torch relay in Paris, France on 14 July, 2024. (Amaury Cornu/Hans Lucas via AFP/ Getty)
The chief executive of anti-trans lobbying group LGB Alliance has hit out at a French drag queen – simply because she carried the Olympic Torch in Paris.
By the time the Olympic opening ceremony begins on Friday (26 July), about 10,000 Olympic torch-bearers will have passed through 400 towns and cities.
One of those was drag queen Minima Gesté, who carried the torch at the Musée Carnavalet, a museum dedicated to the French capital’s history, on 14 July.
Fellow French drag queens Nicky Doll and Miss Martini also took part in the historic relay.
Writing on Instagram to mark the honour, Gesté said it was a “unique and phenomenal opportunity”. However, since being named as one of the torch-bearers, she has been subjected to “homophobic and transphobic insults”.
She told France 24 in May: “One of the messages that I want to carry is the pride in my community because 10 years ago having a drag queen carry the torch would have been unimaginable”.
However, the chief executive of LGB Alliance, Kate Barker-Mawjee, and right-wing social media account Libs of TikTok, both hit out at Gesté.
Taking to X on Wednesday (24 July), Barker-Mawjee claimed Gesté’s participation was part of the “erasure of woman in all spheres of public life”.
A year ago, the controversial anti-trans organisation was given the right to remain a registered charity after a tribunal dismissed a legal challenge led by trans youth charity Mermaids and supported by several other LGBTQ+ not-for-profit groups.
Comments under Barker-Mawjee’s post questioned her stance, with one person writing: “This doesn’t erase women. It adds to our numbers.” She responded, “That’s a bloke, stop being ridiculous.”
Meanwhile the virulently homophobic account Libs of TikTok decided that having a drag queen carry the flame was a sign that “everything woke turns to s**t”.
The Olympic opening ceremony has been organised by queer artistic director Thomas Jolly. In an interview with British Vogue, he said the event would only be a success “if everyone feels represented in it”.
The slogan for both the Olympics and Paralympics is Games Wide Open.
You can read all of our Paris Olympics 2024 coverage here.
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