NFL star Harrison Butker slams ‘crazy’ Olympic opening ceremony over drag segment
NFL star Harrison Butker has slammed the Olympic opening ceremony as ‘crazy’. (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
NFL star Harrison Butker has joined other right-wing mouthpieces unhappy at the participation of drag queens during the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday (26 July).
In May, Butker said he stood by every word of a controversial commencement speech he made, in which he labelled Pride month sinful. Now he has lent his voice to Olympics controversy.
In an Instagram story that is no longer available, the Kansas City Chiefs kicker reportedly wrote: “This is crazy,” Fox News reports.
And on X/Twitter, he shared a Bible passage, which says: “Do not be decieved. God cannot be mocked.”
Butker joined tech billionaire Elon Musk, who unfollowed the Olympics on X and wrote that the ceremony was “extremely disrespectful to Christians”, former US president Donald Trump, who called it a “satanic drag show”, controversial influencer Andrew Tate and journalist Piers Morgan, hitting out at the ceremony.
Minnesota bishop Robert Barron also took to X to share his thoughts on the opening ceremony. In a two-minute video, he said: “What do I see but this gross mockery of the Last Supper”, adding that it “mocked the Christian faith”.
In response to the continuing backlash, the Olympics X account clarified the meaning of a segment titled “festivity”, which featured French singer and actor Philippe Katerine painted blue and performing topless as the god Dionysus, on a banquet table.
The queer artistic director of the opening ceremony, Thomas Jolly, has denied that the Christian Last Supper was the inspiration for the event, while, Paris 2024 spokeswoman Anne Descamps and the International Olympic Committee apologised to anyone who was offended by the lavish display.
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