A storm of outrage about the Paris Olympics‘ opening ceremony, including angry comments from Donald Trump, have taken a legal turn with French prosecutors ordering police to investigate complaints of online abuse from a DJ and LGBTQ+ icon who performed.
DJ Barbara Butch said she suffered a torrent of online threats in the wake of a contentious scene at the Games’ opening ceremony.
A lawyer for Butch told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she had filed a formal legal complaint alleging online harassment, death threats, and insults. The lawyer, Audrey Msellati, said the complaint doesn’t name any specific perpetrator or perpetrators of the alleged crimes.
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The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that it received Butch’s complaint and said it tasked a police unit that specialises in fighting hate crimes to investigate.
The police probe will focus on “discriminatory messages based on religion or sexual orientation that were sent to her or posted online,” it said.
Although the ceremony’s artistic director Thomas Jolly has repeatedly said that he wasn’t inspired by The Last Supper, critics interpreted part of the show that featured Butch as a mockery of Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting showing Jesus Christ and his apostles.
Butch, who calls herself a “love activist,” wore a silver headdress that looked like a halo as she got a party going during her segment of the show. Drag artists, dancers and others flanked Butch on both sides.
Trump, in the United States, said on Monday he thought it was “a disgrace.”
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“I’m very open-minded,” the former president and current Republican nominee told Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who specifically asked about comparisons to The Last Supper, “but I thought what they did was a disgrace”.
French Catholic bishops and others were among those who said Christians had been hurt and offended.
Paris Olympics organisers have said there was “never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group” and that the intent was to “celebrate community tolerance.”
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Jolly has said he saw the moment as a celebration of diversity, and the table on which Butch spun her tunes as a tribute to feasting and French gastronomy.
“My wish isn’t to be subversive, nor to mock or to shock,” Jolly said.
“Most of all, I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide.”
Performer Philippe Katerine, who appeared in the next scene painted blue and nearly nude in a tribute to Dionysus, also told Le Monde newspaper that The Last Supper had not been referenced at all in preparations for the overall sketch.
In a statement of her own, posted on Instagram, Butch said: “Whatever some may say, I exist. I’ve never been ashamed of who I am, and I take responsibility for everything – including my artistic choices. All my life, I’ve refused to be a victim: I won’t shut up.”
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