While Parisian officials kept up their push for inclusion during the opening of the Olympic Pride House, LGBTQ+ advocates and athletes say there is a long way to go as reports of the exclusion of transgender athletes emerge.
The Paris Olympics set a record by having 193 openly LGBTQ+ athletes competing, according to Outsports, a website compiling a database of openly queer Olympians. The count surpassed the 186 athletes at the Tokyo Olympics which was delayed by COVID-19 and held in 2021.
During the opening ceremony, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach sent a strong message in his speech: “In our Olympic world, we all belong.”
Parisian officials kept up their push for inclusion Monday night with the opening of the Olympic Pride House — a safe haven for LGBTQ+ athletes and fans which is open to all — on a boat floating on the city’s famous Seine River.
“It’s important to Paris, to keep fighting against all types of discrimination,” French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said at the opening. “We need to drive this progress in society and the reason I am here today is because sport is a very powerful agent to do that.”
However, LGBTQ+ advocates and athletes say international athletics have a long way to go in opening up to the queer community.
It comes after the outcry from conservative religious groups and others against Friday’s opening ceremony, which showcased DJ and producer Barbara Butch — an LGBTQ+ icon — flanked by drag artists and dancers in a scene that critics interpreted as mocking Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”.
Butch says her lawyer is filing complaints over threats and other abuse she’s faced online following the show.