Conservative pressure group petitions against Pride House at Paris 2024 Olympics

Conservative pressure group petitions against Paris 2024 Pride House. CitizenGO.org

CitizenGO France has attracted over 12,000 signatures to a petition saying “No to a ‘Pride House’ at Paris 2024”. In an open letter to Organising Committee president Tony Estanguet, it claims Pride House “flouts the principle of universality that the Olympic Games strive to maintain”.

The right-wing pressure group’s mission statement is “Defending life, family, and freedom across the world”. It is part of the worldwide CitizenGO collective which frequently expresses alarm about LGBTQ issues, abortion and ‘woke’ ideology. In 2022, CitizenGO France asked French presidential candidates whether they would abolish universal marriage and “fight against the Islamisation of France”.

In its appeal for signatures, CitizenGO France claims Pride House is “intruding into the Olympic Games to steal the spotlight, thereby testing the very foundations of what the Olympics stand for”.

It also decried drag artist Minima Geste’s role in the Olympic torch relay on Bastille Day, saying, “On top of everything, France has chosen a drag queen to carry the Olympic Flame! The decision to integrate a ‘Pride House’ into the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and choose a drag queen to carry the Olympic flame, on 14 July at that, is not a minor detail.

“This is a wake-up call for those of us who believe deeply in the original spirit of the Olympic Games – unity, neutrality and fair play.”

Echoing the ‘All Lives Matter’ response to the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, it continues, “When we focus on a specific group, we are unconsciously moving towards exclusion, rather than inclusion.”

There is also an open letter to Paris 2024 Organising Committee president Tony Estanguet which begins, “The Olympic Games are a symbol of unity, neutrality and international cooperation. Let us not let this spirit be tarnished by divisive gestures. The ‘Pride House’ planned for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games favours a specific group. It flouts the principle of universality that the Olympic Games strive to maintain. The Olympic Games symbolise neutrality. Political and social issues must remain outside the playing field.”

Later, the letter insists, “It is not a question of discrimination. It is a call to preserve the spirit of the Olympic Games celebrating unity and diversity.”

A Pride House first featured at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. The Paris 2024 Pride House – at the Péniche Rosa Bonheur on the Seine – was inaugurated last Friday to coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.



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