Restaurants in Ohio boycott Olympics over opening ceremony Christian ‘discrimination’

A group of restaurants in Ohio said they will not broadcast the Summer Olympics following controversy from the opening ceremony.

The Cleveland and Columbus-area restaurants — TownHall, REBoL, Green Goat and Mandrake — announced the decision July 30, four days after the Olympic Games began in Paris.

The opening ceremony included a scene featuring drag performers that some say resembled “The Last Supper,” leading to an uproar of outrage among Christian conservatives. But the scene, the ceremony’s artist director Thomas Jolly said, was not meant to evoke Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting of Jesus and his apostles, The Associated Press reported.

Despite this, the Ohio restaurants said they would be protesting the Olympics, which will continue through Aug. 11.

“The portrayal of ‘The Last Supper’ was handled with an irresponsible level of irreverence, insulting the Christian faith,” the restaurants said in their statement posted to Instagram.

Jolly said the scene was not created to “mock” any religions, but rather “include everyone,” Today.com reported. The segment, he said, featured a portrayal of the Greek god Dionysus and a celebration to the gods of Olympus.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump was among those who commented against the opening ceremony, calling the scene “a disgrace,” according to the AP.

In the restaurants’ statement, they said they “unapologetically uphold a standard where all religions, races, sexual orientations, national origins, disabilities, ages, and gender identities are respected.”

“We will not tolerate any form of discrimination or desecration,” the statement said.

While some people supported the decision, many of the top comments on the post shamed the restaurants for their decision. Comments were later limited.

“First, they were recreating the feast of Dionysus,” one commenter said. “Second, if you uphold a standard where all are accepted... why are you struggling to accept these gorgeous queer performers?”

“Imagine not getting the reference and making a political statement on it,” another commenter said. “In an effort to not tolerate discrimination we are going to discriminate on the Olympics... a gathering of the world races.”

Despite the controversy, the opening ceremony reached a total audience of 28.6 million viewers across NBC’s platforms, the biggest audience since 2012, according to The Athletic.