Folsom
Street Fair’s Leather Last Supper poster
A poster of Jesus and his disciples as “half-naked
homosexual sadomasochists” sparked controversy recently at the Folsom Street
Fair in San Francisco.
Under pressure from a media blitz orchestrated by Christian
conservatives, Miller Brewing Co. asked to remove its logo from the poster
(pictured above). U.S. House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi was among those defending the image.
I was all set to issue a major news release promoting this
latest addition to the global boom in queer Christ art. Right-wing Christians don’t own the copyright
on Jesus! It’s important to create new
images of God based on the experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and
transgender (GLBT) people.
However, the image itself made me stop and think.
I certainly endorse freedom of speech and gay culture photographer
Fred Alert’s right to make the Leather Last Supper. But the image raises questions that go far
beyond whether it’s OK for Jesus to be gay. One purpose of art is to inspire dialogue, and the Leather Last Supper
can be a springboard for discussion about what it means to be queer and
spiritual. I hope to hear comments from
others on the following two questions:
1) Is it good theology?
I like seeing the disciples as contemporary leather
folk. Of course, it’s not historically
accurate, but it is true to the spirit of Jesus’ ministry. He welcomed everyone. During his lifetime Jesus was often
criticized for eating with prostitutes and other outcasts, and some of these
“sinners” became his disciples. The Leather
Last Supper stands in the tradition of communion as a heavenly “love feast”
where all are welcome.
What bothers me most about the leather Last Supper is that,
as the Concerned Women for America put it, “The bread and wine
representing Christ’s broken body and lifegiving blood are replaced with
sadomasochistic sex toys.” In my view,
Jesus was God-made-flesh, a total affirmation of the human body, sexuality
included. But sex toys seem like a step
away from the body, like inserting an artificial device between the direct
contact of flesh on flesh. In the
sacrifice commemorated by the Last Supper, Christ offered his own body, not a
mechanical substitute. Even many queer
Christians are offended by images like this.
The leather community and the GLBT community are two
distinct categories with significant overlap. A press release from the Folsom Street Fair says that the image was not
intended to be “pro-religion” or “anti-religion, adding that “many of the
people in the leather and fetish communities are spiritual and that this poster
image is a way of expressing that side of the community’s interests and
beliefs.”
2) Is it good art?
I see the need for a wealth of queer spiritual images, good
and bad, as we try to develop new images and set standards for them. A few people have criticized me for not
having high enough standards in my book Art
That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More. So be it. I do
try to promote queer Christian images overall in my book, blog and website JesusInLove.org. There aren’t enough spiritual images that
speak to GLBT people, and I want to encourage artists to create more of
them.
However, I also support the development of our own standards
rooted in our own experience. For
example, Australian gay theologian Rollan McCleary does pioneering work on setting
criteria for queer spiritual art. On his
blog he explores questions such as: “Where and when might there
be a case for protesting that a line has been crossed and that a given
production might reasonably be considered ‘offensive’ to people or, rather more
importantly, ‘blasphemous’ by nature?”
I see a difference between the Folsom Street Fair poster and
the images in my book Art That Dares. The book does include a photo of a
traditional-looking Jesus being adored by queer leather folk, which is part of
the Ecce Homo series by Swedish
photographer Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin. Like
the Folsom Street Fair poster, Ohlson Wallin’s photos use queer models to
recreate historic masterpieces of Christ’s life. She even did her own version of the Last
Supper using drag queens as models (pictured below), but maintaining the traditional
bread and wine.
Last
Supper by Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin
The meaning of an image is shaped by the artist’s intent and
the context in which it is shown. Ohlson
Wallin got angry when some Christians said AIDS was God’s punishment, so she
created her drag queen Last Supper for a gay pride art exhibit. In contrast, the Leather Last Supper is a
poster used to sell a leather festival and its sponsors such as Miller
beer. I question whether it is ever appropriate
to use Christ’s image for secular sales.
Some defended the Folsom Street Fair poster by pointing out
that there are many other Last Supper parodies, featuring figures from
McDonald’s to the Simpsons, from Sesame Street to Star Wars. A quick look at these suggests that they were
done as artistic statements, not as advertisements. To me this surprising jumble of images
suggests that queers aren’t the only ones struggling to reconcile spirituality
with contemporary life.
I thank the creators of the Leather Last Supper for
providing a focus for discussion and an image of how Jesus welcomes everyone,
even those on the margins.
(cross-posted at the Jesus in Love Blog)
When a Christian lesbian makes her first trip to Israel, her experiences are sure to be different from the usual Holy Land travelogues.
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