The photograph, which depicts several leather-clad men and women positioned in a tableau similar to Leonardo DaVinci’s “Last Supper” was said by the group’s spokesperson to “have portrayed Christ and his disciples as half-naked homosexual sadomasochists in the event’s promotional advertisement. The bread and wine representing Christ's broken body and life-giving blood are replaced with sadomasochistic sex toys.”
In an article from the Christian Newswire, CWA Policy Director for Cultural Issues Matt Barber called also on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Gov. Schwarzenegger and Senators Feinstein and Boxer “to publicly condemn this unprovoked attack against Christ and his followers.”
The Folsom Street Fair is California’s 6th largest street fair and this year’s event anticipates a turnout of more than 400,000 attendees. The fair is the culmination of San Francisco’s Gay Leather Pride Week and proceeds from the event go to benefit local Bay Area charities and nonprofit organizations.
Arguably the largest leather culture event in the world, the fair is organized by nonprofit organization Folsom Street Events.
Folsom Street Events Board President Andy Copper said that this year’s poster would be the first in a series that will be based on well-known artworks and other iconic images.
“We are extremely pleased with the outcome of this poster and we are looking forward to a particularly inspirational event season,” Copper said in an official statement. “There is no intention to be particularly pro-religion or anti-religion with this poster; the image is intended only to be reminiscent of the ‘Last Supper’ painting. It is a distinctive representation of diversity with women and men, people of all colors and sexual orientations.”
Copper went on to state that many members of the leather and fetish community are spiritual and that the poster was a way of expressing their interests and beliefs.
“We hope that people will enjoy the artistry for what it is — nothing more or less. This is one artist’s imagining and we have made it our own,” Cooper said. “The irony is that DaVinci was widely considered to be homosexual.
“We are going to produce a series of inspired poster images over the next few years. Next year’s poster may take inspiration from ‘American Gothic’ by Grant Wood, of Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ or even ‘The Sound of Music.’ I guess it wouldn’t be Folsom Street Fair without offending some extreme members of the global community, though.”
CWA’s Barber was unrelenting in his public outcry against the Folsom Street Fair, its participants and the city of San Francisco.
“The mainstream media should cover this event with cameras in hand. There's an unbelievable news story here,” Barber said. “The Folsom Street Fair is reminiscent of biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, and the media should document exactly what the city of San Francisco is allowing to occur — in public — in the name of tolerance.”