Pink Clouds Above the Gates of Hell
In an another episode of the endless soap opera of homophobic paranoia that’s been burning through conservative Europe for years, a concert of the French singer Bilal Hassani due to take place at an old basilica in Metz has been canceled after threats aimed at the star. The church of Saint Pierre-aux-Nonnains has been desacrated since the 16th century and is now a public venue for music and events. A ban like this makes no sense other than a statement that artists like Hassani aren’t welcome among the pious locals, because the church is no longer used for its original purpose.
These people are nothing but a group of pathetic rosary-clutching crusaders whose approach to things they disapprove of is a classic witch- hunt. In a world that’s long since moved out of the Middle Ages, groups like Lorraine Catholique that caused this mess must feel lost and threatened.
It leads to defensive behavior that’s hard to control, which makes it so dangerous. The biggest mistake would be dismissing this as a one-off and keep scrolling. It’s not going to stop until they grab powerful political positions and punish you for daring to think outside their claustrophobic comfort zone. They may be fearing god but it’s us that should be afraid of them. And very much so.
Bilal Hassani rose to wider prominence after representing France in the Eurovision Song Contest in Israel in 2019. This is also a meaningful coincidence, since it was the Israeli singer Dana International who was the first transsexual winning the competition though she had to face harsh opposition prior to it by conservative Jews.
In spite of everything, Dana was victorius, significantly contributing to the visibility of the LGBT community at the competition. It makes sense because there’s a huge fan community among them. One could almost say that it rivals Gay Pride in terms of popularity. And its global outreach certainly helps too.
Hassani appears in Will Ferrell’s Eurovision-themed movie as herself in a scene with a group of famous former participants like Alexander Rybak, Loreen and Conchita Wurst. Conchita had an uncomfortable experience herself, when she was booed at during her winning performance in 2014.
Homophobic insults were soon overshadowed by a thunderous applause that proved you can’t silence those who fight against discrimination and bigotry. Pulling off something like this is like trying to convert a pilgrim in Mecca. Don’t even think you’d get away with it. Which is why the massive event grew into an all-inclusive safe heaven for sexual minorities.
This is just the tip of the iceberg that’s been slowly creeping into every fiber of the public discourse that they’re trying to reclaim for their propaganda. You will see these clowns in front of hospitals, praying for the sinful souls of women undergoing abortions inside. They should be praying for their own sanity because they’ll soon be unable to recover whatever is left of their brains after they’ve been exposed to radioactive power of religion.
The airspace for freedom is growing thinner as we speak because the conservative counter-revolution shows no sign of pause. You could describe it as the modern equivalent of Catholic counter-reformation in 16th century Europe. And it’s spreading quicker than HIV epidemic in the 1980s.
If only they were as eager to turn back the clock on pollution as they do on the fruits of Enlightenment originally championed by the likes of Voltaire and Newton. Of course, nobody is diputing gravity now, but every bold, narrative-changing idea must have had been initially met with the same boos, ridicule and disbelief like Conchita Wurst.
The case of Hassani’s concert ban shows the importance of context in architecture. Every building has a past, some are still a visual embodiment of it even when it’s all that’s left of the original intention. It’s not even the first time. There are churches converted into housing, restaurants and mosques. A popular feature in interior design magazines, they show something that can be compared to translation in language: transferring the same semantics into a different frame. Because both churches and houses are supposed to feel like a home to those who attend them.
The only thing worse than this pitiful move is their belief a ban is going to make people turn away from Bilal Hassani. Not even charges of sexual misconduct have turned fans away from Michael Jackson who is a much bigger star. Bans are increasing in popularity for a variety of reasons.
In Croatia, they have recently banned concerts of several turbofolk singers from Serbia and Bosnia whose music was deemed culturally offensive by people who overestimate their own prestige and ignore the popularity of this particular genre in the country. They’re so needy of approval among “enlightened” Europeans that they keep making fools of themselves.
There’s a wonderful local saying about frogs wanting to wear shoes since they saw horses do it. The difference is that the those canceling everything that might show their true face are inedible and every interaction is a risk of spiritual diarrhoea. It’s not even France and yet frogs everywhere. As a result, we’re constantly under pressure to be careful about our language and behavior. Which is the kind of mindset that Voltaire fought against and laid foundations for a new world where verbal injury is not a sufficient reason for capital punishment.
However encouraging the fruits of the Enlightment age might be, Lorraine Catholique shows that immigrants aren’t necessarily the first who don’t successfully adapt to their surroundings though they’re often accused of it. What’s more, the singer at the center of this unsavoury anecdote probably has origins that add an element of racism to it. It begs the question of who exactly it is that gets to decide what’s acceptable within the French identity. People who were throwing death threats at Hassani think they’re the arbiters. They will be facing a police investigation but this is far from over.
Marine Le Pen might have lost the elections, but her supporters show they won’t take no for an answer from the authorities. That much is true when you look at the mess that Emmanuel Macron now has to deal with. Who knows how many of the same ilk like the morality mercenaries in Metz are among the protesters in Paris.
Had it not been for this shitshow, the concert wouldn’t have got so much attention and the singer would have remained famous primarily in the Eurovision fan community. Ironically, this led to the exact counter-effect of what protesters were trying to achieve: a cautionary tale about using free speach as a tool for hatred.
Nowadays the only reliable thing is the predictability of people that build their whole value system around those who they exclude and dismiss. It’s comforting because your response is always the same since their rhetorics are as repetitive as a broken record. But they’re simultaneously upsetting because the volatility of their response is unpredictable.
It creates a stressul environment where you can’t let your guard down out of fear they won’t stop at just threats this time. We have to reconsider how far we’re willing to go to prevent this. As a society, we are relying on protection by the state from disruption and molestation. If we can’t, the problem is much bigger than what we’re able to grasp. A dark place without a single star to pierce the night that’s about to swallow the light.
