The victory of Austria’s Conchita Wurst, a bearded drag queen, in the Eurovision song contest was criticised by Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Rogozin. But in the winner’s home country of Austria, not known for its progressive views on matters such as homosexuality, Conchita, aka Tom Neuwirth, has an unlikely fan: his parish priest. Fr Michael Unger, parish priest of Bad Mitterndorf in the Styrian Alps, told the Austrian Catholic press agency Kathpress, “I think it simply great that a young man from Bad Mitterndorf hit back at [Vladimir] Putin [president of Russia]!” As a child, Neuwirth was for many years a member of the parish’s “star-singer” group, who went from house to house dressed as the Magi and collected money for the Star-