Toronto Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti says he’s sorry if he offends any drag queens, but he’d rather not get “lipstick all over his office.”
At city council on May 18, Mammoliti lamented that “For the first time ever, there are more people that go through the mayor’s door than we’ve ever seen before, and I’m saying this in an unbiased way.
“You may not want to admit it, but it’s happening every day. People are coming in from the street, knocking on the door, and he is bringing them in to talk to them without an appointment or any of that.”
When he finished speaking, Councillor Mike Layton asked Mammoliti about the trio of drag queens that popped into city hall on May 12.
“What drag queens?” Mammoliti asked.
“Did the drag queens come to my office, Councillor Davis?” Mammoliti asked. Councillor Janet Davis said softly into a microphone, “They should have.”
“Did they come to my office? I’m glad I wasn’t there,” he said as snickers and laughter rippled throughout council chambers. “There would have been lipstick everywhere.”
At this, other councillors reacted with gasps.
“What? Oh, did I offend the drag queens? I’m sorry if I offended the drag queens,” he said.
City-hall watcher Matt Elliott, who captured the clip, says the comments were made during the debate on the advisory committee item. Mammoliti had just moved to refer several motions to the mayor’s office and Councillor Gord Perks was questioning him on the wisdom of such a move.
On May 12 drag artists Amber Ellert, Stephanie Stephens and Michelle DuBarry spent the afternoon inviting councillors to the Proud of Toronto International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia event that took place at city hall on May 16.
When they asked to speak to Mayor Rob Ford, the queens were turned away from Ford’s office by his assistant, Tom Beyer, who claimed the mayor was “in a meeting.”
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