Protesters demand Perth lord mayor Basil Zempilas quit over transgender comments

Loud, proud, and furious, hundreds of protestors have made their disdain for new Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas heard today.

There was chanting, writing in chalk, and a defiant plunge in a public pond as a crowd gathered calling for Mr Zempilas to stand down after his offensive transgender comments last week.

"To prove a point," said the woman who stripped to a bikini and sat in the pond as hundreds cheered her. "Because I'm transgender and I'm proud."

READ MORE: Perth lord mayor apologises for transphobic comments

The rally was organised on Facebook in response to Mr Zempilas' comments on radio this week that "if you've got a penis, mate, you're a bloke. If you've got a vagina you're a woman. Game over."

People at the protest said they had been mortified by the recently elected lord mayor's comments.

"He basically just outright denied the existence of transgender people fullstop in the interview," said organiser Jacqueline Blackburn.

Mr Zempilas, who has been in the job for less than two weeks, declined to comment today.

He has apologised multiple times, saying that "for a brief moment" he "forgot that I was the lord mayor of the City of Perth".

Those apologies fell on deaf ears for today's crowd.

"I have been an elected member of parliament for seven-and-a-half years and in all that time I have not forgotten that I am an elected member of parliament," Greens members Alison Marie Xamon MLC told the protest.

Another organiser, Erin Russell, said she wanted to see Mr Zempilas resign.

"I think that too little too late, I don't accept that he's apologising."

Almost 10,000 people have signed one online petition calling for the Lord Mayor to stand down.

Pride Month officially begins tomorrow, and Council House will be lit up in rainbow colours.

The City of Perth says PrideFest will be going ahead on November 14 despite the petition to have it moved to the City of Vincent. The petition will be presented to the new lord mayor at the general council meeting on Tuesday.