Criticism of a sketch at the Olympics' opening ceremony resembling Leonardo Da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' is hypocritical, one of the drag queens who performed in it said on Sunday (July 28), regretting the organizers' decision to apologize.

The tableau featured performers including drag queens lined up on a bridge over the River Seine which some Christian groups said was insulting for believers.

But drag artist Hugo Bardin, stage name Paloma, who participated in the performance said the image had been reproduced countless times and that criticism was down to a rejection of the LGBT community.

"What bothers people isn't that we're reproducing this painting... – what bothers people is that queer people are reproducing it," he said.

The Catholic church in France said it deplored a ceremony that "included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity" and on Sunday Paris 2024 organizers apologized if people had taken offense.

READ: Paris 'sorry' for any offense over opening Olympic ceremony

Bardin, a previous winner of the French version of the televised drag queen competition RuPaul's Drag Race, said he himself came from a Catholic family and that those around him were not offended.

Catholics attending church in Paris on Sunday said they agreed the controversy was overblown.

"I'm mostly disappointed that people are choosing this time of unification to separate, that there are people with different opinions who are battling each other and in conflict with each other and feel like they have to win in this category and not another area such as sport," said teacher Beverly James Disabatino as she left church.

(Production: Thomas Suen, Marco Trujillo, Johnny Cotton)