Reykjavik Mayor Opens Pride in Drag

Reykjavik mayor Jon Gnarr appeared in drag Thursday to open the city's gay pride festival. The popular comedian turned politician won office in June as head of the Best Party, which he founded to satirize politics in Iceland.

According to the BBC, Gnarr appeared onstage in a floral-print dress, blond wig. and bright red lipstick and said, "The mayor unfortunately could not attend himself."

According to a profile earlier this summer in The New York Times, Gnarr and his Best Party rode voter discontent to victory after a 2008 bank crash plunged Iceland into economic crisis. He promised free towels at public swimming pools and a polar bear display at the zoo, among other parts of his platform.

Gnarr is not gay, but Iceland became the first country to have an openly gay head of government in 2009, when Johanna Sigurdardottir took office as prime minister.