Gloria Gray hasn’t slept, she’s had a shower, coffee was fine, that’s all. Just no time. She’s “psyched up, excited” and still “really surprised”. The news started that night, she had 70 on Whatsapp alone, then hundreds on Instagram and Facebook. All congratulations, media inquiries. And no shit storm.
That alone is cause for celebration, she says. A transgender woman gets the best result in a mayoral election and nobody gets upset. Surprise number one, so to speak. Surprise number two is where Gloria Gray was so successful: Zwiesel. A small town in the Bavarian Forest, an area where it was said that the people there were conservative, narrow-minded, backwoods. “Bamm! We disproved it yesterday,” says Gray.
Almost 32 percent voted for Gray, the book author, actress, entrepreneur, the pin-up girl in variety shows. Then came the SPD candidate with just under 27 percent. If she beats him in a runoff, she would be the first transgender woman to be mayor. So Zwiesel could write history. What changes there is shown by a picture in which the CSU candidate (19 percent) congratulates her: a man in a gray suit shakes the hand of a woman in a bright blue suit, around her neck she wears a large, glittering G.
“Sprinkle a little magic over Zwiesel,” that was her plan, in 2011, 2016 and 2022. She’s already tried it three times. The first time she didn’t even get the signatures she needed for a candidacy. In 2016 she got 20 percent from the start, in 2020 she became a district councilor in Regen and now the vote queen of Zwiesel. Their story is one of ascent, but also one of great reconciliation.
Now Zwiesel is her “heart project” for the 56-year-old, her “home”. But back when Gloria Gray was just a girl stuck in a boy’s body, Zwiesel was like “a prison” to her. And the Zwieseler, well, if you don’t want to quote swear words, you have to say: not quite as nice to her as today. She fled to Munich, at 26 she was physically a woman and a very successful one at that. She toured the world, was in Hollywood, on Broadway. Zwiesel? Rather not on their list. She came back to take care of her parents. And with it a little glamour. In a shop window she showed her flashiest costumes, high heels, lace dresses. She opened Café Gloria in a converted horse stable, where she celebrated children’s carnival and “puff parties”. Even one of their political opponents has to admit: “Those were great parties.” From teased child to number one politician, you could call it “the absolute pinnacle of reconciliation,” says Gray. Although, she would like to correct that with the politician. That’s not what she is.
She wants to be “the face of the city,” says Gray
And what does she want to be as mayor? “The face of the city, one that networks, the soul of Zwiesel.” Professional politicians have a bad image, they often only care about power. She did things differently. She didn’t make a single campaign promise and didn’t put up a poster. She didn’t take part in the outbidding competition – “faster, bigger, more is more” – because it wasn’t sustainable. And quite honestly: For someone like Gray, it’s also completely superfluous. Anyone who doesn’t know Gloria Gray in Zwiesel has been asleep for at least ten years.
Gray, the doer who brings life to Zwiesel, that’s how you can explain her success. Or with her notoriety, some say with her portrayal as an anti-politician. The Zwieselers have punished the establishment, with the Green Party candidate, who has been in charge of town hall business for the last two years, getting the second-worst result. And the last mayor, Franz-Xaver Steininger, was, like Gray, non-partisan. What is most likely to be remembered about him is that he had to resign from office due to charges of accepting benefits. Whereby one would be there what Gray intends to do with Zwiesel. Because of course she also wants to change, you could say: power.
First of all, she wants to make it clear: “The office comes first.” Her book to be filmed, her shows? Should then become a hobby. This leaves time for the Gloria program: “Lots of culture for young and old,” says Gray, because “events, I can do that.” Sure, there’s no money, the coffers are empty, but “I’m a specialist in getting a lot out of little”. Ideas are needed to make Zwiesel more attractive to tourists. An idea: “A glass town hall.” Gray wants to have the facade glazed as an “attraction for the glass city of Zwiesel”. The city park is to become an adventure park. If it works out in the runoff on December 11th. And if not? Then that was it. Or as the show girl Gray says: “Then I’m out of the number.”