FUNK FAMILY UPSTANDER SPEAKER SERIES

Phyllis Frye

Wednesday, November 15

6 p.m. Reception | 7 p.m. Program

In person at the Museum

$10 per Person | Free for Members

Phyllis Randolph Frye is an Eagle Scout, a former member of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets, an Army veteran (1st Lt.), an engineer, an attorney, a father, a grandmother, and a lesbian widow. She is also the first out transgender judge in the nation. In 1976, when she transitioned to being “out,” she faced the possibility of arrest because of a Houston city ordinance prohibiting cross-dressing. After four years of Frye’s lobbying, the Houston City Council voted to repeal the ordinance in 1980. Having lived over 60% of her life as the woman she always felt herself to be, she remains on the cutting edge of the LGBTQ+ community. When the gay community was still ignoring or marginalizing transgender people the early 1990s, she began the national transgender legal and political movement with six annual transgender law conferences and the grassroots training of future activists, lawyers, and bloggers. Thus, she is known as the movement's "grandmother". She is the recipient of a number of awards, including the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association’s highest honor, the Dan Bradley Award, and the National Center for Transgender Equality’s Julie Johnson Founder's Award. Her biography, Phyllis Frye and the Fight for Transgender Rights, was published in 2022. She retired from her law practice in August 2021 and retired as an associate judge in 2023.

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