Phyllis R. Frye Papers

Identity elements

Reference code

TxAM-CRS C000128

Name and location of repository

Level of description

Collection

Title

Phyllis R. Frye Papers

Date(s)

  • 1970-2015 (Creation)
  • 1948-2016 (Creation)

Extent

9 boxes

Name of creator

Biographical history

Phyllis Randolph Frye is an Eagle Scout, a former member of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets, a US Army veteran (1LT-RA 1970-72), a licensed engineer, a licensed attorney, a father, a grandmother and a lesbian wife. She is the first, out, transgender judge in the nation. Now having lived almost sixty percent of her life as the woman she always felt herself to be, Phyllis remains on the cutting edge of LGBTI and especially transgender legal and political issues. When the “gay” community was still ignoring or marginalizing the transgender community in the early 1990s, Phyllis began the national transgender legal and political movement (thus she is known as being the Grandmother of the national transgender legal and political movement) with the six annual transgender law conferences (ICTLEP) and their grassroots training. Attorney Frye is one of the Task Force’s 1995 “Creator of Change” award winners. In 1999 she was given the International Foundation for Gender Education’s “Virginia Prince Lifetime Achievement” award. In 2001 she was given the National LGBT Bar Association’s (a.k.a. Lavender Law’s) highest honor, the “Dan Bradley Award.” She was honored beginning in 2009 by Texas A&M University with an annual “Advocacy Award” given in her name. In 2013 the Houston Transgender Unity Committee gave her its “Lifetime Achievement Award.” In 2015 she was given the National Center for Transgender Equality’s “Julie Johnson Founders Award.” That same year, Phyllis was featured on the front page (above the fold) of the Sunday Edition, August 30, New York Times, and she also became a Life Member of the National Eagle Scout Association. In 2010, Phyllis was sworn-in as the first, out, transgender judge in the nation, as a City of Houston Associate Municipal Judge. She retains her senior partnership with Frye, Oaks, Benavidez & O’Neil, PLLC (at www.liberatinglaw.com) which is an out LGBTI-and-straight-allies law firm. While the members of the firm practice law in a variety of areas, Phyllis devotes her practice exclusively to taking transgender clients -- both adults and minors -- through the Texas courts to change the clients’ names and genders on their legal documents.

Content and structure elements

Scope and content

This collection covers the (mostly public) life of Phyllis R. Frye, from time as a member of the Texas A&M University (TAMU) Corps of Cadets as Phillip Frye, an undergraduate, through her transition to Phyllis in the 1970s in Houston, Texas, her activism through the 2010s, and her career.

The scope of the collection goes back as early as the 1940s, with the bulk of its contents from the 1970s on. Most of the collection is from Frye’s public life, thus it is Texas-based; however, because of Frye’s national prominence, it also includes national context on the movement for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, (and especially) Transgender rights.

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Physical access

These materials are stored offsite and require additional time for retrieval.

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Languages of the material

  • English

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Finding aids

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Notes element

Specialized notes

  • Processing information: In progress, 2023.

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Archivist's note

Finding Aid Authors: Hillary Anderson January 2015 - February 2017.

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