Phyllis Frye becomes Texas' 1st trans judge

Posted on 17 Nov 2010 at 2:59pm

http://www.dallasvoice.com/phyllis-frye-texas-1st-transgender-judge-1052664.html

It's been a historic couple of weeks for the transgender legal community.

On Nov. 2, Victoria Kolakowski became the first transgender trial judge in the nation when she won a seat on the Alameda County (Calif.) Superior Court.

Then, just this morning, longtime Houston activist Phyllis Randolph Frye became the first trans judge in Texas, when Mayor Annise Parker appointed her as an associate municipal judge.

Woohoo.  You rock Your Honors. 

 

In Texas as well.

It is all over the news here.  And it has brought Nikki Araguz to the forefront as well.  I have been so amazed, it passed council unanimously.  Reaction to it has been extremely positive.  Whodathunkit?

Kristi

Congrats to the Ladies,i just came back from 8 days in Texas and really enjoyed myself and had no problems whatsoever and was treated like a lady the whole time!!

I'm actually not surprised. I first heard Phyllis speak back in the '80s  and was very impressed even then. She's been a well known attorney and gay/TG activist for a long time. She's a very good example of the fact that if you are smart and do good things for long enough you can achieve-- even if you are openly transgender.

Lyric

Dee_pntx, she's both. Have a look at the entire article.

QuoteMy being Associate Municipal Judge DOES NOT MEAN that I will give up my "day-job."

I WILL REMAIN as senior partner of Frye and Associates at www.liberatinglaw.com <http://www.liberatinglaw.com/> .

Our firm will continue to provide a variety of legal services for the LGBT and Straight-Allies community.  And our firm will continue to fight the Nikki Araguz case, of which many of you have followed.

Yes, Dee, don't worry.  This municipal judgeship is really a part-time gig.  She will still be doing business as usual.

Quote from: Dee_pntx on November 18, 2010, 09:32:11 PM
Oh hell yeah!

BUT.......  Now that she's a judge and not an activist lawyer as she was before, who will I go to now after my SRS to have all my legal crap changed?  I mean ALL my legal everything, birth certificate and all.  As far as I know, she was the only one that could do that and she charged like $3k for out of towners and $1,800 for Houstonians.

WTF am I going to do now?  I have SRS in Feb, which is coming damn soon and I have to have all my BS changed.  I refuse to live with documents that can be dredged up showing me to have been born male.

F*** me running! 

Texas family code specifies that residents of Texas are supposed to file name and gender change applications in the county of residence.  That's a problem for a lot of people who run up against bigotted judges.  It's reported at TS roadmap that Phyllis has a judge who will issue name and gender changes for residents of Texas who do not reside in that county.  But a poster on the Dallas Voice said that Phyllis's judge got ousted in the recent elections.  Maybe this appointment will allow her to sign the petitions herself.  Who knows?  Maybe that was the reason for the appointment.

Quote from: Dee_pntx on November 20, 2010, 12:33:31 AM
Hmmm..

Well I already have the legal name change behind me.  All I need is the gender marker after SRS changed.  And I want it ALL changed. Every piece of paper, every computer record everywhere, I want that effn M removed and replaced with a big fat F..  Especially on my birth certificate.  I want the ability, the option, to get married some day.
And not some BS "same sex marriage" but a traditional man/wife with you know who as the wife.

I know it will cost me but it has to be.  I'm living stealth now and I'm going to take it to the max after SRS.

I deeply, deeply hate texASS and even more so, the bigots that make the laws here and enforce them.  Living in texASS is like living in Nazi Germany because nazis sure make the laws here.

Why not move?

You could move to Dallas for a while and apply for the document changes there.  I hear that many of the judges in Dallas will issue the Court Orders.  And if you do run up against a bad one, then you can keep reapplying until you get one that will grant it.

I recall from law school that, under Federal Law, one becomes a resident of another region in the US when one "enters the new territory with the intent to reside permanently therein."  I did a little research on Texas Law, and Texas requires that you live in Texas for 90 days and have a Texas dirver's license, before being recognized as a resident of Texas.  I could not find anything specific about residency requirements for individual counties, so it may just be a matter of getting an address and changing the driver's license.

I think if you temporarily moved in with someone in Dallas while you prepared to find work and your own place and later move your stuff to Dallas, and changed your driver's license address to their address, then you could go ahead and apply for the Court Orders in Dallas.  In the meantime, if you spent a lot of your time at your present place, and only traveled to Dallas once in a while to look for work and look at apartments, that shouldn't have any bearing on your status as a Dallas resident.  And if you later changed your mind about moving your stuff, and changed your address back on your driver's license, that shouldn't invalidate any Court Orders you already obtained in Dallas. 

But luckily, you can still go to Phyllis and get them done, so I guess you can save that as a backup plan.