Phyllis Randolph Frye is known as the “Grandmother of the Transgender Movement.” She is an Army veteran and a graduate of the University of Houston College of Law. Phyllis was raised as a boy, but she felt from a young age that that didn’t quite fit, and so decades ago she came out as transgender and transitioned to live every day as the woman she has long known herself to be. Phyllis was at the forefront of the transgender legal rights movement that began in the 1990s, including hosting several legal conferences and grassroots trainings. She has been honored for her work by Lambda Legal, the National LGBT Bar Association, and the National Center for Transgender Equality among others, and now serves as the nation’s first openly transgender judge. She has been married to her wife Trish since 1973, when they married in Bryan, TX.

During her OUTWORDS interview, Judge Frye said, “I have loved my 60s. You want to know why? Because there are so many transgender activists now. I don’t have to fight anymore. I go places and people say, ‘There’s Judge Frye.’ They treat me really well. It’s fun. It’s nice to be patted on the back.”