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Judge Phyllis Frye

Phyllis Randolph Frye is an Associate Judge for the Municipal Courts in the US city of Houston, Texas. Frye is the first openly transgender judge appointed in the United States.

Phyllis is an Eagle Scout, a former member of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets, a US Army veteran, a licensed engineer, a licensed attorney, a part-time municipal judge, a father, a grandmother, and a lesbian wife. Now having lived over sixty percent of her life as the woman she always felt herself to be, Phyllis remains on the cutting edge of LGBTQ and especially transgender legal and political issues.

In 2010 Phyllis was sworn-in as the first out transgender judge in the nation, as a City of Houston Associate Municipal Judge: she requested the part-time, associate judge status to allow her to retain her senior partnership of Frye, Steidley, Oaks and Benavidez, PLLC, which is an out LGBTQ-and-straight-allies law firm.