“And now you’re you."

August 31, 2015 8:50 PM

Once a Pariah, Now a Judge: The Early Transgender Journey of Phyllis Frye.
Useful resources for participating in the discussion: Ohio U's Trans 101* : Primer and Vocabulary guide; and GLAAD's Transgender Media Program

Trans Youth Family Allies' resource page.

posted by zarq (4 comments total)

I'm a little disappointed her middle initial isn't J. That is all.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:45 PM on August 31, 2015 [7 favorites]

She's perhaps not the first out trans judge in the US, though you have to decide what 'first' and 'judge' mean. Victoria Kolakowski was elected just before Frye was appointed, but wouldn't have started work. (Also, note that, unlike the New York Times of this weekend, the Chronicle of five years ago was capable of writing an article about a trans person without using the wrong name and pronouns while hiding behind historical accuracy or something.)

Frye's mildly controversial in Texas because she has a stranglehold on birth certificate changes (and driver's licenses unless you go to Austin?). She has the magic incantation to open that door, but people don't know if it's something that requires a lawyer or if it's something they could do themselves (it's pretty typical to represent yourself in these things, especially if you have no children) and that's another layer of frustration on top of already frustrating state rules.
posted by hoyland at 4:26 AM on September 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

That *is* the style guide. Gendered pronouns and names are used based on chronology.
posted by jpe at 5:34 PM on September 1, 2015

GLAAD quoting the NYT style guide (it doesn't look like the style guide's available in full online):

Unless a former name is newsworthy or pertinent, use the name and pronouns (he, his, she, her, hers) preferred by the transgender person. If no preference is known, use the pronouns consistent with the way the subject lives publicly.

That's certainly not explicitly telling you to create pronoun and name soup. It could be read as allowing pronoun soup, but the point odinsdream is making is that that's woefully outdated. And then we have GLAAD's advice:

Avoid pronoun confusion when examining the stories and backgrounds of transgender people prior to their transition.

Ideally a story will not use pronouns associated with a person's birth sex when referring to the person's life prior to transition. Try to write transgender people's stories from the present day, instead of narrating them from some point in the past, thus avoiding confusion and potentially disrespectful use of incorrect pronouns.

The NYT is busily buy into the notion that transgender people magically become some other person when they transition.
posted by hoyland at 4:07 AM on September 2, 2015 [1 favorite]