Kathryn Leigh McGuire

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Kathryn Leigh McGuire (November 26, 1941 – February 2, 2011) was an activist, businessperson and socialite in Houston. She was the first out and open transgender person to run for city council in Houston.{{cite news|last1=Connelly|first1=Richard|title=R.I.P Kathryn McGuire, Houston's Transvestite Socialite|url=http://www.houstonpress.com/news/rip-kathryn-mcguire-houstons-transvestite-socialite-6739054|accessdate=October 8, 2017|work=Houston Press|date=February 7, 2011}}

Biography

McGuire was born Charles Royce McGuire Jr. in 1941 in Corpus Christi, Texas.{{cite news|last1=Tolson|first1=Mike|title=Transgender exec remembered as a role model|url=http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Transgender-exec-remembered-as-a-role-model-1691496.php|accessdate=October 8, 2017|work=Houston Chronicle|date=February 12, 2011}} Around the age of 21 she married, eventually moving to Houston and starting a construction company. After an investigation into her construction company,{{Cite news|url=http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1988_575599/price-fixing-probe-called-a-vendetta-transvestite.html|title=Price-fixing probe called a vendetta/Transvestite's accusations rejected|last=Sablatura|first=Bob|date=8 October 1988|work=Houston Chronicle|access-date=9 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219000201/http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1988_575599/price-fixing-probe-called-a-vendetta-transvestite.html|archive-date=19 February 2012}} she divorced and began her transition by taking female hormone pills and having minor facial surgery. She had gender reassignment surgery in London in 1992, and later moved to Prague.{{cite news|last1=Gangelhoff|first1=Bonnie|title=American Woman|url=http://www.houstonpress.com/news/american-woman-6572105|accessdate=October 8, 2017|work=Houston Press|date=June 1, 1995}}

In 1989, as Charles R. MaGuire, she ran unsuccessfully for the City Council of Houston as a self-described transvestite.{{cite web|title=1989 Houston City Council District C election|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=745184|website=ourcampaigns.com|accessdate=October 16, 2017}}{{cite book|last1=Glynn|first1=Kevin|title=Tabloid Culture: Trash Taste, Popular Power, and the Transformation of American Television|date=2000|publisher=Duke University Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/tabloidculturetr0000glyn/page/138 138]–141|url=https://archive.org/details/tabloidculturetr0000glyn|url-access=registration|quote=houston city council election 1989 McGuire.|isbn=0822325691}} During this campaign the American television program A Current Affair ran a segment on McGuire and the contradictions and difficulties she had as a "cross-dressing" candidate. Her transition was filmed for a PBS documentary. The Last Days of Charles/Kathryn McGuire.{{cite news|title=Kathryn McGuire, Houston's First Openly Transgender Council Candidate, Dies|url=http://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2011/02/kathryn-mcguire-houston%E2%80%99s-first-openly-transgender-council-candidate-dies/|accessdate=October 8, 2017|work=Outsmart|date=February 7, 2011}}{{cite web|last1=Huberman|first1=Brian|title=The Last Days of Charles/Kathryn|url=http://www.brianhuberman.com/filmography/the-last-days-of-charleskathryn/|accessdate=October 14, 2017}} Her son, James, wrote a play about her, Daddy Kathryn, which ran at the theater HERE in New York.{{cite news|last1=Tyler|first1=Brad|title=A Star in Reborn, Again|url=http://www.houstonpress.com/news/a-star-in-reborn-again-6586689|accessdate=October 8, 2017|work=Houston Press|date=April 15, 1999}}{{cite web|last1=Ehren|first1=Christine|title=Daddy Kathryn At OOB's HERE|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/goofy-photo-daddy-kathryn-at-oobs-here-com-86267|publisher=Playbill|accessdate=October 14, 2017|date=2000-01-03}}

McGuire was regularly featured in Houston newspapers and magazines. She died in 2011.

References