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.[1]
Biography
McGuire was born Charles Royce McGuire Jr. in 1941 in
Corpus Christi, Texas.[2] Around the age of 21 she married, eventually moving to Houston and starting a construction company.[2] After an investigation into her construction company,[3] 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.[4]
In 1989, as Charles R. MaGuire, she ran unsuccessfully for the City Council of Houston as a self-described transvestite.[5][6] 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.[6] Her transition was filmed for a
PBS documentary. The Last Days of Charles/Kathryn McGuire.[7][8] Her son, James, wrote a play about her, Daddy Kathryn, which ran at the theater HERE in New York.[9][10]
McGuire was regularly featured in Houston newspapers and magazines. She died in 2011.[2]