This is a special 8 minute episode created for KKFI’s submission to the 2021 Hometown Media Awards
Click Here for the entire broadcast episode
Hello everyone and welcome to Trans Talk, this week’s edition of the Tenth Voice!
This week we will kick off the show with the transgender news of the month, then we will interview a new pioneer in the transgender community – Stephanie Byers, who made history twice last month by becoming Kansas’s first transgender elected official after winning her bid for the Kansas House of Representatives 86th District, and she is the first Indigenous trans person elected to any state legislature!
Representative-elect Stephanie Byers is the recipient of the GLSEN-Kansas state Educator of the Year and the GLSEN National Educator of the Year (2018), and recently retired after 29 years of teaching for Wichita Public Schools. For 28 years, she was the award-winning director of Bands and Orchestras and Fine Arts Department Chair at Wichita North High School. Stephanie is an Oklahoman by birth, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, and has called Wichita home for the last three decades. She and her wife, Lori, own and operate a company that assists corporations, community groups and schools with understanding of working with diverse communities.
Since coming out publicly as a transgender woman, she has advocated about issues impacting the LGBTQIA+ community. She has spoken at rallies on the steps of the Kansas State Capitol and given presentations to several local community organizations, as well as public school faculties and student bodies. Stephanie served as the Communications Director for Wichita Pride, the local organization that hosts Wichita’s local LGBTQIA+ pride events, and has volunteered for a number of other local Wichita non-profits.
Stephanie has a Bachelor of Music Education from Oklahoma Christian University (1986), and a Master of Music from Kansas State University (2015).
After our discussion with Stephanie about her life and her goals as a member of the Kansas House, we will finish out the show with our community calendar update.