It’s the suburban 60s, and a teenage girl is short for her age and late for puberty too. Off to the doctors, and she’s diagnosed with Turner’s Syndrome, a genetic variation where one of a chromosomal woman’s XX chromosomes is undifferentiated, resulting in an X0 phenotype. Nythar fit’s the diagnosis to a T: Under five feet tall, poor spatial and math ability, and a social butterfly. She’s given the standard treatment- Female hormones and advice to be “normal”, find a husband, and adopt kids.

Instead Nythar changes her legal name to Nythar, becomes a flaming lesbian feminist activist, and joins the trans community, hanging with transsexuals and drag queens. She even enters and wins a drag contest, to the chagrin of the usual victors of that competition. Then she took the owner of the bar to court and made her pay the prize money! In front of the smothering parents of Turner’s girls and women she challenged the medical “experts” ignorance of the very real sexual dysfunction many Turner’s women experience. And when separatists tried to hijack the fledgling lesbian community, Nythar responded by escorting trans women into “women only” spaces and making closer alliances with gay men and was a strong ally through the AIDS pandemic. And while unabashedly Irish, Nythar learned Ojibwa and became a proficient Pow Wow dancer.

Nythar matured but did not mellow with age- Active in Democratic politics, over a decade ago she confronted the party’s two gender only gender equity rules and won… Being neither “male” nor “female”, the party hadn’t thought of her! Thanks to Nythar’s urging, we fixed that mistake. She was with us at the legislature fighting to pass Minnesota’s GLB and T inclusive Human Rights Act in 1993 and fighting against trans health care bans a few years later. But besides the wear and tear of discrimination and poverty, age is not kind to many Turner’s women- diabetes and endocrine driven obesity are common. ‘Bout a decade ago I got a call that Nythar had passed out at her job, phoning and fundraising for democrats. She recovered and moved back to the ‘burbs with mom, but we saw less of her at political events as her faithful family cared for her. She passed on April Fools Day, a jokester to the end.

Rest In Power, Nythar!