Parker Marie Molloy

Early life and education

Molloy grew up in Manhattan, Illinois. After graduating from Lincoln-Way Central High School in New Lenox in 2004, she attended Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois for three years before transferring to Columbia College Chicago where she graduated in 2009 in Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management. During college, Molloy was an editorial intern at Pitchfork Media.

Career

Molloy briefly worked for Chicago musician Andrew Bird before taking a job at a Chicago-based ad agency. In 2013, she came out to management and her co-workers as transgender.

Molloy launched parkthatcar.net in July 2012 as a way to document her ongoing transition. As time went on, the blog focused less on Molloy's personal transition, and more on transgender politics and current events.

In 2014, Thought Catalog released Molloy's ebook entitled My Transgender Coming Out Story.

Molloy has written for Rolling Stone, The Huffington Post, and Salon, and The Advocate. She has been a panelist for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association annual national convention and her input as a transgender journalist has been sought after by the Washington Post, The Week, The Boston Globe, and Autostraddle.

Honors and awards

Molloy was included in the second annual Trans 100 list, recognizing the work of 100 transgender advocates in the United States, announced at the launch event, March 30, 2014 in Chicago. On June 26, 2014, Molloy was named to Windy City Times' annual "30 Under 30" list, honoring "the best in LGBTQIA activism, business, culture, non-profit work and more," and honored at a reception at Chicago's Center on Halsted.

Molloy was nominated for a 2014 National Women's Political Caucus Exceptional Merit in Media Award for an essay she wrote in October 2013, titled, "I am a Transgender Woman, and This is What It's Like."

On November 5, 2014, Molloy was named as a finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club's National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards for her work discussing drag culture's use of language seen by her and former contestants on RuPaul's Drag Race to be transphobic.

Controversy

On March 2, 2014, Molloy was interviewed by Chicagoist concerning Piers Morgan's interview with Janet Mock and the death of Anne Vanderbilt, allegedly resulting from an article posted on Grantland.

On March 18, 2014, Molloy wrote an article titled "RuPaul Stokes Anger With Use of Transphobic Slur" at The Advocate. The article and others discussing the use of the alleged slur sparked a conversation about its use by RuPaul and others. Molloy was criticized by prominent transgender activists Calpernia Addams, Justin Vivian Bond, Andrea James, Our Lady J, and RuPaul, as well as drag artist Alaska, a former contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race, who made a parody video depicting Molloy being shot in the head.

Molloy's position was supported by Logo TV, the network airing RuPaul's Drag Race, which apologized for the use of transphobic language and by GLAAD. Molloy was supported in an open letter, drafted by Zinnia Jones and signed by Sarah Brown, Fallon Fox, Christina Kahrl, and over 350 other transgender people, against what they perceived as personal attacks by Addams and James.

Parker Molloy was briefly suspended from The Advocate, after her heated exchange with a fellow trans activist was published, where Molloy told her to "drink bleach", which resulted in Trans Violence Tracking Portal, an online watchdog that seeks to protect the trans community, placing a "violence advisory" against her. Molloy returned to the magazine in October 2014 but definitely parted ways with The Advocate in December 2014.