An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 6/1/2024
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"I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman. I have lived, dressed, and acted just what I am."
Welcome to Pride Month, 2024 (and incidentally also marking the fourth anniversary of the start of this project). Let us kick things off with a look at the life of Lucy Hicks Anderson, who was born in 1886 Kentucky (which should help set some context).
Identifying and dressing/behaving as a woman, Lucy (neé Lawson) was raised by uncharacteristically supportive parents (for the time) and even took the advice of an equally uncharacteristically supportive physician to continue to live as her true self. She worked as a domestic at a Pecos, Texas hotel and studied to become a chef, meticulously saving her money over the next ten years. She moved to Oxnard, California in 1920, where she married her first husband, Clarence Hicks. The couple bought several properties and opened a number of businesses; to include restaurants, a speakeasy, and a bordello (brothel). The couple divorced in 1929 but Lucy continued to operate and manage most of the properties.
Over the Prohibition years Lucy became well-known in her community, donating to local charities and hosting lavish parties for men headed off to war --and also consoling grieving spouses and parents. Lucy had become a well-known socialite and a deeply admired figure in the eyes of local politicians, clergy, and law enforcement alike --even selling bootleg liquor (a practice the local constabulary just never quite seemed to notice!) By the time of her second marriage to U.S. Army soldier Reuben Anderson in 1944, she had purchased nearly $50,000 in war bonds.
After the war, U.S. Navy sailors and officers reported an STD outbreak, which was unfortunately traced back to Lucy's bordello. Over the course of the investigation Lucy's "ruse" was exposed and she and Reuben were both arrested on fraud charges and ultimately charged with perjury since it was illegal for two "men" to be married in the state of California at the time --invalidating Lucy's marriage license and making her the first Black American trans woman to be put on trial for her identity. The fraud charges stemmed from the fact that Lucy had been receiving subsistence allotments as the wife of a soldier.
Lucy defended herself vigorously in court (also making her the first-ever recorded trans person to do so), and while at first was only looking at ten years' probation, ultimately the added fraud charges drew a much harsher sentence, and she and Reuben were sent to separate Federal prisons. They were also banned from the town of Oxnard and a very specific prohibition was laid onto Lucy, forbidding her from ever wearing women's clothing. Upon serving out their sentences in 1950, the couple resettled in Los Angeles. Lucy herself died in 1954.
For further listening: the Womanica Pride Spotlight Apple Podcast, "Lucy Hicks Anderson"
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