Lucy Hicks Anderson

African-American transgender woman
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Clarence Hicks
​
​
(m. 1920; div. 1929)​
Reuben Anderson
​
(m. 1944)​

Lucy Hicks Anderson (née Lawson; 1886–1954) was an American socialite, chef, and philanthropist, best known for her time in Oxnard, California, from 1920 to 1946.[1][2] Assigned male at birth, she was adamant from an early age that she was a girl. Her parents, based on advice from doctors, supported her decision to live as one. She later established a boarding house in Oxnard, where she became a popular hostess. In 1945, a year after she married her second husband, she was arrested, tried and convicted of perjury, as the government said she had lied about her sex on her marriage license.[3] After her release from prison, she and her husband moved to Los Angeles.

Early life

Lucy Lawson was born in Waddy, Kentucky in 1886 as the child of Bill (b. 1849 in KY) and Nancy Lawson (b. 1851 in KY).[2][4] From a very early age, Anderson was adamant that she was not male, identifying as female in a time period before the term transgender existed,[5] and naming herself Lucy.[6] Doctors told Anderson's parents to let her live as a young woman, so they did, and she began wearing dresses to school and being known as Lucy.[7][8]

Marriages and time in Oxnard

At the age of 15, Anderson left school and did domestic work as a means to support herself.[6][9] At age 20, she headed west to Pecos, Texas, where she worked in a hotel, and then to New Mexico, where she married her first husband Clarence Hicks in Silver City, New Mexico in 1920.[10][8][6] She later moved to Oxnard, California at the age of 34.[10] A skilled chef, she won some baking contests.[8] Her marriage to Clarence lasted nine years, but during the course of the union, she saved enough money to buy property that was a boarding house front for a brothel; it also sold illegal liquor during the prohibition era.[8][10] Outside of her time as a madam, she was a well-known socialite and hostess in Oxnard, and she later used her connections to avoid serious jail time. Scholar C. Riley Snorton stated "When the sheriff arrested her one night, her double-barreled reputation paid off—Charles Donlon, the town's leading banker, promptly bailed her out [because] he had scheduled a huge dinner party which would have collapsed dismally with Lucy in jail."[11] In 1944, Hicks married Reuben Anderson, a soldier stationed in Long Island, New York.[9][10]

Trials

In 1945, a sailor claimed that he caught a venereal disease from one of the women in Anderson's brothel, so all of the women, including Anderson, were required to undergo medical examination.[8] When the Ventura County district attorney learned from this examination that Anderson was transgender, he chose to try her for perjury, arguing that she lied about her sex on her marriage license and impersonated a woman.[9][8] After being published in a small Pacific Coast paper, the story became widely publicized through a TIME (magazine) article on November 5, 1945, where Anderson was exposed as a transgender woman.[12] In a later letter from the publisher on January 14, 1946, it is explained that TIME subscribers even nominated Anderson for TIME's "Man of the Year" as a way of criticizing her transgender identity.[13]

During the her trial for perjury, she stated "I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman," and "I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman."[8] However, the court convicted her of perjury on her marriage license and sentenced her to 10 years of probation.[9] At the time, marriage in the United States was only considered legally valid if between a man and a woman, and as Anderson was considered a man, the marriage was declared invalid.[8] As a result, the federal government charged her with fraud for receiving the financial allotments wives of soldiers got under the GI Bill,[9] and initially also with failing to register for the draft, until she proved she had been too old to register.[8] In this trial, she and Reuben were found guilty and sentenced to a men's prison, where Anderson was forbidden by court order to wear women's clothes.[6][8]

Death and legacy

After being released from prison, Anderson was barred from returning to Oxnard by the police chief, who threatened further prosecution.[8] She and Reuben relocated to Los Angeles, where they resided quietly until her death in 1954,[6][8][11] at 68.[5]

The Handbook of LGBT Elders calls Anderson "one of the earliest documented cases of an African-American transgender person".[9]

One episode of the HBO TV series Equal is based on the life of Anderson.[14]

See also

Further reading

  • C. Riley Snorton, Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity (2017), chapter on Anderson

References

  1. ^ Lewis, Taylor. "Learn the Inspiring True Story of Black Trans Pioneer Lucy Hicks Anderson". Essence.com. Archived from the original on 2018-05-11. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  2. ^ a b "Hicks, Lucy L. [Tobias Lawson] · Notable Kentucky African Americans Database". nkaa.uky.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  3. ^ M.D, Eric Yarbrough (2018-03-08). Transgender Mental Health. American Psychiatric Pub. p. 33. ISBN 9781615371136. Archived from the original on 2021-12-10. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  4. ^ "Lucy Hicks Anderson". Legacy Project Chicago. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  5. ^ a b Leonard, Kevin (2007-06-27). "Anderson, Lucy Hicks [Tobias Lawson] (1886-1954)". The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. Archived from the original on 2018-05-11. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  6. ^ a b c d e Lester Fabian Brathwaite, The Fountainheads: Lucy Hicks Anderson, Mother of Marriage Equality and Transgender Rights Archived 2020-02-06 at the Wayback Machine, October 12, 2018, NewNowNext
  7. ^ Hannah, Jewell (2018-03-06). She caused a riot : 100 unknown women who built cities, sparked revolutions, & massively crushed it. Naperville, Illinois. ISBN 9781492662921. OCLC 1008768117.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Anita Sarkeesian, Ebony Adams, History vs Women: The Defiant Lives that They Don't Want You to Know Archived 2020-06-11 at the Wayback Machine (2018), page 31
  9. ^ a b c d e f Harley, Debra A.; Teaster, Pamela B. (2015-08-05). "African-American and Black LGBT Elders". Handbook of LGBT Elders: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Principles, Practices, and Policies. Springer. p. 109. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-03623-6_6. ISBN 9783319036236. Archived from the original on 2020-06-09. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
  10. ^ a b c d Tess deCarlo, Trans History (ISBN 1387846353), page 58: "She later moved to Texas, then to New Mexico, where she married Clarence Hicks, then to California" (also has 1886 birth year).
  11. ^ a b Riley, Snorton, C. Black on both sides : a racial history of trans identity. Minneapolis. ISBN 9781452955865. OCLC 1008757426.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ "CALIFORNIA: Sin & Souffl". Time. 1945-11-05. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  13. ^ "A Letter From The Publisher, Jan. 14, 1946". Time. 1946-01-14. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  14. ^ Roush, Matt (20 October 2020). "Roush Review: Giving 'Equal' Time to Gay-Rights Pioneers". TV Insider. Retrieved 2022-07-20.

External links

  • Lucy Hicks Anderson on BlackPast