Lucy Hicks Anderson (; 1886–1954) was an American

socialite A socialite is a person, typically a woman from a wealthy or aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having ...

chef A chef is a professional Cook (profession), cook and tradesperson who is proficient in all aspects of outline of food preparation, food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term (), the di ...

, and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

, best known for her time in

Oxnard, California Oxnard () is a city in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California, United States. On California's Central Coast (California), Central Coast, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the List of largest California cities by populati ...

, from 1920 to 1946.

Assigned male at birth Sex assignment (also known as gender assignment) is the discernment of an infant's sex, typically made at birth based on an examination of the baby's external genitalia by a healthcare provider such as a midwife, nurse, or physician. In the v ...

, 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. After her release from prison, she and her husband moved to Los Angeles.

Early life

Lucy Lawson was born in Waddy, Kentucky, on January 9, 1886, as the child of William and Nancy Lawson . From a very early age, Anderson was adamant that she was not male, identifying as female in a time period before the term

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

existed, and naming herself Lucy.Lester Fabian Brathwaite,
The Fountainheads: Lucy Hicks Anderson, Mother of Marriage Equality and Transgender Rights
'', October 12, 2018, ''NewNowNext'' 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.Anita Sarkeesian, Ebony Adams,
History vs Women: The Defiant Lives that They Don't Want You to Know
'' (2018), page 31

Marriages and time in Oxnard

At the age of 15, Anderson left school and did domestic work as a means to support herself. 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 Silver City is a town in Grant County, New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat and the home of Western New Mexico University. As of the 2010 census the population was 10,315. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,704. History ...

, in 1920.Tess deCarlo, ''Trans History'' (), page 58: "She later moved to Texas, then to New Mexico, where she married Clarence Hicks, then to California" (also has 1886 birth year). She later moved to

, at the age of 34. A skilled chef, she won some baking contests. 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 A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...

; it also sold illegal liquor during the

prohibition era Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacturing, manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption ...

. 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 ecausehe had scheduled a huge dinner party which would have collapsed dismally with Lucy in jail." In 1944, Hicks married Reuben Anderson, a soldier stationed in

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

Trials

In 1945, a sailor claimed that he caught a

venereal disease A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also referred to as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the older term venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, or ...

from one of the women in Anderson's brothel, so all of the women, including Anderson, were required to undergo medical examination. When the

Ventura County Ventura County () is a county located in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises ...

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. 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. 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. During 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." However, the court convicted her of perjury on her marriage license and sentenced her to 10 years of probation. 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. As a result, the federal government charged her with fraud for receiving the financial allotments wives of soldiers got under the

GI Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, but the te ...

, and initially also with failing to register for the

draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...

, until she proved she had been too old to register. 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.

Death and legacy

After being released from prison, Anderson was barred from returning to Oxnard by the police chief, who threatened further prosecution. She and Reuben relocated to Los Angeles, where they resided quietly until her death in 1954, at 68. The ''Handbook of LGBT Elders'' calls Anderson "one of the earliest documented cases of an African-American transgender person". One episode of the HBO TV series ''

Equal Equal(s) may refer to: Mathematics * Equality (mathematics). * Equals sign (=), a mathematical symbol used to indicate equality. Arts and entertainment * ''Equals'' (film), a 2015 American science fiction film * ''Equals'' (game), a board game ...

'' is based on the life of Anderson.

References

External links

Lucy Hicks Anderson on BlackPast

Image of Lucky Hicks Anderson
at Museum of Ventura County {{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Lucy Hicks 1954 deaths 1886 births American socialites American transgender women Chefs from Kentucky Discrimination against transgender people African-American LGBTQ people American people convicted of perjury LGBTQ people from Kentucky People from Shelby County, Kentucky People from Oxnard, California American women chefs LGBTQ chefs Chefs from California Transgender history in the United States 20th-century African-American women 20th-century American LGBTQ people 20th-century African-American businesspeople 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen