AMPLIFY: Lucy Hicks Anderson
Happy New Year, HerStry Babes! This month marks the start of the third year of Amplify, a column meant to highlight different women throughout history whose names we should know, but usually don’t. Watching HerStry grow and change in the past two years has been nothing short of inspiring. I am so excited to be on board for the next year as we watch HerStry only continue to grow and to see our fearless founder, Julia, embark on her journey into motherhood.
To start off 2020, we’re going to focus on Lucy Hicks Anderson, a trans woman who lived in a time before the term transgender was coined. Lucy Hicks Anderson was born in Waddy, Kentucky in 1886 (2). From the time Lucy was able to speak, she insisted that she was a girl, demanded she wear dresses to school, and that she would go by the name Lucy. Her concerned mother took her to the doctor, and the incredible progressive doctor instructed Lucy’s mother to allow her to live as a girl, as she wished (1). From that point, forward, Anderson lived as a woman.
At the age of fifteen, Lucy moved from home and made her living doing domestic work. There is not a lot reported on her life until about twenty years later, when Anderson meets and marries her first husband, Clarence Hicks, in 1920. The two moved to Oxnard, California where Anderson became an irreplaceable part of the community (1, 2). She was both a nanny and a renowned chef, hosting and preparing dinner parties for the wealthiest in the community. In 1929, she divorced Clarence Hicks and was made her way in Oxnard, independently.
When she saved up enough capital, Lucy Hicks Anderson purchased a boarding house, where she ran a brothel and speakeasy (1). She was a necessary and well-respected member of the community, and her notoriety allowed her to more easily partake in illegal activities. Her speakeasy operated during prohibition, and once when she was arrested for selling liquor, a banker paid her bail because she was helping him put on a dinner party that night (1).
Anderson, by all accounts, lead a happy life as a woman until 1945, the year after she married Reuben Anderson, a retired soldier of the US Army. In 1945, when she was fifty-nine, an STI outbreak in the Navy was traced back to her brothel. The investigation required a medical exam of all of the employees of the brothel, including Anderson herself. It was during this exam that the local doctor discovered Anderson was not born a woman and he publicly outed her (1).
Both Anderson and her husband were arrested and tried for perjury by the Venture County District Attorney (2). The DA justified the charge because Lucy and Reuben both signed the marriage certificate, claiming there was no legal objections to the marriage. Of course in 1944, marriage between two men was still very much illegal, and the DA viewed Anderson as, legally, a man (2). During the trial, Anderson was quoted saying, “I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman. I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman” (1, 2). Anderson was sentenced to ten years of probation and avoided prison time for the perjury charge (2). This trial made her one of the first people on record to fight for trans rights.
Unfortunately for Lucy and Reuben, that was not the end of their legal troubles. They were charged and convicted for fraud when it was realized that Anderson collected allotment checks as the wife of a member of the US Army (2). For this charge, both Lucy and Reuben served jail time and when they were released from prison, they were not allowed to live in Oxnard and Anderson was not permitted to wear women’s clothing (2). After they were both released, Lucy and Reuben moved to Los Angeles and lived out the rest of their days out of the public eye until Lucy Hicks Anderson died in 1954 (2).
Lucy Hicks Anderson’s story is like no one else’s in the world. There are a lot of resources online that share her story in addition to the two sites I’ve used as sources. For continuing education, check out the We’ve Been Around project about Lucy (and other transgender pioneers).
New year, same sign-off: Dearest HerStry readers, I’d love to hear your feedback. Suggestions, criticisms, questions, corrections—I want it all! I’m trying to help educate the HerStry community on the badass women of our past, but I still have a lot to learn myself. Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year!
Lucy Hicks Anderson’s Timeline
1886 - born in Waddy, Kentucky (2)
1901 - leaves home at the age of 15 (2)
1920 - marries Clarence Hicks and moved to Oxnard, California (1, 2)
1929 - divorces Clarence Hicks (2)
1944 - marries Reuben Anderson, a retired soldier from the US Army (2)
1945 - outed by doctor conducting medical physical exams of the women in her brothel, including Anderson (2)
1945 - tried and convicted for perjury on the marriage certificate (2)
???? - Anderson and her husband are tried and convicted for fraud, resulting in jail time (2)
???? - Anderson and her husband move to Los Angeles to live out the rest of their days, after being banned from Oxnard (2)
1954 - Anderson dies at age 68, approximately (2)
Sources:
1- https://www.queerportraits.com/bio/anderson
2- https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/lucy-hicks-anderson
Continuing Education:
Ashlee Christinsen lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is an Illinois native - grew up in the Chicago suburbs, went to school at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL, and lived in the city of Chicago up until 2015. In June 2015, she packed up with her partner and moved to the city she has absolutely fallen in love with, Pittsburgh! When she's not at work, she can typically be found in yoga class, working on the next edition of AMPLIFY, cuddling with George the cat, or enjoying trying to figure out what next home improvement task she is going to take on. Follow her nonsense on Twitter: @trashleeinpgh.