In 1945, a woman named Lucy Hicks Anderson was arrested for the crime of marrying her husband, Reuben Anderson, a soldier in the US Army.
Lucy Lawson seemingly always knew exactly who she was. In 1886, a beautiful black baby was born to Bill and Nancy Lawson of Waddy, KY. While this child was identified as male, she insisted that she was a girl. She chose the name Lucy and informed her parents that she would be wearing dresses to school.
At this point in history, the term 'transgender' had not yet been coined, and public knowledge about trans people was sadly lacking. Confounded, her mother and father took her to see the local doctor who advised them to raise her as they would any other little girl. Bill and Nancy did just that. And by all accounts, Lucy's childhood and school years were uneventful and happy.
At age 15, Lucy left home, taking domestic work to support herself, then moved west, first to Texas then to New Mexico where she married her first husband, a man named Clarence Hicks, in Silver City, NM. The couple settled in Oxnard, CA, a wealthy community about an hour up the coast from Los Angeles. There, Lucy's culinary skills opened doors for her, and she began to cater elaborate parties for Oxnard's rich and elite. Her rolls and fruitcakes reportedly won many local contests and awards. Lucy worked diligently and tirelessly, and saved nearly every penny she earned from her employment as a domestic worker, a nanny, and a cook. And in 1920, at the age of 34, Lucy managed to save enough to purchase business property — a local brothel.
Lucy's brothel operated between 1920 and 1933, a period in American history known as Prohibition. During this time, selling alcohol was illegal. But as a brothel madam, Lucy had already skipped merrily over the lines of propriety, so she served her customers alcohol anyway.
In 1929, Lucy divorced Clarence Hicks. Not much is known about her marriage or divorce to Clarence, so we can infer that the separation was mutual and uncontested by either party. Lucy kept her business, and kept bootlegging alcohol.
She was busted a few times, but her numerous social connections with wealthy socialites allowed her to avoid any aggressive prosecution. Rumor has it that one wealthy banker even posted her bail so that she could cater his party that evening.
In 1944, Lucy fell in love a second time. At 58 years old, she met and married the love of her life, Reuben Anderson. Reuben was a soldier stationed in Long Island, NY. But their happiness was not to last.
Just one year after their marriage, a sailor claimed he had caught a venereal disease from one of the women at Lucy's brothel. At that time, the law required all sex workers to undergo a medical examination, and the Ventura County examiner insisted on including Lucy. It was at this time that her trans identity was revealed, and subsequently made public. He chose to put her on trial for perjury, arguing that she lied on her marriage licence, impersonated a woman, and stole VA benefits to which military spouses were entitled. After the story ran in a small Pacific coast newspaper, Time Magazine ran an article on Lucy, exposing her as a trans woman to the entire nation.
During her trial, Lucy stated in her defense, "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". However, the court convicted both her and Reuben of perjury, and they were both sentenced to incarceration in a male prison. Lucy in particular was court ordered not to wear women's clothes.
Reuben and Lucy's relationship survived these indignities, somehow. After serving ten long years in a male penitentiary, Lucy and her beloved Reuben retired to Los Angeles, where they quietly lived out the remainder of their lives together. At age 68, Lucy Hicks Anderson died and was mourned by all who knew her.
Lucy Hicks Anderson was not an activist. She was not even known as a trans woman for the vast majority of her life. She simply wanted to live her life, love her loves, and pursue the projects and interests that made her happy. Lucy wanted only one thing out of life, and that was to be the woman she knew herself to be. And it turns out she was willing to fight for that.
On the 20th of May, 1810, a member of the French nobility died. And nobody, including the attending physician who examined the body, knew what to write on their death certificate.
The Chevalier d'Eon had always had a naturally androgenous appearance, a fact which they capitalized on frequently throughout their life. The child of a minor French nobleman, d'Eon enjoyed the benefits of an education, excelling in school, and earning a law degree. After school, they took work as a political writer for a time, and then became secretary to a series of Parisian administrators, working in areas of finance as well as in history and literature.
But in 1756, they joined a secret network of spies known only to King Louis XV, and working without the official knowledge or sanction of the French government. d'Eon's mission was to infiltrate the court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia, and there, conspire with members of a pro-French faction of the Russian government against the Habsburg monarchy of Austria. At the time, Russian border crossings were restricted only to women and children. So, according to d'Eon's memoirs, they were forced to pass convincingly as a woman or risk execution. Thus disguised as "the Lady Beaumont", they served as maid of honor to the Empress.
Years later, d'Eon returned to France, awarded an enormous sum of money for their service to the King, and became Captain of Dragoons - a military title involving mounted cavalry. Later, they served in the Seven Years' War against England. When the war ended, d'Eon themself drafted the peace treaty, and was awarded another handsome sum of money for their efforts, receiving the title "Chevalier" - a French title of nobility roughly translating to "Knight".
In 1763, a series of political machinations saw d'Eon embroiled in a scandal. Having lived in London now for years, d'Eon published a series of letters detailing some (though not all) of their secret dealings as a spy. This breach of diplomatic discretion was scandalous in the extreme, but secured them the sympathy of the English public. In these letters, d'Eon claimed that the new ambassador to England, a man named Guerchy, had tried to poison them at a dinner. Guerchy sued for libel, and d'Eon strangely offered no defense at the trial. They were thus declared an outlaw and went into hiding. Eventually, Louis XV granted d'Éon a pension (possibly a pay-off for d'Éon's silence) and a 12,000-livre annuity, but refused a request to pay off the rest of their debts. d'Eon continued to work as a spy for Louis XV, but lived in political exile in London.
And here is where our story truly begins to get strange.
It was around this time that rumors began circulating in London that d'Eon was actually a woman, despite the fact that they routinely wore their military dragoons uniform, and claimed to be, and have always been a man. A betting pool over their true gender was started on the London Stock Exchange. d'Eon was invited to participate but declined, stating that an examination would be dishonoring whatever the result. After a year without any further updates, the wager was abandoned and the monies returned.
Then, in 1774, King Louis XV died, and d'Eon, sensing an opportunity to return to their homeland, attempted to negotiate an end to their exile. The resulting twenty page treaty permitted d'Eon to return to France, but demanded that they turn over any documents and correspondence from their time as a spy under Louis XV. Additionally, a clause in the treaty demanded that they present themselves as female during the voyage.
So the Chevalier d'Eon, now stylizing themself as the Chevalière d'Eon (a feminized form of the title given to them by Louis XV at the end of the war), and wearing their dragoon uniform, began making plans to return to France. However, now claiming to have always been a woman, they demanded recognition by the French government as such. They claimed that their father had to raise them as a boy, because his father could only inherit from his in-laws if he had a son. King Louis XVI complied with this demand, but required in turn that d'Eon no longer wear the military uniform and instead dress as a woman. Included with the offer was a substantial sum of money for a complete women's wardrobe. Whether it was because d'Eon really was assigned female at birth, as they claimed, or whether it was merely the money and station offered by the new King, d'Eon agreed. So, d'Eon returned to France a woman, and as punishment, was summarily banished to Tonnerre.
For the rest of their life, d'Eon would maintain this presentation, even offering to join with the Americans in the War of Independence, leading a battalion of female fighters against England, though their banishment ultimately prevented it. During this time there are accounts of the Chevalière d'Eon fencing, fighting, and participating in duels with other French nobility, always presenting as the woman they claimed to always have been. After the French Revolution, the king's pension vanished, and d'Eon was forced to sell much of their possessions to survive - though they did not give up their female attire. In 1809 at the age of 80, d'Eon suffered a fall and became paralyzed and bedridden. They died in poverty in 1810 at the age of 81.
But their story doesn't quite end there.
The surgeon who examined d'Éon's body after their death attested in their post-mortem certificate that d'Eon had "male organs in every respect perfectly formed", while at the same time displaying feminine characteristics such as "unusual roundness in the formation of limbs", as well as "breasts remarkably full". Though buried in an unmarked pauper's grave, there exists to this day a memorial in London listing the Chevalier d'Eon as one of the important graves lost to time.
Even by modern standards, the Chevalier/Chevalière d'Eon's gender identity is a bit of an enigma. Some have suggested they may have been intersex. Some choose to interpret their story as transgender or gender fluidity. Some have even coined a term - "eonism" - to describe similar cases of gender nonconformity.
In 1968, at 30 years old, Lynn Conway transitioned. In doing so she lost her wife, her children, and her job at IBM. She continued on, living authentically as her true self and continued her career as an electral engineer. In 1978 she became an associate professor at MIT and taught a course in VLSI (very large scale integration) that became the basis of the Mead-Conway VLSI Design Methodology, changing how we design integrated circuits. In 1985 she became a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Michigan, and later the associate dean of engineering.
32 years after transitioning, Conway came out publicly as a transgender woman. Since than she has been a advocate for transgender people in the tech sector. In 2020 IBM formally apologized for firing Conway for being trans, over 50 years after the fact. Just a bit of #transHistory I learned today.
On this day 90 years ago the Nazis ransacked the first gender clinic in the West.
On May 6, 1933, a Nazi student group marched to the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin. With members of the SA, they ransacked the institute and looted its library and archives. Days later, the stolen books, artifacts, and clinical files were destroyed in one of several public book burnings organized across Germany. A bust of Hirschfeld was paraded through the streets on a stick before being thrown onto the bonfire.
Wendy Carlos won multiple Grammy awards for pioneering the use of synthesizers in her music. She composed the original soundtrack for Tron. She also happenes to be trans.
90 years ago, four months after taking power, the Nazis targeted this groundbreaking institute that researched gender & sexuality. They ransacked and looted its contents, which became part of the book burnings of May 10.
Dora Richter, the first known person to undergo complete male-to-female gender reassignment surgery, was either killed in this attack or was arrested and died in custody.
Trans people have always been around. Alan L Hart medically transitioned in 1917 and his experiences as a trans man influenced the novels that he wrote. He was a radiologist who made massive contributions to research on tuberculosis.
In July of 1862, at age 18, Albert D.J. Cashier, wearing male clothes, and presenting as a man, enlisted in the Army, answering President Lincoln's call for soldiers. Even before this, he had already adopted his male name and presentation for many years prior, working at a shoe factory and on a farm as a hired hand.
Albert was then trained to be an infantryman of the 95th regiment at Camp Fuller and assigned to Company G, where he fought to liberate the Confederate strongholds of Columbus, KY, and Jackson, TN. His regiment was then ordered to become part of the Army of the Tennessee under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. At one point, he was actually captured by the Confederate army, but managed a daring escape, rejoined his regiment, and then laid siege to Vicksburg against the very army that had captured him just days prior. The siege lasted over a month, and was the last remaining Confederate stronghold along the Mississippi River. The importance of this battle cannot be understated. Capturing Vicksburg completed the second phase of Lincoln's "Northern Strategy", called the Anaconda Plan. Lincoln himself called Vicksburg "the key to the war". Under Grant, Albert Cashier fought in at least 40 battles, including Vicksburg and the Battle of Spring Hill.
After the war, Albert returned to civilian life and continued to live and work as a man until his declining mental health finally placed him in a mental institution where his birth sex was discovered and he was stripped of his military pension and forced to wear a dress. Fortunately, Albert was able to prove he was the same person who fought in the war, and his pension was reinstated. He is buried with full military honors in his uniform.
It's Throwback Thursday! Billy Tipton was a saxophonist and pianist who was popular in the 1940s and 1950s. When he died in 1989, people found out that he was trans. Trans people have always been part of our communities.
After the Armistice of 1918, immediately it was safe to travel to Europe, the mother of the child who grew up to become Ewan Forbes-Semphill, took them to see the foremost experts on transgender people at the time and sourced the early form of drugs that would help avert the irreversible effects of female puberty and allow them to grow up a young man. Transgender hormone therapy is really that old #TransHistory
In July of 1862, at age 18, Albert D.J. Cashier, wearing male clothes, and presenting as a man, enlisted in the Army, answering President Lincoln's call for soldiers. Even before this, he had already adopted his male name and presentation for many years prior, working at a shoe factory and as a farmhand.
Albert was trained to be an infantryman of the 95th regiment at Camp Fuller and assigned to Company G, where he fought to liberate the Confederate strongholds of Columbus, KY, and Jackson, TN. His regiment was then ordered to become part of the Army of the Tennessee under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Under Grant, he fought in at least 40 more battles, including Vicksburg and Spring Hill.
After the war, Albert continued to live and work as a man until declining mental health placed him in a mental institution where his birth sex was discovered and he was forced to wear a dress. He is buried with full military honors in his uniform.
Bobbie Lea Bennett campaigned for access to transition related surgery in the US to be covered by Medicare. Her campaign forced Medicare officials to recognise transition related surgeries as essential. Bobbie was also a disability rights campaigner.
There's this myth that trans people are a 'new phenomenon' or that people 'can always tell' if someone is trans. But there's so much evidence to prove otherwise.
Take Willmer 'Little Axe' Broadnax, a popular gospel singer in the 1940s. People only found out that he was trans after his death in 1992.
Trans people have always been around. Alan L Hart medically transitioned in 1917 and his experiences as a trans man influenced the novels that he wrote. He was a radiologist who made massive contributions to research in tuberculosis.
You can read more by revisiting the article linked in bio, scroll to 'featured articles' to find it.
Alt text: Grey scale photo of Alan L Hart in a suit and smoking a pipe. Text as in post.
Many trans people have made important contributions to society. For example, Ben Barres was a ground-breaking neuroscientist who also used his experiences as a trans man to highlight sexism in science.
"James Barry born 1789, Barry was a British Army surgeon. Before he died he left behind a remarkable professional legacy and a simple request: that his body remain unexamined after his death and that he be buried in the clothes he was wearing when he died."
Self-determination for trans people is nothing new. Sir Ewan Forbes changed the sex on his birth certificate in the 1940s, announced his new name in the newspaper and legally married his wife. His cousin challenged the change for reasons of inheritance, but the judge ruled in Ewan’s favour.
Self-determination for trans people is nothing new. Sir Ewan Forbes changed the sex on his birth certificate in the 1940s, announced his new name in the newspaper and legally married his wife. His cousin challenged the change for reasons of inheritance, but the judge ruled in Ewan’s favour.
Frances Thompson is thought to be the first trans woman to testify before a U.S. Congressional Committee. Her 1866 testimony was in relation to a riot in Memphis in which many African-Americans were murdered, raped and injured. Frances was later arrested on charges of “transvestism”, an arrest which was used to discredit the testimony she had made.
This is the site of the place in Islington where trans people used to meet, socialise and swap advice back in the 1970s, long before search engines and online pharmacies. There were groups like this around the country as described in my book Trans Britain. These were places you could rely on finding someone with the contacts to get you the hormones you wanted — at a price. #TransHistory is the manual for when the trans present gets tricky. Sad if we have to go back there.
Andrea Jenkins is a politician, poet, activist and community historian. She was the first Black trans woman to be elected to public office in the United States and continues to work for the whole community.
“Transgender people have been here forever…I look forward to more trans people joining me in elected office and all other kinds of leadership roles in our society." Andrea Jenkins