00:00Lucy Hicks Anderson was one of the most well-known women in Ventura County during Prohibition.
00:07She hosted famously elaborate parties for the richest folks in town.
00:12While just across the tracks, she ran a boarding house that provided both liquor and women.
00:18And when the people of Ventura found out that she was a trans woman, they challenged her marriage.
00:24And she became the first trans person in history to go to court to fight for it.
00:30In the small town of Waddy, Kentucky, the Lawsons brought their child to a local doctor.
00:44They had a unique situation on their hands.
00:47In 1886, Mrs. Lawson had given birth to a baby boy.
00:52However, their child soon informed them that she was not a boy.
00:57That her name was Lucy.
01:00And that she would be wearing a dress to school.
01:02Thank you very much.
01:04And in a time when this was almost unheard of, the doctor encouraged them to accept Lucy for who she was.
01:11And raise her as a girl.
01:13Lucy left school at 15 and supported herself as a domestic worker.
01:19She headed west at age 20 and married her first husband at age 34 to become Mrs. Lucy Hicks.
01:28The newlyweds settled in Oxnard, California, a booming farm community in Ventura County, 60 miles north of Los Angeles.
01:38Lucy did well for herself in Oxnard, working as a nanny and a cook for wealthy families and catering elaborate parties for the town's elites.
01:49She was successful, well connected, and not afraid to skirt the law.
01:54While she was winning contests for her dinner rolls and fruit cakes, she was also running a boarding house as a brothel and selling illegal liquor.
02:04These were prohibition days, mind you.
02:07She was arrested twice in the 1920s for possession of intoxicating liquor, but used her social connections to avoid any serious consequences.
02:19Once, a wealthy banker even bailed her out just so she could still cater his dinner party that evening.
02:28Lucy continued to work both uptown and underground until 1945.
02:34By this time, she was 59 years old and a fixture in the community.
02:39She had recently married her second husband, Reuben Anderson, a retired soldier.
02:46When the Navy tracked cases of venereal disease back to Lucy's boarding house, the doctor who examined all of Lucy's girls insisted on examining Lucy as well.
02:58That examination revealed her gender history and put her at the center of a scandal that rocked Ventura County.
03:07Lucy was charged with falsifying marriage documents and defrauding the government by claiming her husband's GI benefits.
03:15The court argued that she wasn't legally married to her husband because in their eyes, she was a man.
03:22And of course, marriage was between a man and a woman.
03:27Lucy stood her ground and argued that her lived identity was more valid than what was printed on her birth certificate.
03:36She said, I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman.
03:42I have dressed and acted as just what I am, a woman.
03:48Despite Lucy's defiant declaration to the world, the jury found her guilty of impersonation and fraud.
03:55Her marriage was declared null and void, and in addition to serving time, she was also sentenced to 10 years probation.
04:04What's more, the courts forbid her from wearing women's clothing.
04:09She and Reuben served their time and eventually settled in Los Angeles, living quietly out of the public eye.
04:16Trans people today are still fighting for the right to survive and be who they are.
04:23So when same-sex couples cut their wedding cakes today, may they think of the struggle that still continues and raise a toast to Lucy Hicks Anderson.
04:35Lucy's story is just one of the many untold histories of trans pioneers who have lived, loved, and died in this country.
04:46We have truly been around.
04:48We have truly been around.
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05:19They've been around.
05:20They've been around.
05:21They've been around.
05:22They're still there quien they saw during the Dear God in the old community.
05:23We have truly been around.
05:24They've lived a day.
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05:26It's really amazing.
05:27They've been around.
05:28That we've been around.
05:30Thank you so much for you.
05:31This time we've been around.
05:32We're encouraged the you that are finally together.
05:35We're naszych ministers.
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05:40Everybody took the зем Going shadow,
05:44Now dadurch lose water.
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