5. Lucy Hicks Anderson: The Black American Transexual who pioneered marriage equality
Tobias Lawson was born in Kentucky in 1886. From his earliest childhood, he identified as female, insisting on girl’s clothes- and being referred to by the name ‘Lucy.’ Tobias’s desperate mother took him to see a doctor, who was surprisingly enlightened for the times and suggested that she raise her son as a girl. After school, Lucy worked as a domestic and in a hotel. Then in 1920, she married her first husband, Clarence Hicks. The couple moved to California, where Lucy saved up to open a brothel. In 1929, she divorced Hicks, remaining single until she married soldier Reuben Anderson in 1944.
Throughout this whole time, no one doubted that Lucy was biologically female (although her two husbands must have known the truth!). However, in 1945, the secret was out, and the authorities decided to prosecute her for fraud as she had married as a woman when she was physically male. Lucy, however, remained defiant. “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.” She declared. The court placed her on probation for ten years. However, the US army was less sympathetic, and the following year, Lucy served time for receiving allotment cheques as Reuben Anderson’s wife.