Lucy Hicks Anderson was a pioneer in the fight for marriage equality. During the last decade of her life, she made history by fighting for the legal right to be herself with the man she loved. After marrying her second husband, soldier Reuben Anderson, in Oxnard, California in 1944, local authorities discovered that she was assigned male at birth. The couple was charged with perjury for marrying despite their both being legally male, resulting in ten years of probation. She spent nearly sixty years living as a woman, doing domestic work, and working as a madam. Standing up to the charges against her, Anderson once said, "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." Years later, Anderson and her husband were charged again, this time with fraud after she received federal money reserved for military spouses. Both went to prison and were banned from Oxnard upon their release. After her release from prison, she lived the remainder of her life in Los Angeles.
October 01, 2014
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Last updated: April 10, 2015