#lucy hicks anderson

[elierlick]

Lucy Hicks Anderson transitioned at age 15 in 1901. A talented chef, she earned enough to buy a house for a prohibition-era brothel and speakeasy. She was beloved in her community of Oxnard, California, until she had to move after the district attorney publicly outed her as trans. She went to court for writing "female" on her marriage certificate in 1945. During her trial, she challenged the public: “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.” The jury still convicted her despite her popular reputation. You can read more about her story in C. Riley Snorton's Black on Both Sides.

[queerasfact]

Black History Month: Lucy Hicks Anderson

“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.

-Lucy Hicks Anderson, quoted in The Oxnard Press-Courier, 24 November 1945

Lucy Hicks Anderson was born in 1886 in Waddy, Kentucky. Despite being assigned male at birth, by her own account, Lucy always dressed in girls’ clothes, and was encouraged by her mother and local doctor to live life as a girl.

In 1926, Lucy moved to Oxnard, California. She quickly made a name for herself in the town as an excellent cook and a housekeeper to prominent families. She was respected in her community, raising money during WWII for soldiers abroad, and supported their families at home.

As well as her more legal occupations, Lucy also ran brothels and bars. In 1945, Lucy was arrested following a raid on her brothel, and forced to undergo a medical examination, where it was revealed she was assigned male at birth. This would ultimately lead to three separate legal trials around her gender presentation - one for perjury, one for fraud, and one for evading the draft. Testifying in court, Lucy declared that “I have lived a good citizen for many years in this town and am going to die a good citizen, but I am going to die a woman.” She served around 18 months in prison.

Throughout and following her trial, the community of Oxnard remained supportive of Lucy. It seems some people knew Lucy was trans before her public outing, and simply accepted it. Her obituary in the Oxnard Press-Courier reads: “Nobody in Oxnard mocked Lucy. Her friends, both white and colored offered their sympathy, and still referred to Lucy as ‘her. And Lucy continued to wear women’s clothes, continuted to call herself Lucy Hicks Anderson. That was the name she was using when she died...”

Learn more

[Image: Lucy facing the camera, fashionably dress in a large hat and a  pale jacket]

[emma-dennehy-presents]

Celebrating Black Queer Icons:

Lucy Hicks Anderson

Lucy Hicks Anderson was born in 1886 in Waddy, Kentucky. Anderson is known as a socialite and chef that became well known in Oxnard, California from 1920 to 1946. She became the first black trans woman to defend her identity in a US courts. From an early age Anderson identified as a girl. On advice from doctors, Anderson's parents accepted and supported this. Anderson would attend school in gender affirming clothing, such as dresses, under a name of her own choosing, Lucy. At the age of 15 Anderson left school and began supporting herself through domestic work. At 20 Anderson moved to Pecos, Texas where she worked in a hotel. Anderson next moved to New Mexico, where she met her first husband, Clarence Hicks, in 1920. At age 34 Anderson, and her then husband, moved to Oxnard, California. Anderson proved herself a skilled chef and baker, winning some contests. Anderson's marriage to Hicks eventually ended in divorce. After which Anderson used money she had saved during the marriage to purchase a boarding house. The boarding house served as a front for a brothel, and the sale of alcohol during prohibition. Outside her time as a Madame and managing a boarding house, Anderson also became a well known socialite and hostess. Connections made during this time would prove fruitful during Anderson's subsequent legal troubles. It is said that Charles Donlon, a prominent banker, helped get her out of jail, after her initial arrest, on the grounds that he was hosting a significant dinner party that would have fallen apart without Anderson's involvement. In 1944 Anderson married her second husband, Reuben Anderson. About a year later, in 1945, a sailor claimed to have received a sexually transmitted infection from one of the women working in Anderson's brothel. This led to all women working there being subject to medical examination, including Anderson. When the Ventura County DA was informed that Anderson was assigned male at birth he chose to charge her with perjury on her marriage license. During this trial Anderson would utter the famous lines "I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman." and "I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman". Anderson was ultimately convicted of perjury and sentenced to 10 years probation and her marriage license was deemed invalid. This also led to the Federal Government to charge Anderson with fraud, based on her receiving spousal rights from the GI Bill. Lucy and Reuben Anderson where both found guilty and sentenced to a men's prison. Anderson was forbidden by the court to wear women's clothing during this time. After their release Lucy and Reuben Anderson moved to Los Angeles, California where they lived quietly until her death in 1954, at the age of 68. Debra A Harley and Pamela B Teaster's (editors) Handbook of LGBT Elders (link to Archive.org copy of text) notes Anderson as "one of the earliest documented cases of an African-American transgender person". Anderson is the subject of the 2nd episode of HBO's Equal, where she is portrayed by actress Alexandra Grey.

This was definitely one of the more informative of these write ups, for me. I was familiar with both the quotes Anderson made during her trial, but didnt know anything about the woman. Wilmer "Little Axe" Broadnax has been mentioned in several of these end notes, so he is definitely next. I think i pretty much have the rest of these planned out, but as always, corrections and suggestions are welcome and desired.

[petervintonjr]

Welcome to Pride Month, 2024 (and incidentally also marking the fourth anniversary of the start of this project). Let us kick things off with a look at the life of Lucy Hicks Anderson, who was born in 1886 Kentucky (which should help set some context).

Identifying and dressing/behaving as a woman, Lucy (neé Lawson) was raised by uncharacteristically supportive parents (for the time) and even took the advice of an equally uncharacteristically supportive physician to continue to live as her true self. She worked as a domestic at a Pecos, Texas hotel and studied to become a chef, meticulously saving her money over the next ten years. She moved to Oxnard, California in 1920, where she married her first husband, Clarence Hicks. The couple bought several properties and opened a number of businesses; to include restaurants, a speakeasy, and a bordello (brothel). The couple divorced in 1929 but Lucy continued to operate and manage most of the properties.

Over the Prohibition years Lucy became well-known in her community, donating to local charities and hosting lavish parties for men headed off to war --and also consoling grieving spouses and parents. Lucy had become a well-known socialite and a deeply admired figure in the eyes of local politicians, clergy, and law enforcement alike --even selling bootleg liquor (a practice the local constabulary just never quite seemed to notice!) By the time of her second marriage to U.S. Army soldier Reuben Anderson in 1944, she had purchased nearly $50,000 in war bonds.

After the war, U.S. Navy sailors and officers reported an STD outbreak, which was unfortunately traced back to Lucy's bordello. Over the course of the investigation Lucy's "ruse" was exposed and she and Reuben were both arrested on fraud charges and ultimately charged with perjury since it was illegal for two "men" to be married in the state of California at the time --invalidating Lucy's marriage license and making her the first Black American trans woman to be put on trial for her identity. The fraud charges stemmed from the fact that Lucy had been receiving subsistence allotments as the wife of a soldier.

Lucy defended herself vigorously in court (also making her the first-ever recorded trans person to do so), and while at first was only looking at ten years' probation, ultimately the added fraud charges drew a much harsher sentence, and she and Reuben were sent to separate Federal prisons. They were also banned from the town of Oxnard and a very specific prohibition was laid onto Lucy, forbidding her from ever wearing women's clothing. Upon serving out their sentences in 1950, the couple resettled in Los Angeles. Lucy herself died in 1954.

[valkyries-things]

LUCY HICKS ANDERSON // SOCIALITE

“She was an American socialite and chef, best known for her time in Oxnard, California, from 1920 to 1946. Assigned male at birth, she was adamant from an early age that she was a girl. Her parents, based on advice from doctors, supported her decision to live as one. She later established a boarding house in Oxnard, where she became a popular hostess. In 1945, a year after she married her second husband, she was arrested, tried and convicted of perjury, as the government said she had lied about her sex on her marriage license. After her release from prison, she and her husband moved to Los Angeles.”

[nerdlifeisbetterthanreallife]

#30DaysofPride: Day 1- Lucy Hicks Anderson

It’s pride Month 2024! You know what that means. It’s time for another edition of 30 days of pride! A daily series where I highlight a person in queer history who deserves the recognition! Today’s pick is, Lucy Hicks Anderson, trans icon, Madame, socialite, and pillar of the Oxnard, California community. Lucy Hicks anderson was born in Waddy, Kentucky in 1886. she insisted on wearing girl…

[crunchyspacepeanutbutter]

Black Queer Figures Day 1

In honor of Black History month I’m doing daily research on Black queer figures for a club I run, and I figured maybe people on the internet would be interested in this stuff.

Lucy Hicks Anderson

Lucy, born in Kentucky in 1886,  was assigned male at birth. From an early age, she insisted she was a girl, and the doctor her parents sent her to suggested they just let Lucy live as a girl. As an adult, Lucy became well-known as a socialite and chef. After her first marriage, she bought and ran a brothel. The brothel also supplied illegal liquor during Prohibition. While arrested twice, her notable reputation and connections bailed her out. In 1944 Lucy married soldier Rueben Anderson. In 1945, a venereal disease outbreak occurred at the brothel, and all workers were examined by a doctor. It was during this examination the doctor found out that Lucy was born male. The county court declared her marriage to Anderson invalid and charged her with lying on her marriage license (a marriage was only considered valid if between in a man and a woman, and Lucy was not considered a woman). She was also charged with fraud for receiving payments from her husband under the GI bill. Both she and Anderson were sentenced to prison, and Lucy was not permitted to dress as a man. After their release, the couple moved to Los Angeles and lived there until Lucy's death in 1954.

[queerism1969]

Notable transgender people from history

Here's the list I put together for when people on non-trans subreddits claim we didn't exist until recently:

Ashurbanipal (669-631BCE) - King of the Neo-Assryian empire, who according to Diodorus Siculus is reported to have dressed, behaved, and socialized as a woman.

Elagabalus (204-222) - Roman Emperor who preferred to be called a lady and not a lord, presented as a woman, called herself her lover's queen and wife, and offered vast sums of money to any doctor able to make her anatomically female.

Kalonymus ben Kalonymus (1286-1328) - French Jewish philosopher who wrote poetry about longing to be a woman.

Eleanor Rykener (14th century) - trans woman in London who was questioned under charges of sex work

[Thomas(ine) Hall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas(ine)_Hall) - (1603-unknown) - English servant in colonial Virginia who alternated between presenting as a woman and presenting as a man, before a court ruled that they were both a man and a woman simultaneously, and were required to wear both men's and women's clothing simultaneously.

Chevalier d'Eon (1728-1810) - French diplomat, spy, freemason, and soldier who fought in the Seven Years' War, who transitioned at the age of 49 and lived the remaining 33 years of her life as a woman.

Public Universal Friend (1752-1819) - Quaker religious leader in revolutionary era America who identified and lived as androgynous and genderless.

Surgeon James Barry (1789-1865) - Trans man and military surgeon in the British army.

Berel - a Jewish trans man who transitioned in a shtetel in Ukraine in the 1800's, and whose story was shared with the Jewish Daily Forward in a 1930 letter to the editor by Yeshaye Kotofsky, a Jewish immigrant in Brooklyn who knew Berel

Mary Jones (1803-unknown) - trans woman in New York whose 1836 trial for stealing a man's wallet received much public attention

Albert Cashier (1843-1915) - Trans man who served in the US Civil War.

Harry Allen (1882-1922) - Trans man who was the subject of sensationalistic newspaper coverage for his string of petty crimes.

Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886–1954) - socialite, chef and hostess in Oxnard California, whose family and doctors supported her transition at a young age.

Lili Elbe (1882-1931) - Trans woman who underwent surgery in 1930 with Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, who ran one of the first dedicated medical facilities for trans patients.

Karl M. Baer (1885-1956) - Trans man who underwent reconstructive surgery (the details of which are not known) in 1906, and was legally recognized as male in Germany in 1907.

Dr. Alan Hart (1890-1962) - Groundbreaking radiologist who pioneered the use of x-ray photography in tuberculosis detection, and in 1917 he became one of the first trans men to undergo hysterectomy and gonadectomy in the US.

[Louise Lawrence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Lawrence_(activist)) (1912–1976) - trans activist, artist, writer and lecturer, who transitioned in the early 1940's. She struck up a correspondence with the groundbreaking sexologist Dr. Alfred Kinsey as he worked to understand sex and gender in a more expansive way. She wrote up life histories of her acquaintances for Kinsey, encouraged peers to do interviews with him, and sent him a collection of newspaper clippings, photographs, personal correspondences, etc.

Dr. Michael Dillon (1915-1962) - British physician who updated his birth certificate to Male in the early 1940's, and in 1946 became the first trans man to undergo phalloplasty.

Reed Erickson (1917-1992) - trans man whose philanthropic work contributed millions of dollars to the early LGBTQ rights movement

Willmer "Little Ax" Broadnax (1916-1992) - early 20th century gospel quartet singer.

Peter Alexander (unknown, interview 1937) - trans man from New Zealand, discusses his transition in this interview from 1937

Christine Jorgensen (1926-1989) - The first widely known trans woman in the US in 1952, after her surgery attracted media attention.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (1940-present) - Feminist, trans rights and gay rights activist who came out and started transition in the late 1950's. She was at Stonewall, was injured and taken into custody, and had her jaw broken by police while in custody. She was the first Executive Director of the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project, which works to end human rights abuses against trans/intersex/GNC people in the prison system.

Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002) - Gay liberation and trans rights pioneer and community worker in NYC; co-founded STAR, a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens, gay youth, and trans women

Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992) - Gay liberation and trans rights pioneer; co-founded STAR with Sylvia Rivera

[genderkoolaid]

Hello, I have a question. I have been feeling down recently and I know you've posted about a few trans people in history who were loved and accepted in their communities or by their friends and family. Do you have a list of people like that? It is very encouraging for me to read about trans people in history being loved for who they are

A few I know of off the top of my head:

Alan L. Hart: His grandparents supported his gender expression despite his parent's transphobia. His grandfather would make him boy's toys, and both their obituaries listed him as their grandson. He went on to be a pioneer of tuberculosis medicine by using X-rays to catch the disease early.

Lucy Hicks Anderson: Expressed her female identity at a young age. Her parents were advised by a doctor to raise her as a girl, and they did. She became a skilled chef, a madame, and a bootlegger during Prohibition. She was publicly outed as part of a trial in which her and the sex workers she employed were required to have a medical exam. During the trial, she told the court: "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." I imagine that part of her defiance comes from having had the support of her parents and doctor from such a young age.

Berel-Beyle: Born in a Ukrainian shtetl and known to be GNC, when he was 21 he found a doctor who provided him transition care. When he returned, his community welcomed him back in his new male role. He took part in men's-only prayers and married to his girlfriend. The man who told his story wrote that "In our shtetl, Berel-Beyle always had a good name as a fine, upstanding Jew."

Trygonion: Described in an epitaph, she was a priest/ess of Rhea in the same tradition as the galli, the eunuch priest/esses of Cybele. The English translation starts "Here lies the tender body of a tender being." Philodemus describes them as darling, devout, and compares her to the famously beautiful sex worker Lais. The ending is also beautiful: "Give birth, you holy soil, round the grave-stone of the maenad not to brambles but to the soft petals of white violets."

[tulliok]

For the trans Trixie anon, they should look into Dora Richter and the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, which was a progressive research institute for gender and sexuality in the Weimar Republic during the 1920s. For more USAmerican examples of trans people in the early-mid 20th century: Lucy Hicks Anderson, Alan L. Hart, Billy Tipton, and of course, Christine Jorgensen.

!!!!

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton

goodreads

The story of Christine Jorgensen, America’s first prominent transsexual, famously narrated trans embodiment in the postwar era. Her celebrity, however, has obscured other mid-century trans narratives—ones lived by African Americans such as Lucy Hicks Anderson and James McHarris. Their erasure from trans history masks the profound ways race has figured prominently in the construction and representation of transgender subjects. In Black on Both Sides, C. Riley Snorton identifies multiple intersections between blackness and transness from the mid-nineteenth century to present-day anti-black and anti-trans legislation and violence.

Drawing on a deep and varied archive of materials—early sexological texts, fugitive slave narratives, Afro-modernist literature, sensationalist journalism, Hollywood films—Snorton attends to how slavery and the production of racialized gender provided the foundations for an understanding of gender as mutable. In tracing the twinned genealogies of blackness and transness, Snorton follows multiple trajectories, from the medical experiments conducted on enslaved black women by J. Marion Sims, the “father of American gynecology,” to the negation of blackness that makes transnormativity possible.

Revealing instances of personal sovereignty among blacks living in the antebellum North that were mapped in terms of “cross dressing” and canonical black literary works that express black men’s access to the “female within,” Black on Both Sides concludes with a reading of the fate of Phillip DeVine, who was murdered alongside Brandon Teena in 1993, a fact omitted from the film Boys Don’t Cry out of narrative convenience. Reconstructing these theoretical and historical trajectories furthers our imaginative capacities to conceive more livable black and trans worlds.

Mod opinion: I haven't read this book yet, but it sounds very interesting and is on my tbr.

[transbookoftheday]

Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton

The story of Christine Jorgensen, America’s first prominent transsexual, famously narrated trans embodiment in the postwar era. Her celebrity, however, has obscured other mid-century trans narratives—ones lived by African Americans such as Lucy Hicks Anderson and James McHarris. Their erasure from trans history masks the profound ways race has figured prominently in the construction and representation of transgender subjects. In Black on Both Sides, C. Riley Snorton identifies multiple intersections between blackness and transness from the mid-nineteenth century to present-day anti-black and anti-trans legislation and violence.

Drawing on a deep and varied archive of materials—early sexological texts, fugitive slave narratives, Afro-modernist literature, sensationalist journalism, Hollywood films—Snorton attends to how slavery and the production of racialized gender provided the foundations for an understanding of gender as mutable. In tracing the twinned genealogies of blackness and transness, Snorton follows multiple trajectories, from the medical experiments conducted on enslaved black women by J. Marion Sims, the “father of American gynecology,” to the negation of blackness that makes transnormativity possible.

Revealing instances of personal sovereignty among blacks living in the antebellum North that were mapped in terms of “cross dressing” and canonical black literary works that express black men’s access to the “female within,” Black on Both Sides concludes with a reading of the fate of Phillip DeVine, who was murdered alongside Brandon Teena in 1993, a fact omitted from the film Boys Don’t Cry out of narrative convenience. Reconstructing these theoretical and historical trajectories furthers our imaginative capacities to conceive more livable black and trans worlds.

[queerasfact]

Happy Christmas!

I know Christmas can be a hard time for a lot of queer people, so here’s a few of our podcasts which are more positive and upbeat to brighten your day!

Tove Jansson invented Moomins and lived in an island cabin with her partner

Lucy Hicks Anderson was a trans woman accepted and supported by much of her community in 1940s Oxnard, California

Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners was an activist group in 1980s Britian who stood in solidarity with Welsh miners striking against Thatcher’s pit closures

Our Flag Means Death - just a good time chatting about the joys of seeing positive and diverse queer rep on TV!

We hope you enjoy these <3

[Images: Tove Jansson sitting at a desk covered in models of Moomins, small bipedal hippopotamus-like creatures, holding one of the models; Lucy Hicks Anderson, facing the camera and wearing a large hat and a pale jacket; LGSM banner at Pride in 1985 - with one of the Welsh union lodge banners visible in the background; motley crew of pirates next to the text Our Flag Means Death]

[mae--bee]

Can you share about your dissertation on historical trans men? That sounds interesting

man tumblr just straight up didn't give me a notification about this, sorry this late but here's my overdue, overly long rambling about my diss 🤠

it's basically about trans cowboys. or an analysis of the formation of the "american identity" amd american ideology that was created during the westward expansion (manifest destiny, american exceptionalism, and the caricature of american masculinity), and how these values were (or were not) represented amongst gender nonconforming groups.

Harry Allen (fka Nell Pickerell) was the classic outlaw type, I had over 40 newspaper articles about his crimes - which included marrying multiple women at one time, most of whom were prostitutes he was supporting. he was the poster child for my dissertation cause of how vocal he was about being a man. finding transmen in history is difficult because of the lack of terminology they had to self-identify, and so many women lived as men for financial and personal security. Allen's mother was even known for showing up at the jail where Allen was being held and asking for her son Harry, refusing to listen to anyone who referred to him as Nell or her daughter. there's actually a dissertation from the 1920s in which Allen did an interview regarding his gender identity, which ngl I was so excited when I found it

Charley Parkhurst lived for over 40 years as a man, and is considered by some to be the first 'woman' who voted in America because he was able to vote as a man. he did an interview with Harpers Weekly (Washoe Revisited, you can find it on the way back machine), where the journalist describes him as a well respected and well known man in the community. he was a stagecoach driver who was known as the driver who could do the routes no other driver could. there's an incredible drawing of Parkhurst in the article, where he's shown as a rugged aging man. Parkhurst wasn't outed until after his death

Theodore Hoffman was the girl-bell-boy at hotels who reached out to newspapers in order to have interviews where he could defend his gender identity. he posed a threat to traditional masculinity because unlike Allen, he wasn't a "degenerate" who was hellbent on causing trouble, so his gender identity couldnt be excused as part of an act to disrupt polite society.

if anyone's interested in transwomen, there's a really interesting discussion surrounding transwomen and race, as the only named accounts of transwomen I could find were Mrs Nash, who was a Mexican women (who married 3 different men, 2 who used her for money, and 1 who was her soulmate who loved her until her death), and Lucy Hicks Anderson, who was a socialite Black woman. both women had their race weaponised against them in order to attack their gender identity. they're incredible women and I recommend looking into them more (especially Mrs.Nash, who I have a soft spot for)

There's some really cool articles on Native American gender identities that I didn't manage to touch on in my diss. the rigid gender structures we know today were laregly a response to two-spirit people, in order to keep the American identity white and heteronormative.

Peter Boags "redressing Americas frontier past" is an incredible book for anyone who wants to read about historic transpeople, and he's written a load of articles where he deepdives into individual people. Susan Stykers "transgender history" is also a great read, and branches out from the American West. library of Congress website has a fuck ton of newspaper articles about Harry Allen (search Nell Pickerell, sort by Washington state 1880-1920)

also all my chapter titles were red dead redemption 2 quotes. so that was pretty cool

[biddy-babowo]

I was literally told to "actually research" Trump because I guess I must be wrong huh. I literally went directly to his site, showing his plans for America. One of which he discussed trans ppl and "getting rid of Joe Biden's cruel idea of transgenderism" so lemme spill my spill I guess. Just some quotes from his video that I would like to mention. There's other quotes I could mention but mostly these were best to use in my examples.

"Something never heard of in all of human history"

Christine Jorgensen, the first *widely known* trans woman to get gender reassignment surgery. She was drafted in 1944 and after her military service attended schooling towards her career in photography. She gained permission for her medical transition in 1952 in Europe while studying. She returned to America after transitioning and became a talking point for many.

"Something new"

Chevalière d'Éon, first openly trans person in European history. Fought in the Seven Year's War and spied for France in Russia and England. He was socially transitioned man and even had masculine occupations for 49 years. After being transitioned for many years he was required to detransition after rumours of his actual sex spread in England. He was later forced to live as a woman after he was claimed to have disrespected the king. He complied and was later banished to Tonnerre.

Lucy Hicks Anderson, black trans woman who claimed from a young age she was a girl and with advice from doctors her parents let her live as such. She married her second husband in 1945 which she was arrested for after a year and convicted of prejury. The government said she lied about her sex on her marriage license. After her release, her and her husband went to live in Los Angeles.

Sylvia Rivera, a gay liberation and transgender rights activist. She identified as a drag queen most of her life and described her gender as well as experiences in many interviews. She was a close friend of Marsha P. Johnson cofounder of the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR).

Some quotes about her life that she described in interviews include:"I didn't really come out as a drag queen until the late 60s when drag queens were arrested, what degradation there was. I remember the first time I got arrested, I wasn't even in full drag. I was walking down the street and the cops just snatched me.""People now want to call me a lesbian because I'm with Julia and I say, "No. I'm just me. I'm not a lesbian." I'm tired of being labeled. I don't even like the label transgender. I'm tired of living with labels. I just want to be who I am. I am Sylvia Rivera. Ray Rivera left home at the age of 10 to become Sylvia. And that's who I am."

Her descriptions of herself varies from "gay girl" "gay man" "drag/street queen" and "half sister".Even before these people there is native stories of two-spirited people who are not solely male or female but are purely carriers of God's messages.

"For any age"

Lucky he slipped that in huh? Almost assigned he just didn't want minors socially transitioned, guess not.

[s-2345]

For black history month, I’d like to shed some light on some of my favorite queer people of color. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈💗

1). MARSHA. P JOHNSON ✨

Marsha. P Johnson was an American drag queen born August 24th 1945. Johnson was known for being a prolific queer and trans right advocate. She was also apart of the stone wall riots which sent of a wave of LGBTQ rights and protests. A quote by her:

“Darling, I want my gay rights now. I think it’s about time the gay brothers and sisters got their rights… especially the women.”

2). LUCY HICKS ANDERSON.

Lucy Hicks Anderson was a transgender pioneer for marriage equality. She was known as Americas first ever prominent trans women. Lucy was married to her husband, and paved the way for marriage equality. A quote by her:

“I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am a woman.”

3). BAYARD RUSTIN.

Bayard Rustin was a gay civil rights activist. He is heavily recognized as being a key part in the civil rights movement. He was a prominent gay man during the civil rights movement when there was no space to talk about lesbian and gay issues. A quote by him:

“If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence. If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end.”

4). AUDRE LORDE

Audre Lorde was a lesbian poet. Who made lasting contributions to feminist activism and history. Being known as a fierce advocate for queer, black, and women’s rights. Among her most notable works are “Coal” (1976), “The Black Unicorn” (1978), “The Cancer Journals” (1980) and “Zami: A New Spelling of My Name” (1982). A quote from her:

“I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves.”

5). JAMES BALDWIN

James Baldwin was a American writer and social critic. He is perhaps best known for his 1955 collection of essays, "Notes of a Native Son," and his groundbreaking 1956 novel, "Giovanni's Room," which depicts themes of homosexuality and bisexuality. Which broke social norms and showed that queer people had a place in the books they read. James spent most of his career educating people on black culture and history. And taught more people about homosexuality in a good light. A quote by him:

“Everybody’s journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality.”

————————

Thank you to everyone who read this all the way through! I can’t donate money to organizations but try to do the best I can. We need to start recognizing the wonderful things that have come from the black queer community. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈💗I hope I can do a little bit to positively help.