Lucy Hicks Anderson

Lucy Hicks Anderson (; 1886–1954) was an American socialite, chef, hostess, and philanthropist, 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.

Early life

Lucy Lawson was born in Waddy, Kentucky, on January 9, 1886, as the child of William and Nancy Lawson . From a very early age, Anderson identified as female in a time period before the term transgender existed, and naming herself Lucy. Doctors told Anderson's parents to let her live as a young woman, so they did, and she began wearing dresses to school and being known as Lucy.

Marriages and time in Oxnard

At the age of 15, Anderson left school and did domestic work as a means to support herself.

In 1944, Hicks married Reuben Anderson, a soldier stationed in Long Island, New York. In a later letter from the publisher on January 14, 1946, it is explained that Time subscribers even nominated Anderson for Times "Man of the Year" as a way of criticizing her transgender identity.

During her perjury trial, she stated "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."

One episode of the HBO TV series Equal is based on the life of Anderson.