Milton B. Matson

Milton B. Matson (circa 1852-July 3, 1907) is notable for being one of the earliest recorded American crossdressers who gained notoriety through media attention. He was a transgender man and crossdresser who was arrested in San Francisco in January of 1895 after a warrant was issued for his arrest for obtaining money under false pretense in Los Gatos, California. At the time, San Francisco had its own crossdressing laws that prohibited the act in public. Although Matson was not arrested under these charges, he was made a spectacle by the media which published sensational articles on Matson's "true" identity as a woman. Matson was eventually released and spent some time on display as part of a local dime museum.

Matson's gender identity was debated during the late 19th century. At this time, American society existed within the confines of a gender binary where sex and gender was either male or female. People who didn't conform to stereotypical masculine or feminine gender expressions were often unprotected classes of citizens. Matson eventually returned to court to in 1903 to assert recognition for his gender identity as a male.

Arrest Matson first made headlines in a San Francisco Examiner report published on January 28, 1895. In early January of 1895, Milton B. Matson was arrested at 103 Larkin Street under charges of gathering money under false pretense.

Matson eventually agreed to leave the county jail while wearing women's clothing, but ended up leaving jail after three weeks dressed in men's clothing. However, in his statement, he also stated his wish to go back to Australia once freed. In addition, he made a statement on his fear of San Francisco. In the February 1, 1895 San Jose Daily Herald a journalist noted that he had known Matson during his time in Australia, and that he had uniformly presented as a man there while working in the real estate business.

Public Spectacle Milton B. Matson joined the San Francisco dime museum scene once he gained notoriety from his arrest. Frank Clifton, a manager of a small dime museum, offered Matson a position to sit on public display while wearing men’s clothing. Needing money, Matson accepted the job offer and became “The Bogus Man” for five weeks. Part of his contract included the inability to wear men’s clothing in public for the sole purpose of enticing people to pay to see him on display.

San Francisco Cross-Dressing Law In 1863, San Francisco passed a cross-dressing law that banned cross-dressing in public areas. Public cross-dressing was now illegal as part of a widespread trend against indecency. This law arose due to large demographic changes within the San Francisco population and general cultural anxieties over peoples' behavior. The law targeted clothing reformers, gender impersonators, and people who displayed physical anatomy that differed from their legal gender identification. The law assumed bad intent and did not acknowledge the nuanced reasons of people choosing to wear different clothing for personal or practical reasons.

The population was growing in the tens of thousands due to the migration of young men for the promise of economic freedom and development of capital with the Gold Rush. Even before the 1863 law was passed, many men and women participated in cross-dressing activities. Men took on feminine roles such as domestic labor and also participated in dances and masquerade balls as the "lady partner" while wearing women's clothing.

Dime museums followed the now controversial tradition of freak shows. Freak shows trace their origin back to the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century throughout Western Europe in gardens and parks. Popularity grew as decades passed until the height of their popularity one hundred years later. Although freak shows were primarily part of entertainment displays such as those in fairs, museums, or circuses, they were also frequently associated with markets and even gardens. These forms of entertainment accentuated exoticism and non-traditional differences such as different skin colors, languages, and other physical abnormalities. However, this emerged in relation to the “othering” of non-European or non-Western civilization.