Matthew Wills, in When America Incarcerated “Promiscuous” Women, noted how that the focus on sex work put women living on society’s margins in the crosshairs. “The campaign [against venereal diseases] ended up targeting not the men who visited sex workers, but rather young women and girls—some were even pre-teens—most of whom were poor and non-white. In a pre-penicillin and still very Victorian-influenced era, men were assumed not to be carriers of sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis. Women were blamed and punished accordingly.” Additionally, to test positive for a sexually transmitted infection was taken as proof of prostitution, so any woman who was sexually active, regardless of profession, could be detained. Sometimes, sexual activity itself was a case for detainment. In its most extreme examples, “the panic was such that girls and young women could be taken in simply for being outside without adult supervision.”
Scott wrote, “Government agents interned so many women in this manner that local jail became insufficient. To handle this problem, the [Commission on Training Camp Activities], flush with federal money, began to construct its own detention facilities, or renovate existing ones, to confine infected women for treatment. Ironically, many of these new detention facilities were former brothels.”
In Matthew’s article, medical historian John Parascandola, commented that this response was predictable from an administration that was, at that same time, interning Japanese Americans, as we explored in the stories of Dorothy Toy and Yuri Kochiyama. “‘It is perhaps not surprising that these same officials were also willing to resort to detaining and forcibly treating women who were deemed a threat to the war effort.’ He noted that regardless of these incarcerations, rates of ‘syphilis and gonorrhea continued to be a significant problem among the military and civilian populations in and after World War II.’”
The American Plan warned young soldiers with posters depicting Prostitution as a sensuous grim-reaper madam on the steps of a brothel with her hired ladies Gonorrhea and Syphilis. Yet, soldiers received different, incompatible messages as well. As Matthew described, “Sex workers were also recognized as ‘morale builders’ for the troops; one doctor at the Public Health Service coined the term ‘patriotute’ for the ‘patriotic prostitute’ (terms widely used at the time).”
In October 1945, Lucy and all her women employees were rounded up and taken into custody after a sailor claimed he contracted an STI at her brothel. Scott wrote of the welcome they likely received. “A woman could be subjected to a compulsory examination if she were thought to be a carrier of venereal diseases, a determination sometimes made on the basis of her perceived promiscuity, ‘suspicious conduct,’ or ‘incorrigibility.’ A detained woman was then tested, usually by a male physician, in a highly invasive manner that involved close scrutiny of the genitals and often a blood test.” When subjected to this invasive exam, Lucy’s birth sex was discovered.
As we saw with Mrs. Nash, the information was soon leaked to the newspapers to nationwide ridicule. Time magazine’s writeup about Lucy built to a punchline: “Lucy was a man.” A later letter from the publisher revealed that “Time subscribers ... nominated ‘her’ for Time's Man of the Year.” Many reporters took great care to put every “she,” “her” and “Lucy” in quotation marks. Others simply used male pronouns from start to finish. The difference this time, however, was that Lucy was still alive—and that meant legal charges could follow.
“‘Lucy’ Hicks Enters Not Guilty Plea” read a Ventura County Star headline on Oct. 23, 1945. She had been charged by M. Arthur Waite, the county’s district attorney, with perjury for “fraudulently obtain[ing] a license to wed Rueben Anderson, an army man, here in June, 1944.” This case was ended with a judge’s punishment of 10 years of probation. But much as Mary Jones experienced 100 years earlier, the law was not done with Lucy.
Even before these county charges were resolved, federal charges of dodging the draft and fraud arrived. Lucy produced her Kentucky birth certificate to prove she was 54 years old, beyond the age range of 21 to 45 required to register for the draft in 1940. The fraud charges were harder to evade as that would mean getting the U.S. government to see Lucy and Reuben’s marriage as legitimate.
In October of 1942, the U.S. Department of War had established the Office of Dependency Benefits to provide “financial support for the dependents of men in the armed forces,” thoroughly outlined in the Administration of the Servicemen’s Dependents Allowance Act of 1942. As Rueben’s wife, Lucy had received monthly allotments totaling $1000 (around $16,000 in 2025).
Rueben took a back seat in these articles focused on the spectacle of his wife. He is “Lucy’s Husband” in headlines. But one Los Angeles Tribune piece, highlighting Lucy’s trip to Brooklyn to appear in federal court in April 1947, shared this small glimpse of the couple: “Lucy [took] the stand to protest, ‘Of course I love him’ and the corporal admit[ed] that he ‘was quite fond of her.’” (Some newspapers report they later divorced on grounds of Rueben’s “desertion.”)
Lucy’s own words appeared infrequently, yet a certain dignity and self-assurance emerges despite the ever-present mocking tone of the reporting. Each and every bit of coverage marveled at her continuing to appear in “feminine attire,” describing her outfits like a society page. “Lucy wore a tailored light brown suit, long brown gloves.” Lucy “wore a two-piece woman’s green suit, white blouse, and red shoes…”
Asked on the stand if Reuben was a man, Lucy replied, “Well, he’s supposed to be.”
Asked her age, she first said 32 before “admitting” she was 59, but “a woman isn’t supposed to have any age after 40.”
Asked if she wore wigs, she replied, “If I think I look better with a wig, I do.”
Asked what part of her body she considered feminine, she replied, “For one thing, my chest,” and according to papers, then opened her blouse to show a “very masculine chest.”