Fighting for her right to perform, transgender entertainer Sir Lady Java pushed equality forward

“If you can’t be yourself, who can you be?” Sir Lady Java asked in 2022. By fighting for a place for herself in 1960s Los Angeles, the transgender entertainer and activist also made space on and off the stage for those who followed her.

Sir Lady Java was born in Louisiana, and with her mother at her side transitioned in her youth. She eventually moved to Los Angeles. There, she began working as a cocktail waitress at The Redd Foxx Club, owned by the comedian of the same name. It was there she was spotted by columnist and nightlife entrepreneur Gertrude Gipson, who encouraged her to get onstage. Known as a great beauty and a scintillating performer, Sir Lady Java’s star soon started to rise. She eventually played two shows a night, dancing, singing, doing impressions and striptease. According to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, she became “first transgender woman of color to perform” in the city’s nightclubs, and she did so alongside the likes of Sammy Davis, Jr., Ray Charles, James Brown, Richard Pryor, and more luminaries of the time, including Lena Horne, one of her longest-standing inspirations.

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As Java’s profile rose, however, so too did attention from authorities. Billing herself as a female impersonator, the discriminatory Los Angeles city ordinance Rule 9 would soon be used against her. The rule declared “No entertainment shall be conducted in which any performer impersonates by means of costume or dress a person of the opposite sex" and that any venue with such entertainment would now require a permit. This was not a time when transgender identity was as recognized or understood but Java was clever. The first time the police came knocking–at a club in the middle of a performance, no less–she shook them off. The “three-piece rule,” which had been used in many cities to ensnare gender-bending performers, declared that a person had to wear “at least three articles of clothing that corresponded to the sex they were assigned at birth, or they would be arrested for cross-dressing,” the NHM shared, so Java wore a man’s watch, socks, and a bow tie with her bikini, and the cops had to leave in defeat, she remembered. “I had three attorneys in the building and there was one judge to see me, that’s the kind of crowd that I drew,” she recalled proudly.

However, when The Redd Foxx Club applied for a permit to have Java perform, they were turned down. Being denied her right to work based on discriminatory laws, Java took to the streets to protest and to the courts–she appears in a now-famous photograph with Redd Foxx, who was also under threat of arrest if he hired her. They stand outside his club, she in a chic white dress and matching pumps holding up a sign that said “Java vs. Right to work” with a big smile on her face. Beloved by local press and leaders like the aforementioned Gipson, she was able to draw attention to her cause. Java took her case to the California Supreme Court to sue police with the assistance of the ACLU attorney Jean Martin. However, they lost, as the ACLU wrote, “on a technicality — the court ruled that a club owner had to bring the suit against Rule No. 9 for it to be heard.” But Martin and Java couldn’t find club owners to help. It seemed, at least for the moment, that Java and other performers like her would no longer be allowed in Los Angeles.

But Java didn’t back down and continually rallied her fellow performers and supporters around her to protest the laws. About two years later, in 1969, Rule 9 was nullified when another lawsuit related to cabaret went to court, and Java returned to the stage in her signature gorgeous costumes, feathers and sparkles, visible as she was always meant to be. To be as vocal as she was at a time like this was groundbreaking and she’s remembered as a trailblazer for transgender rights. "It's got to stop somewhere, and it won't unless somebody steps forward and takes a stand,” Java said. “I guess that's me."

Upon her passing in November 2024, Java was remembered in publications across the country, and still now. There is also an archive of her press materials at Harvard, and she appears in the 2022 bookLegends of Drag. As actress Hailie Sahar, Java’s chosen daughter, wrote in Out: “Like so many trans girls, I saw myself reflected in her strength, grace, and unapologetic authenticity. For a young trans girl navigating a world that often felt cold and unwelcoming, Sir Lady Java was an icon, a beacon of hope, and living proof that staying true to yourself was a powerful act of defiance.” Sahar will play Java in an upcoming film.