The Great Race for Coverage | Bobbie Lea Bennet (1947- 2019): Not Just Cistory

There’s a saying ‘Those who don’t learn their history are doomed to repeat it’ credited to George Santayana, a Spanish Philosopher (Virginia Tech). There’s another saying as well… ‘wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey,” which is attributed to the Doctor. Both suggest that, in their own ways, time is a loop. For those of us who are familiar with Trans and Queer History (either through research or living it) and are currently experiencing current events in the United States this feels extra relevant. 

At the time of the writing of this blog post “25 states have enacted laws/ policies limiting youth access to GAC [Gender Affirming Care]” (Kates, 2024). There have also recently been court cases regarding transgender individuals’ ability to have their insurance covering their Gender Affirming Care, particularly surgeries. 

Just this year “[a] federal appellate court in Richmond became the first in the country to rule that state health-care plans must pay for gender-affirming surgeries” (Weiner, 2024). Just next door,”[i]In West Virginia, transgender Medicaid users challenged the state’s program, which since 2004 has by law banned “transsexual surgeries…. [and] In North Carolina, state employees challenged their coverage, which in 2018 excluded surgical treatment of gender dysphoria — the clinical diagnosis of a disconnect between a person’s gender and birth sex”  (Weiner ,2024). The fight for state and federal healthcare programs to cover gender-affirming care for transgender individuals is still very much ongoing.

And now we come to the subject of this installment of ‘Not Just Cistory’, Bobbie Lea Bennett. What Bennett is most known for, perhaps, is not only being the first person to have her gender-affirming care (commonly referred to as sex-reassignment surgery or SRS at the time) covered by her insurance but for forcing Medicare to keep to their word to do so.

Early Life

Bobbie Lea Bennett was born on March 31st 1947 with osteogenesis imperfecta (Phoenix, 2022). Hopkins Medicine explains that “Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is an inherited (genetic) bone disorder that is present at birth. It is also known as brittle bone disease” (Johns Hopkins, 2022). This condition meant that she was a lifelong wheelchair user and that she was familiar with society’s response to someone who was different and needed medical treatment to alleviate the suffering caused by this difference.

Insurance Bait and Switch

Not much is available online about Bobbie Lea’s life, until the late seventies. Bennett was receiving transition services “through the Gender Identity Clinic at Galveston, Texas… [and] she had been told that the cost of her surgeries would be covered by Medicare under Social Security’s disability benefits program.” (p. 245, Matte). 

However, after receiving this life-changing surgery, she was denied coverage by Medicare, allegedly with no reason given for this change in tone (Phoenix, 2022) It was reported, later that year, that the decision had been reversed  “after ‘irate taxpayers’ flooded the Medicare offices with the phone calls opposing state payment for sex reassignment surgery under any circumstance” (p. 246, Matte).
It’s not hard to imagine, even 46 years later, angry citizens x-ing (is that what we call tweeting now? I’ve never been clear on that) about how ‘this is why Obamacare is ruining this country!!’. It’s certainly not an extinct mindset, as the many, many different cases currently being made to obstruct access for trans youth to life-saving health care.

Fighting Back

Regardless of the reason for the decision, Bennet decided to fight back.  She “mounted a very public media campaign to claim what she saw as her rightful benefits. She drove from her home in San Diego, first to the White House and then to Medicare Director Thomas M. Tierney’s office at Medicare headquarters in Baltimore, which she refused to leave until he would meet with her” (p. 246, Matte).

As a transgender woman who was also disabled, she qualified for medicare, and its coverage of her medical procedures, regardless of whether being transgender was considered a disability or not. This was different from other contemporary cases, which had relied on the idea that being transexual (as it was referred to at the time) was a disability, and therefore, the medical procedures to help mitigate it, ought to be covered by Medicare (p. 245 Matte). This intersectional identity gave Bobbie Lea Bennett an advantage of sorts, in terms of her argument.

Between the publicity her case had received, her right to coverage due to her existing disability outside of her gender, and her determination to see things through, “three days after their meeting, she received a cheque in the mail for $4600” (p. 246, Matte )  which would be worth $22,191.47 in today’s money, according to US Inflation Calculator. According to Transition, when the Los Angeles Times picked up the story, “Medicaid denied that the purpose of the cheque was to cover her sex-reassignment surgery and claimed that they were simply correcting a bureaucratic error in payments owed” (p. 246, Matte ).

Support & Connection

As well as having the support of the Medicare board (no matter how reluctant it was), Bennett seems to have had a supportive family. Four years later, in 1981, Bobbie’s sister, gave birth to a child, acting as a surrogate for Bobbie and her husband (Seattle Daily Times). This was another instance of Bobbie being in the news, as the Seattle Daily Times published a small article on January 17th, 1981 about the event.

Bennett was the host of “‘Barbie’s Talk Show’ which aired in Austin Texas….[it] was a community television program to raise public awareness about handicapped accessibility issues” (Honaker forest Lawn, 2019). “Bobbie founded the St. Tammany Organization for the Handicapped” as well as her talk show (Honaker Forest Lawn, 2019). Her understanding of creating visibility around an issue, and the importance of connecting with an audience may have helped her harness the media power she needed to make her cross-country trek a success.

Conclusion

Bennett has also been an inspiration to others, looking to create a conection and visibility for disability rights. The  screenplay, titled ‘Emily Driver’s Great Race Through Space and Time’ “follows 12-year-old Emily as she sets off on a time-traveling trip across the country after being denied a request for a needed wheelchair. On her journey, she meets leaders who fought for equal rights for people with disabilities throughout history” (Pierce, 2020) The creators, Mozgala and Brenner directly credit Bobbie Lea Bennett as a source of inspiration for the piece (Pierce, 2020).

Sometimes it’s hard to feel like we, as a queer and trans community, are making any progress when it seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same. To combat this feeling of hopelessness that comes with cyclical oppression, it’s essential to look to our elders and learn from their experiences, as well as to work together with and learn from other marginalized communities. We may not be a part of them, but many members of the trans and queer communities have intersectionalities that fall encompass those experiences.

Bibliography

Johns Hopkins University. (2022, July 19). Osteogenesis imperfecta. Johns Hopkins Medicine. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/osteogenesis-imperfecta#:~:text=What%20is%20osteogenesis%20imperfecta%20in,formed%20normally%2C%20and%20other%20problems.

Kates, L. D. and J. (2024c, August 22). Policy tracker: Youth access to gender affirming care and state policy restrictions. KFF. https://www.kff.org/other/dashboard/gender-affirming-care-policy-tracker/

Matte, N. (2014, November). Historicizing liberal American transnormativities: Medicine, Media, activism, 1960-1990 (thesis). Historicizing Liberal American Transnormativities: Media, Medicine, Activism, 1960-1990. University of Toronto. Retrieved August 23, 2024, from https://hdl.handle.net/1807/68460.

Obituary for Bobbie Lea Peterson at Honaker Funeral Home. Obituary | Bobbie Lea Peterson of Madisionville, Louisiana | Honaker Funeral Home. (2019). https://www.honakerforestlawn.com/obituary/bobbie-peterson

Phoenix, B. (2024, May 7). LGBT+ History month X disabled students group - Bobbie Lea Bennett. THE HOOT. https://thehootstudents.com/lgbt-history-month-x-disabled-students-group-bobbie-lea-bennett/

Pierce, J. R. (2020, March 2). Disability takes the wheel in “Emily driver.” AMERICAN THEATRE. https://www.americantheatre.org/2020/03/02/disability-takes-the-wheel-in-emily-driver/

Sister of transsexual bears baby boy for her. (1981, January 17). Seattle Daily Times. Retrieved August 23, 2024, from https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/j96020802.

Virginia Tech. (2019, January 8). History repeating. College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences | Virginia Tech. https://liberalarts.vt.edu/magazine/2017/history-repeating.html

Weiner, R. (2024, April 29). Court says state health-care plans can’t exclude gender-affirming surgery - The Washington Post. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/04/29/gender-affirming-surgery-state-health-care-plans/ 

Mother of Multiplayer | Danielle Bunten Berry (1949- 1998): Not Just Cistory

I am often momentarily convinced by the narrative continually being forced upon us by angry gamer bros, that gaming has always been an entirely male industry, only recently opening its gates to women, but, despite what the trolls and misogynists say in the comments section, that simply isn’t true. In 1964, the first narrative video game was written by a woman; Mabel Addis, a teacher who wanted her students to be more engaged in her lessons on ancient Sumeria (Wilaret, 2019).   

From there, women’s involvement in gaming only grew. It is estimated that, in 1989, a mere 3% of video game developers were women, and in 2013 it was 12% (Gracer, 2013). Flash-forward to the year 2021 and Statistica says that 30% of game developers are women (and 8% are nonbinary, gender fluid/genderqueer, two-spirited, or transgender) (Clement, 2023). Suffice it to say that women have always been a part of creating video games, even if at a minuscule percentage. 

In 1989 Danielle Bunten Berry’s game M.U.L.E had already been published for six years, she was three years away from coming out publicly as a woman and beginning her transition, and eighteen years away from (post-humously) being added to the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame (Costikyan, 2023). 

Berry is far from being the only transgender woman to help shape video games into what they are. She is in the company of other talented individuals such as Veda Hlubinka-Cook, Cathryn Mataga, Rebecca Heineman, and Jamie Fenton (Johnson, 2021), but she is the subject of our focus for this entry into the Not Just Cistory series

Early Life

Danielle Bunten Berry was born “February 19, 1949, in St. Louis, Missouri… [the first] of six children” (Costikyan, 2023). Danielle and her family moved to “Little Rock [Arkansas] in 1965, and Bunten lived in and around Little Rock until the last years of her life, when she moved to Palo Alto, California” (Costikyan, 2023).

Even during her childhood, games were an important part of Danielle’s life. In an interview, she states “When I was a kid the only times my family spent together that weren't totally dysfunctional were when we were playing games” (Hague, 1997). She goes on to explain how this influenced her philosophy when creating games, saying “Consequently I believe games are a wonderful way to socialize” (Hague, 1997). This philosophy is evident in across her career and has left an indelible mark on gaming as a whole.

As a teen and young adult “Bunten worked at a drugstore and as an assistant scoutmaster for a Boy Scout troop to provide extra money [to support her family]. Bunten graduated from Catholic High School for Boys” in Little Rock (Costikyan, 2023). 

A potent combination of intelligent and enterprising, “In 1971, Bunten opened a bicycle shop, the Highroller Cyclerie, near the University of Arkansas… and received a degree in industrial engineering from UA in 1974. Bunten’s first job involved doing mathematical modeling of urban systems for the National Science Foundation” (Costikyan, 2023).

Entering the Game Designing World

Right from the start of her game developer career, Bunten was an innovator, her “first game, 1978’s ‘Wheeler Dealers,’ [sic] was the first personal computer game that was packaged in a printed box, and one of the first — if not the first — computer games that allowed for more than two players” (Koon, 2012). 

Her innovative spirit and philosophy of communal gaming were evident, as “the game shipped with four custom-built controllers made from red wooden macrame beads with a single button glued into one end, which players used to make stock-market-like trades while competing against one another” (Koon, 2012).

She continued on her entrepreneurial path, when “in 1979, Bunten partnered with her brother and a few friends to found the game company Ozark Software [sic]. The group ran the organization from Bunton’s [sic] basement…” (AtariWomen).

A Cult Classic and Rockstar Status

The company began to take off when “[i]n 1982, Bunten was selected by Electronic Arts (EA), a recently founded company, as one of a handful of ‘electronic artists’ it published, and Ozark developed five games for EA over the next few years” (Costikyan, 2023).

One of the games that Bunten Berry was tasked to write for EA was M.U.L.E, which would become the cult classic she is most known for (Hague, 1997). Released in:

[1983, it is], a turn-based strategy game that could accommodate up to four players at the same console. An exercise in supply and demand economics, the game forces the players, who represent settlers on the planet of Irata, to compete over food, energy, and mineral resources (Costikyan, 2023).

M.U.L.E is sometimes considered to be a monetary failure, but in a 1997 interview Bunten Berry disagreed, saying:

given some caveats, it didn't do all that badly. It sold 30,000 copies, and for a game whose home platform–the Atari 800–went out of production just months after its release, that ain't bad. Also, although we ported it to the C64 it had a very poor solo capability but still sold good numbers there too (Hague, 1997)

Proving that she and her design company were not just one-hit-wonders, Ozark Softscape’s next game Seven Cities of Gold did even better, selling five times as many copies (Koon, 2012). Ozark Softscape and Danielle Bunten Berry had made their mark on the gaming industry, even if it wasn’t initially evident. 

EA, however, seemed to sense this (or maybe they just wanted to broaden their market, by making gaming look cool), treating Danielle Bunten Berry and her colleagues almost like rockstars:

a famous publicity shot of the Ozark Softscape team created for EA shows programmers Bill Bunten, Jim Rushing, Alan Watson and Dan[i] Bunten lounging picturesquely on a bench with a dog while a hot blonde sips a drink nearby, the four looking decidedly more like Lynyrd Skynyrd than a bunch of game geeks (Koon 2012).

Leaving EA

However, this honeymoon phase/world tour couldn’t continue forever. After creating several games for the company “Ozark and EA fell out over a new version of M.U.L.E. and EA’s insistence that it include combat, which Bunten felt was a betrayal of the game’s intent and aesthetic” (Costikyan, 2023).

Ozark Softscape did go on to create two more game titles, now working with Micropose, but they never did recreate the monetary success of their earlier titles, particularly Seven Cities of Gold (Koon, 2012). Melanie Bunten Stark, Danielle’s eldest, says that money was never the goal for her, she was in it for the love of the game (Koon, 2012). (Okay that was a dumb joke, but I just watched the first episode of Fallout, bear with me.)

Becoming Ms. Danielle Berry

In 1992, after the end of her third marriage, Danielle announced to people in both her personal and professional life, that she was a woman, and was beginning her transition (Costikyan, 2023). Danielle described Transition as “the name given to the time when your old pronoun doesn't fit anymore but neither does the new one” (Hague, 1997). In November of that year, she underwent gender-affirming surgery, which was, at the time called sex-reassignment surgery (Costikyan, 2023).

Another thing that was changed by her transition, was Bunten Berry’s involvement in the video game industry. In 1997 she described her new life and new priorities:

I'm a little more than three years into my new life role as Ms. Danielle Berry, and her career looks to be somewhat different from old Mr. Dan Bunten's. For one thing I'm not as good a programmer as he was. I'm also not as willing to sit for hours in front of a computer to make something that other people can use to socialize. I tend to need to socialize far more often than he did. Thus, I do design and consulting rather than programming and development. However, with my background I seem uniquely suited to this business so I think I'll stay around in one form or another for as long as they'll have me (Hague).

End of Life

Around the time of the publication of what would end up being her final game, Warsport, for MPath, an online gaming publisher, Bunten Berry was diagnosed with lung cancer, which would eventually kill her (Koon, 2012). 

In May of the following year, she was honored with an award for lifetime achievement from the Computer Game Developers Association. Two months later Danielle Bunten Berry passed away at the age of 49 on July 3, 1998(Koon, 2012). 

This award, given mere weeks before her death was not the last she would receive; indeed in 2007, she was added to the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame (Costikyan, 2023).

Conclusion

However, her impact, in my opinion, is more deeply felt in the world of gaming today, than in any (well-deserved) award she received before or after her death. She has inspired developers like Will Wright, original designer of the Sims franchise, as well as Sid Meier, designer of the Civilization games (Costikyan, 2023), as well as multiplayer games at large.

She really was the mother of multiplayer. Not that someone else couldn’t have come up with what she did, but she did. It was her boundless creativity and ingenuity that started the evolution of what would become a core part of video games today.

Her belief that video games could be just as social as the board games she treasured with her family changed the trajectory of the industry in ways any other developer might not have, had they pioneered the radical idea of multiplayer instead.

Trans women and cis women have always been a part of gaming, even if their identities have been unknown to the public, and it is foolish to assume otherwise. Games have always been for whoever wants to play, and their creation is the same.

Bibliography

Atari. (2019, March 6). Danielle Bunten Berry. atariwomen. https://www.atariwomen.org/stories/danielle-bunten-berry/ 

Clement, J. (2023, December 12). Global Game Developer Gender 2021. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/453634/game-developer-gender-distribution-worldwide/ 

Costikyan, G. (2023, September 7). Danielle Bunten Berry (1949–1998). Encyclopedia of Arkansas. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/danielle-bunten-berry-4524/ 

Graser, M. (2013, October 1). Videogame biz: Women still very much in the minority. Variety. https://variety.com/2013/digital/features/womengamers1200683299-1200683299/ 

Hague, J. (n.d.). Danielle Berry. In Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers. interview, Dadgum Games. Retrieved from https://dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/BERRY.HTM. 

Johnson, S. (2021, May 30). Seven trailblazing LGBT+ pioneers who helped to shape video gaming as we know it. PinkNews. https://www.thepinknews.com/2021/05/30/lgbt-video-game-pioneers-david-gaider-danielle-bunten-berry-gaming/ 

Koon, D. (2019, April 26). Dani Bunten changed video games forever. Arkansas Times. https://arktimes.com/news/cover-stories/2012/02/08/dani-bunten-changed-video-games-forever?oid=2059426 

Willaert, “Critical Kate.” (2022, November 25). The Sumerian game: The most important video game you’ve never heard of. A Critical Hit! https://www.acriticalhit.com/sumerian-game-most-important-video-game-youve-never-heard/

Success and Souffle | Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886- 1954): Not Just Cistory

Our first entry for the Not Just Cistory series is an entrepreneur and a businesswoman, who became famous across the United States during the first half of the twentieth century, for her business skills, her ability to host a party, and her fashion sense.

Early Life

Lucy Hicks Anderson né Lawson was born in “Waddy, Kentucky in 1886” (Keehnen & Salvo) and was adamant that she was a girl from birth, insisting that she wore dresses to school. Her doctor advised her mother to let her live as a girl, as it was obvious that she was in fact, a girl. Lucy received the support of her family and was able to live nearly her entire life as her true self. (Coren & Snorton, 2022)

Based on the 1900 census, Lucy spent her early years working for the Waddy family before moving away from home at age 15 (Keehnen & Salvo). During her travels, she met the man who would become her first husband; “Clarence Hicks, in New Mexico” (Coren & Snorton, 2022).

Entrepreneurial Success

She settled in the small town of Oxnard California in Ventura County, the home of a “major sugar factory that attracted blue-collar workers from the surrounding areas in Mexico” (Coren & Snorton, 2022).

Noticing a gap in the market, Lucy started “the only house of prostitution in Oxnard” (Hicks, Lucy L. [Tobias Lawson]).

During this time she was also “a renowned chef and hostess for wealthy families throughout her community” (Walker, 2018). She was a fantastic cook and was able to use this to traverse racial and gender lines in the community (Coren & Snorton, 2022).

A 1945 article after Lucy Hicks Anderson was outed notes her skills as a chef: “By the time she opened her first house of prostitution, off Oxnard's crib-bordered China Alley, her genius in the kitchen was the talk of the town” (CALIFORNIA: Sin & Souffl [sic] 1945). Even in ‘disgrace’ the society of the time was singing the praises of her cooking, a skill associated with women.

The Heart of a Community

She also remarried in 1944, to “a soldier named Ruben Anderson” (Coren & Snorton, 2022). During this period of the late thirties and early forties, Hicks Anderson’s business flourished and her scope of services spread. As time passed, she became more and more a part of the community, and:

tended children, helped dress many an Oxnard daughter for parties. The town thought little of seeing fat and prosperous Oxnard dames driving to Lucy's house to borrow one of her legendary recipes. When a new Catholic priest came to town, Lucy prepared the barbecue with which the parish welcomed him” (CALIFORNIA: Sin & Souffl [sic] 1945).

She was a beloved member of the community, and quite famous for her hosting skills and her fashion, being written about both in multiple magazines, one being Time magazine (Coren & Snorton, 2022). Her community also knew her from her generous “donations to charities such as the Red Cross and Boy Scouts” (Walker, 2018).

She was also a great supporter of the soldiers of the Second World War and their families. She bought war bonds, threw going away parties for soldiers, and consoled the parents of the ones who did not return home (Walker, 2018).

Betrayal by Her Community

Months after her second marriage, “in August 1945, an outbreak of venereal disease was said to have come from Hicks' establishment; Lucy and all of her employees had to be examined by a doctor” which led to her being outed as a ‘man’ (Hicks, Lucy L. [Tobias Lawson]).

Lucy was charged with perjury; the rationale being that she signed her marriage certificate that stated she was a woman, which was, in the court’s eyes, untrue (Notable Kentucky African Americans Database).

The prosecution provided “five doctors to testify to her legal gender, to the gender that she was assigned at birth”. Meanwhile, “Lucy's lawyers argued that she had hidden [female] organs”, within her body, and was truly a woman. “Ultimately, the jury returned a verdict of guilty… Her sentence, a small fine and 10 years probation” (Coren & Snorton, 2022).

As news spread about the discovery of the genitalia present at Lucy’s birth, both she and her husband were brought up on federal charges:

Ruben Anderson was facing a maximum of 10 years in a federal prison, and a top fine of 10,000, because he had the government send his wife $950 in allotment checks… The US Army argued that she was not legally married to her husband, since same sex marriage was illegal. And the US government didn't recognize that Lucy, being a trans woman, was a woman. (Coren & Snorton, 2022)

These charges were truly what pushed Lucy Hicks Anderson out of the life she had built for herself.

The federal courts they were "both found guilty. The court invalidated their marriage, and Ruben was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Lucy was sentenced to a year in prison at Leavenworth Penitentiary, a men's facility” (Coren & Snorton, 2022).

After finishing her sentence, Lucy Hicks Anderson left her business and her community, as “Oxnard also banned the couple for 10 years, so they took up residency in Los Angeles as husband and wife, where Lucy lived until her death in 1954” (Walker, 2018).

Conclusion

This story of success, and then the betrayal of the community that loved her, is a testament to the fact that not only transwomen have always existed, but that they can be successful, even if the community that benefits from them does not always support them entirely.

The arguments by both her lawyers, and that of the opposition show just how imbedded the idea of genitalia and physical form equalling gender is in American Society.

A woman can perform all of femininity perfectly, be an amazing cook and hostess, have flawless fashion, and be featured in Time magazine for it, not to mention being a generous benefactor to a community that loved her in response, and still be disqualified from the title of ‘woman’ for the fact that she does not have the appropriate formulation of reproductive organs.

However, Lucy Hicks Anderson’s refusal to hide away and present herself as who society wanted her to be also reminds me of the resistance that can be found in joy and being oneself. Lucy did not hide away, she simply moved to another place where she could live happily, and sometimes that's all we can do; move on, and be happy when and where we can.

This piece of art is available on my store and is a 6 x 9 inch gouache portrait. A portion of the proceeds of this piece will be donated to charity.

Bibliography

CALIFORNIA: sin & souffl [sic]. (1945, November 5). Time Magazine, XLVI(19). Retrieved January 11, 2024, from https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,852379,00.html.

Coren, A., & Snorton, C. R. (2022, November 30). Lucy Hicks Anderson. Sidedoor. , Smithsonian. Retrieved January 11, 2024,.

Hicks, Lucy L. [Tobias Lawson]. Omeka RSS. (n.d.). https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/1363

Keehnen, O. (n.d.). Lucy Hicks Anderson. Legacy Project Chicago. https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/lucy-hicks-anderson

Walker, M. (2018, February 21). Highlight: Lucy Hicks Anderson, a Black Trans Pioneer. ACLU of Mississippi. https://www.aclu-ms.org/en/news/highlight-lucy-hicks-anderson-black-trans-pioneer