Icons: Sir Lady Java

Sir Lady Java (c. 1943-present) stood against a Los Angeles law that targeted trans women, drag performers and anyone who dared to live openly outside the gender binary. Her fierce advocacy made her a trailblazer for the trans community.

We're celebrating Pride Month with Icons: supreme queens of queer culture. Some are household names... others are a little more behind the scenes. All of them have defied social norms and influenced generations of people to be unapologetically themselves.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more.  Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures. 

Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, and Abbey Delk. Special thanks to Shira Atkins. 

Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, I'm Sara Shleid and I'm a junior producer at
Wondermedia Network. I'm so excited to be closing out Pride
Month as your guest host of Womanica. We're celebrating Pride
Month with icons supreme queens of queer culture. Some are
household names, others are a little more behind the scenes.

(00:22):
All of them have defied social norms and influenced generations
of people to be unapologetically themselves. Today, we're talking about
a woman who stood against a Los Angeles law that
targeted trans women, drag performers, and anyone who dared to
live openly outside the gender binary. Her fierce advocacy. Meet her,

(00:42):
a trailblazer for the trans community. Please welcome, Sir Lady Java.
Sir Lady Java was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in
the early nineteen forties. She grew up idolizing the glamorous

(01:06):
and beautiful women she saw on the silver screen, May West,
Lena Horne, Josephine Baker. With support of her mother, Java
began living as a girl from a young age. While
the vocabulary surrounding transgender identity was very different when Java
was a young woman than it is now today, she
would probably identify as a trans woman. Java developed a

(01:29):
keen interest in style as a child and began working
in hat making and fashion design after graduating from high school.
To supplement her income, she also worked in nightclubs in
New Orleans. In the mid nineteen sixties, Java moved to
Los Angeles. She got a job waiting tables at the
Red Fox Club, owned by stand up comedian and actor

(01:49):
Red Fox. Java was at another nightclub in town when
the owner, Gertrude Gibson, took an interest in her. She
invited Java up on stage and helped to begin a
new chapter of Jobaba's life in the city of Angels.
She began performing in clubs across the city, becoming the
first trans woman of color to launch a career as

(02:09):
a nightclub performer in Los Angeles. Java's stage act showcased
her many talents, from singing to impersonations to stand up comedy.
She was also known for her shake dancing, a style
of jazz dance in which Java would shake her whole
body from her shoulders down. She had a commanding presence
and was known to silence a band just by walking

(02:30):
into a room. Java also dazzled audiences with her glitz
and glamour. Her background in fashion allowed her to create
dazzling costumes, often featuring materials like feathers or fishing line.
She got her stage name Sir Lady Java from a
passerby on a city street. As she strolled by, a

(02:53):
man on the sidewalk called out to her, saying that
she looked like Java, deep, dark and delicious. She thought
the nickname was fitting and kept it. The Sir Lady
reflected her gender identity, a drag performer who lived as
a woman when she was off stage. Two Java quickly
became a staple of the city's nightlife and attracted many

(03:15):
stars and starlets to her performances, like Richard Pryor, James Brown,
Sammy Davis Junior, and even her longtime idol, Lena Horn.
But despite her popularity and magnetism as a performer, Java's
club career faced an existential threat. During the late nineteen sixties,

(03:37):
drag performance was not nearly as mainstream as it is today.
Performers like Java were usually referred to as female impersonators,
and they were often the target of laws and police
raids meant to tamp down on performances that blurred the
rigid lines of gender identity. Java later recalled they were

(03:57):
kind of cruel to me. It soon became a special
target of the city's police. In one instance, roughly fifty
officers showed up to arrest her under the three piece rule.
It was a law stating that a person must always
be wearing at least three articles of clothing that corresponded
to the sex they were assigned at birth. Java was

(04:18):
able to argue to the police that the socks, wristwatch,
and bow tie she was wearing were enough, and she
narrowly avoided arrest. In nineteen sixty seven, the city passed
a new ordinance that became known as Rule nine. It
essentially outlawed shows in which a performer was impersonating the
opposite sex. It targeted the kinds of clubs and venues

(04:39):
that had become safe spaces for the queer community in
Los Angeles. The only way for Java to keep performing
was to get a special permit from the LA Board
of Police Commissioners. Red Fox, the club owner who often
hosted her acts, applied for one. His application was denied.
The clubs where Java had become popular now had to

(05:00):
ban her from performing or risk losing their licenses. But
Java wasn't ready to give up. She connected with the
local chapter of the ACLU to try and legally challenge
Rule nine as unconstitutional. It prevented her from being able
to work, but they weren't actually able to sue. Only
a club owner was technically allowed to challenge the law,

(05:22):
and none of them were willing to join Java in
the suit because they were too afraid of losing their businesses.
But Java helped fight Rule nine in other ways. She
organized the LGBT community to attend rallies and protests against
the Los Angeles Police Commission. The press coverage of these
events helped boost their mission. Eventually, another lawsuit was filed

(05:43):
against Rule nine in nineteen sixty nine. That same year
it was struck down. Java returned to the stage and
continued to dazzle audiences throughout the nineteen seventies and eighties.
In the decades since her fight against Rule nine, her

(06:04):
story of defiance against the LA Police has made her
an inspiration to the trans community today. As Java once said,
if you can't be yourself, who can you be? All month,
we've been talking about icons. For more information, find us
on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast. As always, we're

(06:28):
taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you on
Monday when we return with a new theme.