During her arraignment interview, Mary was asked to clarify her “right” [or legal] name and sex. In response, she stated “Peter Sewally—I am a man.” A New York City native of about thirty-three years of age, she claimed to have “always dressed [in women’s clothes]” while attending parties among the “people of her own color.” She had also dressed this way in New Orleans, a city to which she may have traveled while “in the state service.”