La’Cretia La’Mour was born on September 29, 1947 in Tupelo, Mississippi. She grew up in the Shake Rag area of Tupelo, in a segregated community that was frequently harassed by the Ku Klux Klan. La’Cretia’s father was Creek and a self-made millionaire through the Frisco Railroad, and her mother was Asian and Choctaw. Growing up, her father physically and verbally abused her, while her mother was loving and accepting. La’Cretia, after witnessing family and community members get murdered by the Klan, joined the COFO (Council of Federated Organizations), a civil rights movement group, at 8 years old. From a young age, La’Cretia played with her sisters’ dolls, shoplifted women’s clothes, and felt like a little girl, despite being seen as a boy.

At age 9, La’Cretia survived being beaten and raped, and set her mind to studying hard for the opportunity to go elsewhere. She went on to attend Lane University, where she danced, learned to sketch and sew, appeared on public TV, and did fashion shows around Detroit during the height of Motown. Right out of college, La’Cretia was drafted into the army during the Vietnam War, where she was mercilessly targeted by leadership for walking and carrying herself differently. Eventually, she was given an honorable discharge, but was denied services and benefits. 

In 1971, La’Cretia moved back to Detroit, where she got a job at the Islands Department Store, and worked her way up to becoming a manager. She also started dancing at the Concert Line Theatre, joined the church Our Prayer Tabernacle, modeled, and got involved in the local drag scene. During this time, living as openly trans, she rose to local fame for her talents. 

Over the next few years, La’Cretia lost many loved ones in Detroit to violence and learned that her mother was hospitalized, so she returned to Mississippi. During this stressful time, she began using drugs and soon tested positive for HIV (then called GRID). She stayed fairly silent about her diagnosis and instead busied herself with running a modeling organization, putting together fashion shows, starting a singing group called Sweet Three Rhythm, and working as a hairstylist. 

By the 80s, La’Cretia became involved with HIV activism. She cared for her friends who tested positive, educated her family, traveled to the Capitol to advocate for the legislature to distribute resources and medications, and worked at the organization We Care Tennessee. 

In the 2000s, La’Cretia moved to Wilwaukee, Wisconsin, where she worked at a school for underprivileged people and married a wife in 2008, with whom she had a son and daughter. Despite being quite sick, she remained an avid traveler until she fell ill with prostate cancer and was diagnosed with AIDS. Her wife left her, and she nearly died, but her cousins and daughter cared for her until she gradually regained her health. During her near-death experience, she had an encounter with God, and has since remained steadfast in her faith. 

In 2021, La’Cretia graduated from the Monica Roberts Freedom School, a Black trans leadership academy. In 2022, she traveled to Los Angeles to receive the Torch Award, one of the highest awards one can receive in the trans community. Now, La’Cretia looks forward to starting an organization called Elders on the Move, to bridge the gap across generations and foster intergenerational learning and mentorship. She wants to be remembered for passionately fighting for and believing in her communities her entire life.