Marie Cartier

Nancy Valverde: LA Lesbian Icon passes by Marie Cartier

Nancy Valverde was sent off to REST IN POWER April 20, 2024, having passed at her home in the LGBTQ+ senior living space, Triangle Square Triangle Square Senior Apartments – Los Angeles LGBT Center, March 25. An icon, a great friend, a mentor… we had a warrior on our side when she was here with us… and now we have an archangel wielding a sword. Heaven just got a lot more interesting.

The loss is so big. The lessons of a life well lived go on forever.

The day began with a Mass of Christian Burial, conducted by Catholic Dignity priest DIGNITY Los Angeles – Home Page Rev. Dylan Littlefield and five other presiding celebrants, conducted the Mass, followed by a Final Commendation and Burial.

This was uniquely in Catholic tradition, followed by a reception at the iconic East LA bar Redz Redz (Former) – LA Conservancy that had closed as a lesbian bar in 2015. Lost Womyn’s Space: Redz It is recognized as a “lost womyn’s space” but was re-opened as “Redz Angels.” Even though it is more a neighborhood bar now it still is very queer friendly. It was primarily a Mexican lesbian bar, estimated to have first opened in the late 50s and for Nancy’s memorial party transformed back to the original Redz, complete with its iconic logo. Nancy helped turn the bar from straight to gay in the 50s, when as she said, ” they made the mistake of hiring a lesbian bartender, so they gave an inch…we took a mile.”

Nancy was a key informant in my book Baby, You Are My Religion – Women, Gay Bars, and Theology Before Stonewall, a dear friend, and part of my chosen family. This is the work of ethnography, I think, to transform us from often interviewee and interviewer to chosen family—we learn so much about each other.

She lived from March 5, 1932 to March 25, 2024 and had a square named after her in Los Angeles, June 22, 2023, at the intersection of 2nd Street and Main in Downtown LA, Lesbian Activist and Trailblazer Nancy Valverde Honored in Downtown Los Angeles – Los Angeles LGBT Center. At this event Los Angeles Police Department Commander Ruby Flores, apologized to Nancy and the LGBTQ Community on behalf of the LAPD. LAPD issues apology to LGBTQ+ community during ceremony honoring Cooper Do-nuts and LGBTQIA+ activist Nancy Valverde – ABC7 Los Angeles And, as you can see from the photo—there was even a squad car from the LAPD in rainbow LGBTQ+ colors at her funeral in the parking lot.

A friend of mine, Marna Deitch, Lesbians and Allies Unite for Unofficial Dyke March in WeHo – WEHO TIMES West Hollywood News, Nightlife and Events, herself a gay icon and recipient of the Melissa Etheridge Award, wrote on social media that Nancy provides a “history lesson” for all of, “Whether you’re straight or LGBTQ+, you owe a debt of gratitude to this woman…If you’re a woman who wears pants, Nancy is your heritage. If you’re a man with long hair or an earring, or a female with short hair, Nancy is one of your legal precedents.”

Nancy started working at the age of eleven picking apricots and cotton in California. At thirteen, she assisted women in the kitchen at a local restaurant. Even though she did not have a driver’s license, she worked driving pastry deliveries around Los Angeles; and then at age fourteen also driving prostitutes to their “appointments” for a fee. At seventeen, she worked as a manager for an apartment complex. She later became a barber. Since she had not completed her education beyond 6th grade, she could not enter barber school, but upon passing an IQ test, she received her barber’s license. Though she was paid less than her male colleagues, it was her work at a local barbershop in East Los Angeles that made her famous. Nancy Valverde – Los Angeles LGBT Center – Senior Services.

Valverde experienced discrimination as a Chicana, a lesbian, and as a masculine presenting woman, with short hair and masculine clothing. She was often harassed by the LAPD, who charged her with violating what were known as masquerading laws, How Dressing in Drag Was Labeled a Crime in the 20th Century | HISTORY which prohibited men and women from wearing gender nonconforming clothes. Nancy identified as a woman but chose to wear men’s clothing for comfort, so was often targeted. Lavender Los Angeles – Roots of Equality, Tom De Simone, Teresa Wang, Melissa Lopez, Diem Tran, Andy Sacher – Google Books. She was harassed and detained multiple times at Lincoln Heights jail, in a section of the Sybil Brand Institute (SBI) for women known as the Daddy Tank. Situational Lesbians & the Daddy Tank: Women Prisoners Negotiating Queer Identity and Space, 1970-1980 | Genders 1998-2013 | University of Colorado Boulder. The Daddy Tank was a private wing of SBI where butch women (masculine presenting women) were held. After doing research at the Los Angeles County Law Library in 1951, Nancy found legal proof that it was not in fact a crime for a woman to wear men’s clothing—if deemed necessary for her job. Her lawyer used this to end the ongoing arrests. Nancy From Eastside Clover, Lincoln Heights (Queer History) | Barrio Boychik.

She is survived by her love of 18 years, Andi Less Seagal, her son, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and her siblings – and a large circle of chosen family and friends.

In offering her eulogy, the presiding reverend recounted a retort Nancy gave to an LAPD officer in the 50s. She had been released from one of many masquerading convictions and the officer said, “Next time I see you, I expect to see you wearing a dress!”

Nancy spoke right back, “Next time I see you–I expect the same.”

Dear Taylor Swift by Marie Cartier

Taylor Swift – Speak Now World Tour Sydney

February 5, 2024

Dear Taylor Swift-

Am I completely lost? I haven’t listened to your music –I mean NOT REALLY listened to it…that I totally know of–and now I see on the Grammys that you have won more best albums than anyone in history- can I be excused because I’m a writer?

I think you seem like a kick ass take no bullshit kind of woman, which I like… being one myself…but so are a lot of women in the music industry—which I am not…but listen, if you get far enough to have won the most best album Grammys of anyone ever then—girl you had to be kicking some serious ass…and…well…you had to be…we’ll talk about that. I mean, Beyonce.

I mean I am so excited for your relationship – with the NFL player—Travis Kelce…again, I don’t watch football but I am on social media, I mean I’m not hopeless…I’m just as I said, a writer…and I’m happy for you and I think the bubbas who hate that you show up at football should take a back seat or no seat at all because hey! It looks like you are saving football by showing up as your diva self and… you know…you go girl!

Iceland: The Dream Made Real by Marie Cartier

I just came back from a bucket list trip- Iceland. I have wanted to go ever since I learned they had a Women’s Party- which were sometimes in power. The Women’s Party of Iceland ‘Power of the masses’: the day Iceland’s women went on strike and changed history | Iceland | The Guardian where women went on strike and changed the history of the country forever. Today Iceland is the most gender equity country in the world for women, the safest country in the world for women- and extremely beautiful. You can read more about it here: What Are the Icelandic Women Like? Feminism, Tradition and CrossFit (iamreykjavik.com) and here: 7 Laws That Show Why Iceland Ranks First for Gender Equality (globalcitizen.org)

Rudie, the Butch-Dyke Reindeer—A Holiday Wish* by Marie Cartier

It’s the holidays- those winter holidays

What do I want Santa to bring? Or rather, the goddess? The reindeer goddess –what do I want her

to give queer people—

My queer performance company, Queer Wise? And especially, of course, to give me?

Wisdom. Well, shit, we already have that.

Riches? Well if you count riches by the number of friends you have… as a friend said last night at another group xmas gathering- my lesbian book club—then we are already rich

If I Were an Octopus by Marie Cartier

You say you want the truth, and I want to give it to you—I mean you asked for it and I want to give it you. I mean—I do want to tell the truth but—
to be honest I’m not sure I want to be the person that truth belongs to – but I want to tell the truth

So- ok.
To be honest. You know, transparent– I am out of candles.
Totally – even tea lights, never mind seven-day candles
I am out. In all colors: red, pink, blue, orange, even white. And I have no intention of getting any more.
Done with candles.
I am also out of quilt squares, and quilt materials and thread— and I – well, I am just out of anything to do with sewing, quilting. And nope- not getting any more. Done.

Virgin Mary Blue: A short story by Marie Cartier

Nicole stared at the blue water in the pool. It was so wet and so blue—Virgin Mary blue. It was so hot in Texas, she thought that over and over, ever since her parents moved the family to Fort Worth for her dad’s job.

They were living at the Naval Air Station. It was 1965 and they did not have air conditioning in their apartment: with its one bathroom, two parents and four kids. The heat was an animal. To escape it she played in the mud between the buildings. This was nothing like the woods of New Hampshire, but here they were and they weren’t going home—maybe ever. That’s what her mother said.

A Plant that would Feed the World by Marie Cartier

I have thought a lot about planting seeds—seeds I want to plant and of course grow– the new varietal of blue mustard green, for instance.

It’s the thing to think about in fall– harvesting and planting.

But what else? What if I could plant—anything. Anything at all.

What would I want to grow? What would I want to plant?

Do I Feel Safe in America? by Marie Cartier

Do I feel safe in America- that’s what you want to know, right? Such a good question—and excuse me, but ridiculous. Four hundred and seventeen anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the United States since the start of the year — a new record, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, as of April 2023.

I could on – but you get the idea.

I feel safe I guess in California, in my own home, in my own bed—but as a woman you rarely feel totally “safe.” Most every woman I know, me included, is a rape survivor. It’s not unusual– it’s common– but feeling safe I think is unusual. Feeling loved isn’t– but safe? That’s “a horse of a different color” as they say in Oz, and even Dorothy wasn’t safe there—although I continually wonder why she ever returned to Kansas.

The Tree in my Front Yard by Marie Cartier

I have not been in this room for three years- except to run in and out -the pandemic made me claustrophobic and anyway I usually need a coffee shop environment to write and we were in lock down so my wife and I transformed our living room to a coffeeshop, Fig and Hillary’s- so named for the huge Hillary poster on the wall and the fig trees in the backyard. My office became a storage room piled high with—what? Stuff.

Then, finally… it seemed the pandemic –at least in terms of dire death prediction—was perhaps over. It took most of this post pandemic year to get up out of the living room where I had encamped to come back to here—my actual office. To put the bookshelves back and—to turn my desk around so I am not facing the door but facing the window.