The Chicana butch lesbian who defied the LAPD – and won: ‘I couldn’t be someone else’

Decades after Nancy Valverde was first arrested for wearing masculine clothing, the city of Los Angeles finally honored her with its first public monument to a lesbian

From the age of 17, Nancy Valverde was repeatedly arrested by the Los Angeles police department for wearing masculine clothing. By the time she died, at age 92, the city had named a square in her honor, its first public monument to a lesbian.

Valverde, a proud Chicana butch lesbian, had refused to conform to social norms, even in the 1940s and 50s, when the city's racist and homophobic police force frequently arrested people under anti-masquerading" laws that criminalized them for wearing clothes officers judged to be unsuited to their gender.