Marsha P. Johnson Was a Part-Time Valley Girl
Bicoastal legend
“Oh girlfriend, they had a pool! And I saw the Pacific!”
-Marsha P. Johnson to a friend in New York City about her time in the Valley1.
The perception of the Valley Girl2 as adorably apolitical, or perhaps more preoccupied with her shopping than political issues doesn’t exactly square with the archive. Many women, nonbinary, and two-spirit people of the San Fernando Valley have challenged authority, colonialism, and disenfranchisement. Trans icon and activist Marsha P. Johnson is among them. When Marsha wasn’t performing and protesting on the East Coast, she was known to be West. And more specifically, in a pool in a Calabasas3.
For three decades, Marsha regularly came to the Valley to escape brutal winters and the mental toll of her activism in New York City and New Jersey4. Tourmaline writes in her long overdue biography, Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson, that Los Angeles functioned as “replenishment”5 for Marsha following a lifetime of queer advocacy, gender-based violence, and loss. To that end, Los Angeles became her “primary home away from home.”6 She stayed in the Valley with a friend named Jamie from New York who had secured “an older benefactor”7 in Calabasas. Tourmaline writes that the sunny LA winters looked good on Marsha:
When not hustling or dancing, Marsha enjoyed relaxing in Jamie’s backyard pool during the day and modeling in the evenings. Photographs show her radiant smile and playful demeanor and capture the essence of her carefree and joyful life in LA with Jamie, a stark contrast to her past struggles in New York City. Marsha was living the way she knew she deserved to live.8
Like any true valley girl9, albeit a part-time one, Marsha was not one to be limited by the Valley. Tourmaline writes that she traveled through different neighborhoods in Los Angeles and frequented museums like The Huntington10 in San Marino11.
For three decades, Marsha regularly came to the Valley to escape brutal winters and the mental toll of her activism
By 1985 though, the sojourns to Los Angeles had begun to shift. Marsha had started losing more and more people in her life to the AIDS crisis. One of them would eventually be Jamie, her beloved Calabasas host, who started exhibiting symptoms that year. Always thinking of and caring for the ones she loved, Tourmaline writes that, “Marsha felt called to commune and organize on a larger scale.”12 A celebrated participant in the Stonewall Riots and a co-founder of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), this instinct was solidly within her character.
That year, Marsha assisted in organizing the first AIDS walk in the United States along with the AIDS Project Los Angeles13. The success of the walk was evident in the days leading up. Despite the national indifference and profound governmental neglect of those suffering with the virus, the Los Angeles Times reported that this first walk was already collecting funds and support from individuals, small businesses, community groups, and corporations14. A little over a week before the fundraiser, momentum was evident and enthusiastic:
Volunteers for the walk already have signed up more than 1,000 walkers, and expect to be close to the 2,000 mark by 9 a.m., July 28. The event starts at 10 a.m.
[Co-producer of AIDS Walk Los Angeles, Craig] Miller estimated that with more walkers signing up, he will need hundreds of volunteers on the day of the event.15
This legacy that Marsha notably contributed to has continued. Forty years later, AIDS Walk Los Angeles asserts that they have raised nearly $100 million for health programs and services for those living with AIDS in Los Angeles County16. Marsha would continue to help with every AIDS walk in Los Angeles until her death in 199217.
To participate in such a seminal cornerstone of Los Angeles history as a part-time valley girl speaks to the magnitude of Marsha’s activism, vision, and presence. While stopping by for the pool and the Pacific, she left Los Angeles residents with an entire blueprint for resources and awareness that would be replicated for four decades, and counting.
Lucky us, she chose to winter in LA.🌴
Next week: the secret lesbian history of the Valley.
Tourmaline. Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson. Tiny Reparations Books, an Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2025. Pg. 180.
Uppercase “Valley Girl” to indicate the manufactured caricature.
Calabasas is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley.
Tourmaline. Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson. Tiny Reparations Books, an Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2025. Pg. 178.
Ibid. Pg. 178.
Ibid. Pg. 219.
Ibid.
Ibid. Pg. 180.
Lowercase “valley girl” to indicate a female-identified or pangender individual who happens to be from or inhabits the San Fernando Valley.
The Huntington awarded me a fellowship in 2022 to research this newsletter. Symmetry❤️
Tourmaline. Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson. Tiny Reparations Books, an Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2025. Pg. 180-181.
Ibid. Pg. 189.
Ibid.
Simross, Lynn. “Support for AIDS Walk Growing, Organizers Say.” Los Angeles Times, 19 July 1985, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-19-vw-6723-story.html. Accessed 7 Jan. 2026.
Ibid.
“About Us.” AIDS Walk Los Angeles, 4 Nov. 2025, aidswalkla.org/about-us/.
Tourmaline. Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson. Tiny Reparations Books, an Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2025. Pg. 189.