Del Martin (1921-2008) and Phyllis Lyon (1924-2020)
Del Martin (1921-2008) and Phyllis Lyon (1924-2020)
Martin and Lyon met in 1950, became lovers, and moved in together on Valentine’s Day 1953 in San Francisco. They cofounded the Daughters of Bilitis in 1955, which became the first social and political organization for lesbians in the U.S. They both acted as president and editor of The Ladder until 1963 and joined the National Organization for Women as the first lesbian couple to do so.
Both women worked to form the Council on Religion and the Homosexual in northern California to persuade ministers to accept homosexuals into churches and used their influence to decriminalize homosexuality in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They became politically active in San Francisco’s first gay political organization, the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, which influenced then-mayor Dianne Feinstein to sponsor a citywide bill to outlaw employment discrimination for gays and lesbians.
Married on February 12, 2004, they were in the first same-sex wedding to take place in San Francisco. That marriage was voided by the California Supreme Court on August 12, 2004. They married again on June 16, 2008, in the first same-sex wedding to take place in San Francisco after the California Supreme Court’s decision to legalized same-sex marriage in California.
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Del Martin (1921-2008) and Phyllis Lyon (1924-2020)
Martin and Lyon met in 1950, became lovers, and moved in together on Valentine’s Day 1953 in San Francisco. They cofounded the Daughters of Bilitis in 1955, which became the first social and political organization for lesbians in the U.S. They both acted as president and editor of The Ladder until 1963 and joined the National Organization for Women as the first lesbian couple to do so.
Both women worked to form the Council on Religion and the Homosexual in northern California to persuade ministers to accept homosexuals into churches and used their influence to decriminalize homosexuality in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They became politically active in San Francisco’s first gay political organization, the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, which influenced then-mayor Dianne Feinstein to sponsor a citywide bill to outlaw employment discrimination for gays and lesbians.
Married on February 12, 2004, they were in the first same-sex wedding to take place in San Francisco. That marriage was voided by the California Supreme Court on August 12, 2004. They married again on June 16, 2008, in the first same-sex wedding to take place in San Francisco after the California Supreme Court’s decision to legalized same-sex marriage in California.