Editing Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon (section)

{{short description|American feminists and gay-rights activists}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2020}}
[[Image:Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[Wedding]] of Martin and Lyon, 2008]]
[[File:Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon kiss.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Martin and Lyon after their first wedding, in 2004]]
'''Dorothy Louise Taliaferro''' "'''Del'''" '''Martin''' (May 5, 1921 &ndash; August 27, 2008)<ref name="MARTINDEATH">{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/08/27/state/n113351D32.DTL|title=Del Martin: 1921-2008: Lesbian rights pioneer Del Martin dies at 87|date=August 28, 2008|last=Gordon|first=Rachel|work=San Francisco Chronicle}}</ref> and '''Phyllis Ann Lyon''' (November 10, 1924 &ndash; April 9, 2020)<ref>{{cite news|url=https://sfist.com/2020/04/09/sf-lesbian-pioneer-phyllis-lyon-dies-at-age-95/|title=SF Lesbian Pioneer Phyllis Lyon dies at age 95|last=Barmann|first=Jay|work=SFist|date=April 9, 2020|access-date=April 9, 2020|archive-date=April 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417080725/https://sfist.com/2020/04/09/sf-lesbian-pioneer-phyllis-lyon-dies-at-age-95/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="nyt-10apr2020">{{cite news |last1=Carmel |first1=Julia |title=Phyllis Lyon, Lifelong Lesbian Activist, Dies at 95 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/obituaries/phyllis-lyon-dead.html |access-date=April 10, 2020 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 10, 2020}}</ref> were an American [[lesbian]] couple based in San Francisco who were known as [[feminist]] and [[gay-rights]] [[activist]]s.<ref name="MARTINDEATH"/>

Martin and Lyon met in 1950, became lovers in 1952, and moved in together on [[Valentine's Day]] 1953 in an apartment on [[Castro District, San Francisco|Castro Street]] in [[San Francisco]]. They had been together for three years when they cofounded the [[Daughters of Bilitis]] (DOB) in San Francisco in 1955. This became the first social and political organization for lesbians in the United States and soon had a national reach. They both acted as president and until 1963 successively as editor of [[The Ladder (magazine)|''The Ladder'']] magazine, which they also founded. They were involved in the DOB until they joined the [[National Organization for Women]] (NOW), the first known lesbian couple to do so.

Both women worked to form the [[Council on Religion and the Homosexual]] (CRH) at [[Glide Memorial Church|Glide Memorial Methodist Church]] in northern California to persuade ministers to accept homosexuals into churches. The couple 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 LGBT Democratic Club|Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club]]. This group influenced then-mayor [[Dianne Feinstein]] to sponsor a citywide bill to outlaw employment discrimination for gays and lesbians. Both women remained politically active, later serving in the [[White House Conference on Aging]] in 1995.

They were married on February 12, 2004, in the first [[San Francisco 2004 same-sex weddings|same-sex wedding to take place in San Francisco]] after Mayor [[Gavin Newsom]] ordered the city clerk to begin providing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Alexandra |first=Rae |date=May 17, 2024 |title=The San Francisco Couple Whose Lifelong Love Changed America |url=https://www.kqed.org/arts/13955066/del-martin-phyllis-lyon-lesbian-icons-lgbt-daughters-of-bilitis |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240628150918/https://www.kqed.org/arts/13955066/del-martin-phyllis-lyon-lesbian-icons-lgbt-daughters-of-bilitis |archive-date=June 28, 2024 |access-date=2024-07-04 |website=www.kqed.org |language=en}}</ref> That marriage was voided by the California Supreme Court on August 12, 2004.<ref name="WEDDING"/>

After the [[California Supreme Court]]'s decision in ''[[In re Marriage Cases]]'' legalized [[same-sex marriage in California]], the couple married again on June 16, 2008. Theirs was the first same-sex wedding to take place in San Francisco .<ref name="WEDDING">{{cite news |last=Lagos |first=Marisa |url= http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/16/MNPQ11A3VF.DTL&tsp=1 |title=Newsom Marries Activist Couple |publisher=SFGate.com |date=June 16, 2008 |access-date=June 16, 2008}}</ref> Two months later on August 27, 2008, Martin died in San Francisco from complications of an arm [[bone fracture]].<ref name="nyt-27aug2008">{{cite news |last1=Grimes |first1=William |title=Del Martin, Lesbian Activist, Dies at 87 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/us/28martin.html |access-date=April 10, 2020 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 27, 2008}}</ref> Lyon died years later on April 9, 2020.<ref name="MARTINDEATH" /><ref name="nyt-10apr2020" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ebar.com/news/latest_news//290632 |title=Lesbian pioneer Phyllis Lyon dies |date=April 9, 2020 |website=Bay Area Reporter |access-date=July 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412074217/https://www.ebar.com/news/latest_news//290632 |archive-date=April 12, 2020}}</ref>