Editing Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon (section)

==Activism==
===Daughters of Bilitis===
{{Main|Daughters of Bilitis}}
In 1955, Martin and Lyon and six other lesbian women formed the [[Daughters of Bilitis]] (DOB), the first national lesbian organization in the United States.<ref name="nyt-10apr2020" /><ref name="cnn-10apr2020">{{cite news |last1=Asmelash |first1=Leah |last2=Passantino |first2=Jon |title=Phyllis Lyon, famed LGBTQ activist, dies |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/09/us/phyllis-lyon-dies-trnd |access-date=April 10, 2020 |work=[[CNN]] |date=April 10, 2020}}</ref> Lyon was the first editor of DOB's newsletter, [[The Ladder (magazine)|''The Ladder'']], beginning in 1956. Martin took over editorship of the newsletter from 1960 to 1962. She was succeeded by other editors until the newsletter ended its connection with the Daughters of Bilitis in 1970.<ref name="ABOUT"/><ref name="LGBTRAN"/>

Within five years of its origin, the Daughters of Bilitis had chapters around the country, including Chicago, New York, New Orleans, San Diego, Los Angeles, Detroit, Denver, Cleveland and Philadelphia. There were 500 subscribers to ''The Ladder'' but far more readers, as copies were circulated among women who were reluctant to put their names to a subscription list.<ref name="GLBTQSS" /> For their pioneering work on ''The Ladder'', Martin and Lyon were among the first inductees into the LGBT Journalists Hall of Fame, which was established in 2005 by the [[National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association]]. Lyon and Martin remained involved in the DOB until the late 1960s. The Daughters of Bilitis, which had taken a conservative approach to helping lesbians deal with society, disbanded in 1970 due to the rise of more radical activism.<ref name="GLBTQSS" />

===National Organization for Women===
Martin and Lyon were active in the [[National Organization for Women]] (NOW) since 1967. Del Martin was the first open lesbian elected to the board of directors of NOW.<ref name="nyt-10apr2020" /><ref name="vogue-5may2017">{{cite news |last1=Yaeger |first1=Lynn |title=For Del Martin, Lesbian Rights Pioneer, the Last Act of Activism Was the Most Personal |url=https://www.vogue.com/article/del-martin-lesbian-rights-pioneer-birthday |access-date=April 10, 2020 |work=[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]] |date=May 5, 2017}}</ref><ref name="lg-pedia">{{cite book |last1=Haggerty |first1=George |last2=Zimmerman |first2=Bonnie |title=Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures |date=September 2, 2003 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |isbn=9781135578701 |page=488 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qAZ5AgAAQBAJ |access-date=April 10, 2020}}</ref> In 1970, she signaled in an essay the split of lesbian feminists from the male-dominated gay rights movement, characterizing the leaders of that movement as "hollow men of self-proclaimed privilege. They neither speak for us nor to us."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Self|first=Robert O.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/768728945|title=All In the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy Since the 1960s|publisher=Hill and Wang|year=2012|isbn=978-0-8090-9502-5|edition=First|location=New York|pages=179–180|oclc=768728945}}</ref> Lyon and Martin worked to combat the [[homophobia]] they perceived in NOW, and encouraged the National Board of Directors of NOW's 1971 resolution that lesbian issues were [[feminist]] issues.<ref name="GLBTQSS"/>

===San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women===
In 1977 "Del" Martin was the first openly gay woman to be appointed to the SFCOSW by then Mayor [[George R. Moscone]].<ref name="vogue-5may2017" /><ref name="lg-pedia" />  Martin joined forces with other minority SFCOSW Commissioners, such as Kathleen Hardiman Arnold (now Kathleen Rand Reed), and [[Ella Hill Hutch]], the first Black woman to be elected to the Board of Supervisors, to focus on the nexus of gay women's rights and racial and ethnic discrimination.  In their later work with a health clinic, Martin and Lyon focused, for instance, on the specific health and issues affecting Black and Latina gay women.  Martin was ahead of her time in understanding the cultural aspects of gay health.{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}}

===Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club===
{{main|Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club}}
Lyon and Martin were both active in San Francisco's first gay political organization, the [[Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club]], named after San Francisco-born author [[Alice B. Toklas]].<ref name="nbc-9ap2020">{{cite news |last1=Stelloh |first1=Tim |title=Pioneering lesbian activist Phyllis Lyon dies at 95 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/pioneering-lesbian-activist-phyllis-lyon-dies-95-n1180671 |access-date=April 10, 2020 |work=[[NBC News]] |date=April 9, 2020}}</ref><ref name="kqed-9apr2020">{{cite news |last1=Shafer |first1=Scott |title=Phyllis Lyon, LGBT Rights Pioneer, Dies at 95 |url=https://www.kqed.org/news/11811612/phyllis-lyon-lgbt-rights-pioneer-dies-at-95 |access-date=April 10, 2020 |work=[[KQED Inc.|KQED]] |date=April 9, 2020}}</ref>

===Lyon-Martin Health Services===
'''Lyon-Martin Health Services''' was founded in 1979<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=3087|title=The Bay Area Reporter Online - Lesbian pioneers first in city to wed|work=Bay Area Reporter|access-date=November 15, 2014}}</ref> by a group of medical providers and health activists as a clinic for lesbians who lacked access to non-judgmental and affordable health care. Named after Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, the clinic soon became a model for [[culturally-sensitive]] community-based health care. Since 1993, Lyon-Martin also has provided case management and primary healthcare in programs specifically designed for very low-income and uninsured women with [[HIV]], as well as services for [[transgender]] people.<ref name="bar-4apr2018">{{cite news |last1=Madison |first1=Alex |title=New leaders named for Lyon-Martin clinic |url=https://www.ebar.com/news/health/258134 |access-date=April 10, 2020 |work=[[Bay Area Reporter]] |date=April 4, 2018}}</ref>

===Senior activists===
[[File:GLBTHistoryMuseum.WeddingPantsuits12 10.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Pantsuits worn by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon to their weddings in San Francisco in 2004 and 2008; on display at the [[GLBT History Museum]]]]

In 1989, Martin and Lyon joined Old Lesbians Organizing for Change. In 1995 they were named delegates to the [[White House Conference on Aging]], Martin by Senator [[Dianne Feinstein]] and Lyon by Congresswoman [[Nancy Pelosi]], both from California.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eqca.org/site/pp.asp?c=kuLRJ9MRKrH&b=4445141 |title=Del Martin Obituary - Equality California |access-date=November 15, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141224074042/http://www.eqca.org/site/pp.asp?c=kuLRJ9MRKrH&b=4445141 |archive-date=December 24, 2014 }}</ref>