Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon - Nominee

“You'd have an argument with me and try to storm out the door. I had to teach you to fight back.”

- Del Martin

“We really only had problems our first year together. Del would leave her shoes in the middle of the room, and I'd throw them out the window.” 

- Phyllis Lyon

San Francisco, California born Del Taliaferro Martin and Tulsa, Oklahoma born Phyllis Lyon met each other in 1950 while working at the same magazine in Seattle, Washington and became a couple two years later. They moved in together on Valentine’s Day 1953 in an apartment in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood. Prior to Martin and Lyon becoming a couple, Martin was married to James Martin for four years and had a daughter Kendra Mon whom Lyon later adopted. Martin, who studied journalism at the University of California, Berkley and San Francisco State University and also got a Doctor of Arts degree from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in 1987, became a Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press associate in 1977 and co-founded the Lesbian Mothers Union. Lyon got her journalism degree from the University of California, Berkley and worked as a Chico Enterprise-Record reporter during the 1940s and was a member of the editorial staff of two Seattle magazines. In 1955, Martin and Lyon, alongside three other lesbian couples, co-founded America’s first lesbian-focused social and political organization, the Daughters of the Bilitis, of which they ran for many years. The Bilitis name was inspired by Pierre Louÿs collection of lesbian love poems called Songs of Bilitis. The goal of the organization was to offer a space for lesbians to meet each other, chat, dance and have some drinks without being harassed. They also co-founded and co-edited The Ladder magazine, the communications arm of the Daughters of the Bilitis, until 1963 when Barbara Gittings took over the editor role. Martin and Lyon were the first known lesbian couple to join the National Organization for Women and Martin became the organization’s first out lesbian national board member. The couple also helped co-found the Council on Religion and the Homosexual which worked with the San Francisco government to end harassment by police officers of queer and trans people and used their growing notoriety to advocate for the decriminalization homosexuality in that city. Martin and Lyon also became members of San Francisco’s first queer/trans political organization, the still active Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, and it was through that organization that they influenced then-mayor Dianne Feinstein to sponsor a citywide bill to make it illegal to discrimination against gay and lesbian people in employment. They founded the still operating Lyon-Martin Community Health Services in 1979 to help marginalized women of color and trans patients and in their late 60s they joined Old Lesbians Organizing for Change. The couple later served as delegates to the White House Conference on Aging in 1995—Martin was chosen by then Senator Dianne Feinstein and Lyon was chosen by Representative Nancy Pelosi. The couple co-wrote Lesbian/Woman in 1972 and Lesbian Love and Liberation in 1973. Martin also wrote Battered Wives in 1979. Their life was showcased in filmmaker Joan E. Biren’s (JEB) 2003 documentary No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. In early 2004, then San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom challenged California’s marriage laws that barred same-sex couples. Newsom ordered that marriage licenses be issued to same-sex couples and this prompted 82-year-old Martin and 79-year-old Lyon to request one on February 12, 2004. They were the first same-sex couple to do so and were among the approximately 4,000 couples to be married in early 2004. Newsom’s orders were challenged in state courts and on August 12, 2004, the California Supreme Court invalidated all of these marriages. Martin and Lyon and other plaintiffs signed onto a number of lawsuits to change the marriage laws in California. Four years later the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality in the state, so Martin and Lyon got married again on June 16, 2008, and just like in 2004, were the first couple married in San Francisco with then Mayor Newsom officiating yet again. Martin died at the age of 87 shortly after that on August 27, 2008, and upon her death Lyon said, “I am devastated, but I take some solace in knowing we were able to enjoy the ultimate rite of love and commitment before she passed.” The couple were together for 55 years. On April 9, 2020, Lyon died at the age of 95. In 2014, Martin was one of the inaugural honorees on San Francisco’s Rainbow Honor Walk in the Castro neighborhood. Lyon was added to the Rainbow Honor Walk in 2025. Martin was also one of the inaugural 50 queer and trans people to be inducted and listed on the Stonewall National Monument’s National LGBTQ Wall of Honor in New York City’s Stonewall Inn in June 2019 with Lyon’s name added to that Wall of Honor in 2020. They left behind a legacy of activism and love that has been celebrated in myriads of ways by many LGBTQ people and their allies worldwide.