Phyllis Lyon (L), and Del Martin, swear that the information on their marriage application is correct at City Hall in San Francisco. Picture credit: Associated Press)
In recognition of their long relationship and their status as pioneers of the gay rights movement, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will officiate the first and today's only same sex couple wedding ceremony of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin at 5:01 p.m in his City Hall office before 50 invited guests .
Del Martin was born Dorothy Taliaferro on May 5, 1921, in San Francisco. She was among the first graduates from George Washington High School. Del once studied at the University of California, Berkeley and at San Francisco State College, with the journalism as major. She has a D.A. from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. Del was once married for four years to James Martin, whose name she retained after their divorce. With James, she has one daughter named Kendra Mon.
Phyllis Lyon was born November 10, 1924 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. During the 1940s, she worked as a reporter for the Chico Enterprise-Record, and during the 1950s, she worked as part of the editorial staff of two Seattle magazines.
Martin and Lyon met in Seattle in 1950 when they began working for the same magazine. They became lovers in 1952 and entered into a formal partnership in 1953 when they moved to San Francisco together although unable to legally marry.
Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin in 2004. The pair has lived as a gay couple of 55 years in the same San Francisco house they bought in 1956. Picture source: Livejounal.com
On February 12, 2004, Martin and Lyon were issued a marriage license by the City and County of San Francisco after mayor Gavin Newsom ordered that marriage licenses be given to same-sex couples who requested them. The license, along with those of several thousand other same-sex couples were voided by the California supreme court on August 12 2004.
Speaking of the incident, Phyllis Lyon said back then, "Del is 83 years old and I am 79. After being together for more than 50 years, it is a terrible blow to have the rights and protections of marriage taken away from us. At our age, we do not have the luxury of time."
Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin who were plaintiffs in the California Supreme Court case that led to the legalization of gay marriage are long time feminist and gay-rights activists. in 1955, Martin and Lyon and six other lesbian women formed the Daughters of Bilitis, a lesbian organization which evolved into the nation's first lesbian advocacy organization in the United States.