They have been making history for decades, but last week, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin were honored during Women's History Month for their visibility in being the first same-sex couple to marry in San Francisco during the "Winter of Love" three years ago.
Lyon appeared at the LGBT Community Center on Thursday, March 15 to accept an award from Planned Parenthood Golden Gate on behalf of herself and Martin, her partner of 55 years.
Martin was unable to attend due to unfinished repairs that are being made to their San Francisco home.
"It's very sweet of them to invite us," Lyon said. "I'm happy to be here. I'd like it better if [Del] was here, too."
Lyon and Martin are one of the 11 plaintiff couples in Woo v. California, the case brought by several same-sex couples that were married in San Francisco in 2004 or who wanted to get married but could not after the California Supreme Court ordered a halt to the nuptials a month later. California's Supreme Court overturned the marriages in August 2004.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer ruled in 2005 that the state's laws restricting marriage to a union between one man and one woman are unconstitutional. In October 2006, however, the state Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 decision, overturned Kramer's decision. The state Supreme Court said last December that it would review the six same-sex marriage cases.
"What we're complaining about, of course, is the fact that they said we weren't married and that our marriage certificates were null and void," Lyon explained.
When asked if she thinks that she will live to see marriage equality in California, she replied: "I hope so. It depends on how long I live." While Lyon believes that the movement is closer than ever to achieving marriage equality in California, she said: "I'm 82 and Del's going to be 86 in May, so I don't know if we'll get to see it. But it is closer. I think a lot has happened that's good. It's nice to know that younger people are in favor of it."
In 1955, Martin and Lyon founded the Daughters of Bilitis, considered to be the first lesbian rights organization.
"Its interesting to realize that back in the 1970s, there was a little bitty push on the part of heterosexuals to get us allowed to marry," explained Lyon. "The Chronicle ran an editorial that said that they didn't see any reason why gays and lesbians couldn't get married and we all thought that was kind of nice of them ɠnone of us at that point were really involved in marriage equality. We were more interested in passing laws that would allow us to not be fired because we were gay and not thrown out of our apartments and all of those other little basic things."
Martin was the first out lesbian elected to the National Organization for Women's board. "Feminists really thought that marriage was a mess, it was nothing but giving men control over women, so we were kind of against marriage anyhow," explained Lyon. "It wasn't until the last few years really that we realized how many young lesbians and gay men were working toward it and how much they wanted it and we thought, maybe that's not a bad idea at this point, too."
Several other history-making local women were also recognized at the event, including Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi (D-San Leandro), the first Korean American to join the California state Assembly; Beth Parker, one of the San Francisco attorneys who successfully challenged the federal partial-birth abortion ban in Planned Parenthood v. Gonzales in the 9th Circuit; as well as several local labor leaders, who led the fight to persuade the state labor federation to take a no position on Proposition 85 during last fall's election. Proposition 85, which was defeated by voters, would have required a waiting period and parental notification before termination of a minor's pregnancy.