Born May 5: Del Martin

Del Martin turns eighty-seven today and everyone should thank her for more than fifty years of inspired heroism. Like other great American figures, she has spent her adult life championing the the denigrated and disenfranchised. In 1955, when homosexuality was illegal, she, her life partner Phyllis Lyon, and six other lesbians founded the Daughters of Bilitis in her native San Francisco. By 1960 there were DOB chapters in nine cities nationwide and their magazine, The Ladder, was thriving despite most readers' need for secrecy. Even in friendly waters, they had to fight the tides against lesbians, both among straight women in NOW and gay men in the queer equality movement. Martin addressed the latter situation in her landmark article, "Goodbye, My Alienated Brothers," which appeared in the Advocate in 1970. Two years later, she and Lyon were instrumental in forming the Alice B Toklas Democratic Club, and they published their seminal book Lesbian/Woman. In 1979 they were honored by a group of medical professionals who wanted to start a clinic for lesbians who lacked health care, and they chose the name Lyon-Martin Health Services. In 1995 they were named separately as delegates to the White House Conference on Aging. Ever the trailblazers, Martin [above, left] and Lyon were the very first gay couple to be married in San Francisco in February 2004. Below, Martin describes the early hurdles they faced in forming and growing DOB during a time when they could not advertise their existence.

Comments

[Jeff]

I lived in S.F. for twenty years, starting in 1980, and rubbed elbows with these two fine women many times. I'm a hard old goat, but when Del and Phyl got married, well... this old faggot shed a lot of happy, but bitter-sweet tears (young gay folk probably can't understand what these tears represented...and I'm so glad that they can't). It was also a sad moment...my life partner of 12 years was taken by the epidemic in 1994...if he had lived, we also would have married.

I'm so happy these two ol' warriors we're able to be lawfully wed, even if just for a while. They (like myself) are a part of a very small group of gay people who created the gay movement and never wavered - not even for a moment...and took all the shit that was hurled at us, and accepted all the necessary sacrifices with a shrug, a smile, and increased determination to be authentic and make the world a better place for future generations of gay people. We were the gay equivalent of the courageous young african-american people who sat down at the white-only lunch counters in the early 60s in the face of potential life-threatening violence. Young people should know that there were absolutely _no_ role models for us...we had to invent ourselves from air in the face of horrendous oppression. Kudos to Phyl and Del, and all the other pioneers (now in our senior years) who bravely stood up and said "enough", digging in our heels. The kids have no idea what we went through so that they could be gay with relative ease. And I couldn't be more happy that don't have to experience what we did...but I do wish they understood a bit better. Maybe then they would treat us old folks with a bit more respect. We fought a really tough fight for them...we knew it wouldn't be for us, but we never wavered.

I came out 100% in 1972 at 19 (in South Carolina), and have never ever hid who I am...always, in every situation making it clear..."I'm gay and I'm here". There were consequences that resulted from this determination to be authentic (more than I would have liked, frankly)...but I've learned that consequences are the best teachers one can possibly have. Sure, I wish I hadn't had to do this (and I did _have to_ do it), but there wasn't really a choice...it was done with future generations in mind. I hope every younger generation will understand what ground we broke and what sacrifices were made to do it (someone needs to write this book before everything is forgotten), and will continue to build on it. Come out, come out...so that the sacrifices we made with our lives will continue to bear fruit. Imagine a day when affectional/sexual orientation isn't even an issue. It won't happen in my life...but it will happen, and I'm content to know that I contributed my life to making this happen. Truth will out.