Losing a titan like this is always devastating. She lived a good life, though, and accomplished much in her time. The Chronicle has a nice lengthy bit on her history of activism alongside her partner, Phyllis Lyon, including a timeline at the end:
She and Lyon met in Seattle in 1950 while both were working as journalists for a trade publication. Their friendship turned into a romance two years later. In 1953, on Valentine's Day, the couple moved into a Castro district flat in San Francisco.
After helping found the Daughters of Bilitis, they started a newsletter, called the Ladder, which grew into a magazine focused on lesbian politics and culture.
In the first issue, Ms. Martin set the tone for how she would lead the rest of her life when she wrote: "Nothing was ever accomplished by hiding in a dark corner. Why not discard the hermitage for the heritage that awaits any red-blooded American woman who dares to claim it?"
Cleve Jones took that message to heart when he met the couple in 1972. He was a student at Arizona State University, and the duo went to speak to a gay liberation organization.
"For a kid just out of high school, listening to them was a life-altering experience," said Jones, who later moved to San Francisco, where he worked as a student intern in the City Hall office of gay Supervisor Harvey Milk and founded the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. "They were so confident, so unapologetic, so radical."
And, added Kendell, from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, "so fearless. In every social movement, political movement, there's someone who transcends their time. For lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, Del Martin was one of those people."
Friends and family plan to hold a public tribute to Ms. Martin in the near future. Details have not been set.
Del Martin
-- 1921 - Born on May 5 in San Francisco
-- 1950 - Met the love of her life, Phyllis Lyon
-- 1955 - Co-founded groundbreaking lesbian organization Daughters of Bilitis
-- 1960 - Took over as editor of the Ladder, a monthly lesbian magazine
-- 1964 - Helped found the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, formed to overturn laws that criminalized homosexual behavior
-- 1972 - Co-wrote with Lyon the book "Lesbian/Woman"
-- 1972 - Co-founded with Lyon the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, the first gay political club in the United States
-- 1976 - Published the book "Battered Wives," which focused on domestic violence
-- 1976 - Appointed chairwoman of the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women
-- 1995 - Served as a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging
-- 2004 - Wed Lyon in the first of about 4,000 same-sex weddings sanctioned by San Francisco but later ruled invalid by the California Supreme Court
-- 2008 - On June 16, married Lyon again, this time with the blessing of the state Supreme Court, which found the state ban on same-sex marriage illegal
Here's a video of Phyllis and Del speaking at the GLBT Historical Society in 2002, telling the story of the The Ladder
Phyllis, if you're out there, I'm so sorry for your loss.
