Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin Make History Again

Activists across the country celebrated as the couple, together for 51 years, became the first same-sex couple to obtain a marriage license and marry in the United States

February 13, 2004

by NOW Staff

Phyllis Lyon (left) and Del Martin (right)

Pioneering lesbian rights activists and NOW members Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon made history Feb. 12 in San Francisco when they became the first same-sex couple in the United States to have their marriage recognized by a government entity.

Leaders of NOW, along with feminist activists everywhere, were thrilled to hear the news that the San Francisco city government had sanctioned marriage for lesbians and gays, and that Martin, 83, and Lyon, 79, were the first to marry in an impromptu ceremony.

"I wish them another 51 happy years," said NOW President Kim Gandy, who presented the couple with Women of Courage Awards at NOW's Lesbian Rights Summit in 1999.

In 1999, Kim Gandy, then NOW's executive vice president, presented Lyon and Martin with Women of Courage Awards at NOW's Lesbian Rights Summit.

After forming the first national lesbian rights organization, Daughters of Bilitis, in 1955 and joining NOW in the 1960s as one of the few sources of community, Martin and Lyon left the organization over concerns about homophobia in 1979, but rejoined in 1988 and participated in that year's NOW Lesbian Rights Conference. At NOW's Lesbian Rights Summit in 1999, they stood before a standing-room-only crowd and noted how far we've come as a movement. Martin emphasized the need "to unite as never before and face the grip that the extreme right wing holds over our country."

Gandy called the San Francisco decision—which resulted in the city government issuing marriage licenses to hundreds of lesbian and gay couples—a significant turning point in the fight for equal marriage rights.

"The right to civil marriage for same-sex couples is an essential step on the road to full equality," Gandy said. "Every American, regardless of their sexual orientation, deserves access to the more than 1,000 legal protections and benefits in state and federal law that a legal marriage brings."

Among the hundreds of couples getting married in San Francisco last week were Thea Gray and Jeanine Mattson, who had already celebrated their relationship in the summer of 2002 with an elaborate wedding ceremony. They took time off work on Friday to get a marriage license.

Reached by phone at City Hall, Gray sounded positively giddy about the experience.

"We couldn't be more excited to be part of this historic moment," said Gray, who plans to frame the marriage certificate. "It's time for yet another discriminatory law to fall."