Del Martin, a pioneer lesbian rights activist who, with her partner of more than 50 years, Phyllis Lyon, became the first same-sex couple to legally marry in San Francisco in June, died Wednesday. She was 87.
Martin died in the hospice unit of UC San Francisco Medical Center, two weeks after a broken arm worsened her existing health problems, said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco.
"We would not have marriage equality in California if it weren't for Del and Phyllis," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement Wednesday.
"They fought and triumphed in many battles. . . . Through it all, their love and commitment to each other was an inspiration to all who knew them."
Kendell, a longtime friend of Martin's, told The Times on Wednesday that "if one were to name those who have made the most difference to various civil rights movements, whether it's civil rights, farmworkers' rights, women's rights, we all know whose those names would be.
"When it comes to the person who moved lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues forward, that figure would be Del Martin. We all stand on her shoulders, and the gains made by the LGBT movement are owed in large part to Del Martin's legacy."
The highly publicized marriage of Martin and Lyon on June 16, the day the California Supreme Court's ruling overturning laws banning gay marriage went into effect, was officiated by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a private ceremony in his City Hall office.
But it wasn't the first time the two women, who have been activist icons in the gay community for five decades, made history in San Francisco.
Martin and Lyon, whose relationship began in the early 1950s, also were the first couple married in San Francisco on Feb. 12, 2004, after Newsom challenged California's marriage laws by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Some 4,000 gay and lesbian couples were married in the city before a court order halted the ceremonies a month later.
Although the state Supreme Court later invalidated the marriages, Martin and Lyon were among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state that led the court to overturn California's ban on same-sex marriages.
And so on June 16, the 83-year-old Lyon and the 87-year-old Martin were in Newsom's office, where their wedding ceremony began at 5 p.m., the time when the Supreme Court ruling went into effect.
