I have not seen any posts about this news yet. The Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco’s LGBT weekly paper, just reported the passing of Phyllis Lyon, a pioneer for LGBT rights. Rather than link their story (the BAR’s website is somewhat problematic due to really horrible design) I’m linking to a companion story at sfist. Lyon was 95 years old and apparently her death was unrelated to COVID-19.
As far as I know Lyon was the last of the early champions of LGBT equality those who advocated for LGBT civil rights from the 1950s onward. The others, Harry Hay, Frank Kameny, and Lyon’s spouse Del Martin had already passed.
Lyon and Martin met in 1950 and moved in together in 1953. In 1955 they became co-founders with three other couples of the Daughters of Bilitis, (DOB) the first organization to advocate for the civil rights of lesbians specifically and a year later began publishing The Ladder, the first nationally-distributed publication targeting lesbian readers. DOB had a lengthy history of cooperation with the Mattachine Society, America’s first modern gay rights organization—directed mainly at gay men. Harry Hay co-founded the original organization in Los Angeles in 1950; Frank Kameny organized the DC branch of the Mattachine Society in 1961.
Lyon and Martin were married twice: first on Valentine’s Day 2004 when then Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Lyon and Martin married again in June, 2008, this time legally, when California’s Supreme Court cleared for marriage equality prior to the passage of the infamous Prop 8 which was overturned in 2013. Martin passed away only a few weeks after the marriage.
The founders are well and truly gone. Those of us who followed after now have the responsibility to carry their work forward.