Dorothy “Del” Taliaferro (1921-2008) was a San Francisco native. She graduated from George Washington High and attended UC Berkeley and San Francisco State^[1]. She was married to James Martin for four years and kept his name after their divorce. They had one daughter together. 

Phyllis Lyon (1924-2020) was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She received a journalism degree from UC Berkeley in 1946. 

Martin and Lyon met in 1950 while working for the same Seattle magazine. They became a couple in 1952 and moved San Francisco in 1953 in order to openly live together. In 1955 they bought a hilltop cottage at 651 Duncan in Noe Valley. When people remember them as a couple, they all mention the overwhelming love and protection that Martin and Lyon shared for each other.

In 1956 Martin and Lyon co-founded Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian social and political organization in the United States. They were co-editors of a national magazine The Ladder. It first appeared in 1956 and ran until Daughters of Bilitis disbanded in 1970. By then, the National Organization of Women had (NOW)^[2] had become a strong platform, and Lyon and Martin joined the organization. Martin was the first open lesbian elected to its Board of Directors. 

In 1972 Martin and Lyon published a book entitled Lesbian/Woman.  They also became members of San Francisco’s first gay and lesbian political organization, the Alice B Toklas Democratic Club^[3], which influenced Mayor Dianne Feinstein^[4] to sponsor a bill outlawing employment discrimination based on sexual orientation (Feinstein would later veto a bill that would have allowed domestic partner rights).

In 1979 Martin and Lyon founded the Lyon-Martin Health Services. It still exists today as a health clinic for marginalized women of color and trans people. That same year, Martin wrote Battered Wives, one of the first books to raise awareness of women caught in abusive relationships. In 2003 a documentary about Martin’s and Lyon’s lives  together, called No Secret Anymore, was released.

In 2004 Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered that marriage licenses be issued to same-sex couples. Martin and Collins were the first same sex couple to obtain a marriage license at City Hall. Ninety gay and lesbian couples were married that day. These licenses were later voided by the California Supreme Court, but that same court would legalize same-sex marriage four years later. Again, Martin and Lyon were the first to get married in San Francisco, with Mayor Newsom presiding. Martin was 87, Lyon 84. Martin would die two months later after complications from a broken arm. Mayor Newsom had the flags flown at half mast. Phyllis Lyon died in 2020 at the age of 95, and was alive to celebrate when the US Supreme Court ruled gay marriage legal in 2015. 

In 2021 the Martin/Lyon home on Duncan was granted landmark status following a 11-0 vote by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

^[1] San Francisco State: story coming July 18th

^[2] Visit them at https://now.org

^[3] Alice B Toklas Democratic Club: story coming April 8th

^[4] Dianne Feinstein: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4348