Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon

In 1955, Martin and Lyon and six other lesbian women formed the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), the first national lesbian organization in the United States.[3][17] Lyon was the first editor of DOB's newsletter, The Ladder, beginning in 1956. Martin took over editorship of the newsletter from 1960 to 1962, and was then replaced by other editors until the newsletter ended its connection with the Daughters of Bilitis in 1970.[7][8]

Within five years of its origin, the Daughters of Bilitis had chapters around the country, including Chicago, New York, New Orleans, San Diego, Los Angeles, Detroit, Denver, Cleveland and Philadelphia. There were 500 subscribers to The Ladder but far more readers, as copies were circulated among women who were reluctant to put their names to a subscription list.[15] For their pioneering work on The Ladder, Martin and Lyon were among the first inductees into the LGBT Journalists Hall of Fame, which was established in 2005 by the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association. Lyon and Martin remained involved in the DOB until the late 1960s. The Daughters of Bilitis, which had taken a conservative approach to helping lesbians deal with society, disbanded in 1970 due to the rise of more radical activism.[15]

Martin and Lyon were active in the National Organization for Women (NOW) since 1967. Del Martin was the first open lesbian elected to the board of directors of NOW.[3][18][19] In 1970, she signaled in an essay the split of lesbian feminists from the male-dominated gay rights movement, characterizing the leaders of that movement as "hollow men of self-proclaimed privilege. They neither speak for us nor to us."[20] Lyon and Martin worked to combat the homophobia they perceived in NOW, and encouraged the National Board of Directors of NOW's 1971 resolution that lesbian issues were feminist issues.[15]

"Del" Martin was the first openly gay woman to be appointed to the SFCOSW by then Mayor George R. Moscone in 1977.[18][19] Martin joined forces with other minority SFCOSW Commissioners, such as Kathleen Hardiman Arnold (now Kathleen Rand Reed), and the first Black woman to be elected to the Board of Supervisors, Ella Hill Hutch, to focus on the nexus of gay women's rights and racial and ethnic discrimination. In their later work with a health clinic, Martin and Lyon focused, for instance, on the specific health and issues affecting Black and Latina gay women. Martin was ahead of her time in understanding the cultural aspects of gay health.

Lyon and Martin were both active in San Francisco's first gay political organization, the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, named after San Francisco-born author Alice B. Toklas.[21][22]

Lyon-Martin Health Services was founded in 1979[23] by a group of medical providers and health activists as a clinic for lesbians who lacked access to non-judgmental and affordable health care. Named after Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, the clinic soon became a model for culturally-sensitive community-based health care. Since 1993, Lyon-Martin also has provided case management and primary healthcare in programs specifically designed for very low-income and uninsured women with HIV, as well as services for transgender people.[24]

Pantsuits worn by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon to their weddings in San Francisco in 2004 and 2008; on display at the GLBT History Museum, 4127 18th St., San Francisco. Photo: GLBT Historical Society.

In 1989, Martin and Lyon joined Old Lesbians Organizing for Change. In 1995 they were named delegates to the White House Conference on Aging, Martin by Senator Dianne Feinstein and Lyon by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.[25]

In 2003 filmmaker JEB (Joan E. Biren) released a documentary film on the couple, No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, available from Frameline.[26]

The 1993 documentary Last Call at Maud's also featured Martin and Lyon.[27]

In 2014, Martin was one of the inaugural honorees in the Rainbow Honor Walk, a walk of fame in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood noting LGBTQ people who have "made significant contributions in their fields."[28][29][30]

In June 2019, Martin was one of the inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City’s Stonewall Inn.[31][32] The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history,[33] and the wall's unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.[34]

In June 2020, Lyon was added to the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor.[35]