J.D. mentioned Del Martin’s passing late yesterday, but I just wanted to link out to a great piece over at Jezebel.
I learned a lot about this pioneer and figured that others would be interested.
Here’s an excerpt:
It’s kind of hard to find an LGBT cause — or women’s cause, for that matter — in which Del Martin wasn’t a pioneer. In addition to the Daughters of Bilitis, which hosted public forums, provided support to individual women, and published a magazine called The Ladder, Martin also helped found the Lesbian Mother’s Union and America’s first gay political club, the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club. She campaigned to get the American Psychological Association to remove homsexuality from its list of mental illnesses, and she co-founded several advocacy groups for battered women.
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Pioneer lesbian rights activist Del Martin died today at 87 years old. As well as being one of the founding members of the Daughters of Bilitis, the nation’s first lesbian rights group, in 1955, Martin (pictured on the right) married her lifelong partner, Phyllis Lyon (also in the Daughters of Bilitis), in June when California legalized gay marriage.
As sad as Martin’s death is, it’s awesome that she was able to see gay marriage legalized and marry Lyon before she died.
Del martin played a huge part in LGBT history and her contributions to the community will be felt by all LGBT generations to come.
(via AP)
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