San Francisco Makes Home of Lesbian Couple a Landmark
The home of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, the first same-sex couple to legally marry in California, was an integral meeting spot for activists.
Phyllis Lyon, left, and Del Martin at their home in San Francisco in 2008. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to give the home landmark status this week.Credit.Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press
May 7, 2021
The home of the first same-sex couple to legally marry in California will become a historical landmark, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors ruled this week.
On Tuesday, the city’s supervisors voted unanimously to grant landmark designation for the home owned by the couple, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, who are both lesbian activists and co-founders of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian rights organization in the United States.
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As part of Small Business Week, the San Francisco Flower Mart has decorated the city with a 10-foot blooming butterfly sculptures ready-made for photo ops. But hurryâFriday is last call for Instagram snaps.
Plus, things are looking up as San Francisco enters the yellow tier and bars reopen, Dead Heads can shell out the big bucks on an NFT by none other than Jerry Garcia, and more local headlines to send you sailing into the weekend on a psychedelic note.
Home of first same-sex couple to legally wed in S.F. gets landmark status,
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The Ladder will be preserved for generations to come. May 07 2021 3:33 PM EDT
The cottage in San Francisco where lesbian pioneers Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon made their home and a haven for LGBTQ+ people beginning in 1955 has now been assigned landmark status. A request for the minimum of a plaque on the sidewalk will be submitted within six months, according to the
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to designate the hilltop home at 651 Duncan St. landmark status. The one-bedroom house was the place where Lyon and Martin founded the political group the Daughters of Bilitis in 1955.
The group started as a social support organization but quickly transformed into activism and politics.
“The Daughters of Bilitis didn’t have an office space, so 651 was really ground zero for the lesbian rights movement at the time. It was a place where people could be safe and reveal their sexuality, said Terry Beswick, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society.
Lyon was a journalist who met her lifelong love, Martin, while working at a magazine in Seattle. The couple moved to San Francisco in 1953. Besides the political organization, they published a national monthly for lesbians and a book called Lesbian/Woman in 1972.