R.I.P.

[osodecanela]

Del Martin passed away today at 87. She is survived by her wife Phyllis Lyon, with whom she was partnered for 55 years. They were married June 16th in San Francisco by Mayor Gavin Newsom.

I never had the pleasure of meeting this woman, but I owe her and her wife a debt of gratitude. Their courage and actions helped pave the way to our civil rights as lesbians and gay men today. In part because of their fight for what was right, along with so many others like them, I had the right to legally marry my husband last month.

We are a community that will do well to remember the courage and fire of people like Del, Phyllis, Harry Hay, and so many others, and to honor them for speakiing truth to power.

Comments

[scottasf.livejournal.com]

Flags at San Francisco City Hall and the big rainbow flag in the Castro were flown at Half Staff yesterday. This was the first time in history that the rainbow flag was flown at half staff.

[osodecanela.livejournal.com]

That it was at half staff is appropriate. Our community has lost one of its matriarchs.

I will mourn her passing; I'm grateful to her and grateful that she survived long enough to see her relationship legally honored and recognized. Phyllis Lyon was rightfully listed in Del's obit as her wife, not her 'longtime companion', as would have been in years past. She is now her widow, and with time and our continued fight, will be hopefully treated as such, by our government.

I recently saw a documentary on Logo on marriage equality. One very disturbing part was a profile of a man, who'd lost his partner of 20 years to cancer. They'd raised his two boys together, on a midwestern farm the partner had owned. The partner left a will leaving the property to him, but it had only been signed and notarized by a single witness, and so the deceased partner's cousins were able to challenge it successfully and have themselves declared the man's heirs in court. The widower had little money of his own to fight the loss in court, and wound up losing everything he and his partner had built together. It was very much like what happened to Alice Toklas, when Gertrude Stein died.

As long as we're denied to right to marry legally, we remain in danger of this kind of injustice, and I for one am damned tired of sitting in the back of the bus.