Thanks Del Martin
August 27, 2008
Because I’m sure a few people who read my blog probably have no idea who Del Martin is, here’s a list of things we can thank her for, taken from her obituary (PDF):
- Martin co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the first public and political lesbian rights organization in the United States
- Martin helped create the Council on Religion and the Homosexual in order to lobby city lawmakers more effectively to reduce police harassment and modify the sex laws that criminalized homosexual behavior.
- As an early member of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Del Martin worked to counter homophobia within the women’s movement—fear of the so-called “lavender menace.” She and Lyon were the first lesbians to insist on joining with a “couples’ membership rate.”
- She was a leader in the campaign to persuade the American Psychiatric Association to declare that homosexuality was not a mental illness.
- Martin’s publication of Battered Wives in 1976 was a major catalyst for the movement against domestic violence.
This is just a small example of the many ways in which we should all be incredibly grateful to Del and Phyllis for dedicating their lives to stopping the hatred and discrimination that mars the lives of gay and lesbian people.