Activist Phyllis Lyon, who spent more than 50 years fighting for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights, died aged 95 of natural causes, California authorities said on Thursday.
Lyon’s wedding to Del Martin, her partner of 55 years, was among California’s first court-sanctioned same-sex marriages after they were legalized in 2008. Then San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, who is now California’s governor, celebrated the ceremony.
Martin died just over two months after the wedding.
“We lost a giant today,” state senator Scott Wiener said on Twitter as he praised Lyon and Martin for their fight for equality.
“Phyllis died of natural causes. She was 95 [and] lived a full [and] beautiful life. She was such a hero,” Winer added.
The couple, regarded as pioneers of the national movement for gay rights, had first married in 2014, when Newsom threw open the doors at City Hall to same-sex couples in defiance of a state law.
Martin and Lyon were plaintiffs in the lawsuit that got the state ban on same-sex marriage lifted.
Eventually more than 4,000 same-sex couples were married in 2004 in San Francisco, but those unions were later nullified by the US Supreme Court.
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“Phyllis and Del were the manifestation of love and devotion. Yet for over 50 years they were denied the right to say 2 extraordinary words: I do,” Newsom tweeted on Thursday.
“Phyllis—it was the honor of a lifetime to marry you [and] Del. Your courage changed the course of history. Rest in Peace my dear friend,” he added in the tweet. (dpa)
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