American activist Del Martin was BOTD in 1921. Born Dorothy Taliaferro in San Francisco, she studied journalism the University of California, Berkeley and at San Francisco State College, where she studied journalism. She was married for four years to James Martin, with whom she had a daughter, retained his surname after their divorce. In 1950 she met Phyllis Lyon, who would become her lover and life partner. Together they founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the first social and political organisation for lesbians in the United States. They edited the DOB’s official magazine The Ladder until 1963, and became the first lesbian couple to join the National Organization of Women. In 1964 they formed the Council on Religion and the Homosexual to persuade churches to accept gay and lesbian members, and became politically active in the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, advocating for decriminalisation of homosexuality and anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people. They were the first same-sex couple to be married in San Francisco in 2004, though their marriage was voided by the California Supreme Court months later. They married again in 2008, following the Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage. Martin died two months later, aged 87, survived by Lyon.