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A Narrative Life Story of Activist Phyllis Lyon and Her Reflections on a Life with Del Martin Dianna Lee Johnson Grand Valley State University

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A Narrative Life Story of Activist Phyllis Lyon and Her Reflections on a Life with Del Martin Dianna Lee Johnson Grand Valley State University Grand Valley State University ScholarWorks@GVSU Masters Theses Graduate Research and Creative Practice 8-2012 A Narrative Life Story of Activist Phyllis Lyon and Her Reflections on a Life with Del Martin Dianna Lee Johnson Grand Valley State University Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/theses Recommended Citation Johnson, Dianna Lee, "A Narrative Life Story of Activist Phyllis Lyon and Her Reflections on a Life with Del Martin" (2012). Masters Theses. 22. http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/theses/22 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Research and Creative Practice at ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Narrative Life Story of Activist Phyllis Lyon and Her Reflections on a Life with Del Martin Dianna Lee Johnson A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Social Work School of Social Work in the College of Community and Public Service August, 2012 Dedication As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence actually liberates others—Marianne Williamson. This work is dedicated to the women in my life who saw a light within me before I believed it was there. They nurtured that little flame of hope, loved me until I could love myself and led me into the sunlight of the spirit where I can give others permission to do the same. iii Acknowledgements A project like this cannot transform from a figment of my imagination into a multi-page document without the support and generosity of many amazing people. First, and foremost, I thank Phyllis Lyon. She has been most generous with her time, her stories and her energy in the lifelong work that she has done for gay, lesbian and women's rights. I thank her with a grateful heart because I do not have to hide my sexual orientation, and it is, at least in part, to the tireless activist presence of Phyllis Lyon. She welcomed my partner and me into her home and answered questions with humility, humor and openness. I am so grateful. I acknowledge my partner for sticking with me through this journey, for listening to these words while I read them out loud, and for being my San Francisco companion. Thank you for not hating me even though we walked from Noe Valley to Nob Hill. It was good for us. I am so grateful for you. Every day, I love you more. I thank Dr. Dorothea Epple. I thank her for chairing my thesis committee, for giving me the motivation to finish this paper and for starting it in the first place. Dr. Epple helped give me the confidence to believe that this paper was worth pursuing. There are two women on my thesis committee that have been important to this project, Dr. Jane Hayes and Susan Odgers. I thank Dr. Jane Hayes for her support throughout my graduate program. She listened…more than once. I thank Susan Odgers for encouraging me to look into the program in the first place, for always cheering me on, iv and for showing me that the only barriers we ever face are the ones that we create in our own mind. I thank her for being my friend. Thank you Dr. Cray Mulder for helping me navigate the Human Research Review Committee. I appreciate that you took the time to read over my application so that I would have a smooth approval process. Thank you Hazel McClure, librarian extraordinaire, for finding some of the obscure requests that I had during my research. Your support is much appreciated. Thank you Traverse City Cohort 12 for your support, your interest and your camaraderie during our many hours together in and out of class. I thank my sister, Deborah Toomey, for encouraging me through the fear and offering to read and proofread this paper. She was able to bring the objectiveness and fresh eye to it that I didn’t have. I love you, my sister. I have to thank all of the authors and researchers who have done the work ahead of me. In particular, I would like to thank Marcia Gallo and Martin Meeker for their encouragement to do this project. They convinced me that it was worthy. I couldn't have done, and redone, this paper without the support and love of some of the best girlfriends that a woman could ever ask for. I thank them for reminding me that the only way to eat an elephant is to do it one bite at a time. I thank these ladies from the bottom of my heart for wiping my tears when my files got corrupted and listening to me yammer on in excitement about meeting an icon. My friends will never know how much I love them or how much they mean to me. Abstract Phyllis Lyon met the love of her life in 1953. Her name was Del Martin. When they fell in love, homosexuality was an illness that needed to be cured, a sin to be confessed and an illegal act that should be punished. Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon are legendary in the lesbian community for originating the Daughters of Bilitis--an underground lesbian social club in San Francisco formed in the 1950s. They spent the next 55 years together confronting society and policy about the inequity of gays, lesbians, and women. In each of these social movements, however, they were the minority inside the minority because they were lesbians. Despite the availability of lesbian and gay history, relatively little has been written exclusively about lesbian history. The depth and evolution of Lyon and Martin’s relationship and a depth of the relationship with the cause they were fighting for is missing from the current research. The articles that have been written about lesbian history and about Martin and Lyon, in particular, all report the same facts and tell the same stories. The attempt of this thesis is to frame the life of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon with the personal stories of their lives together and the challenges of their relationship. In addition, the social context, lesbian history and culture will be thoroughly researched to serve as the setting in which their story takes place. Personally and professionally, it is an attempt to understand the founding history of the Lesbian Rights Movement while learning about the NASW values of service, social justice, integrity, dignity and worth of a person and the importance of human relationships. Table of Contents Page Dedication iii Acknowledgements iv-v Abstract vi Chapter One—Proposal 1 Introduction 2 Research Questions 5 Short Statement on How Student Came To Study This Issue 6 Conceptual Framework 8 Methods 10 Ethical Issues in the Study 14 Chapter Two—Literature Review 17 Homosexuality in the United States in the 1950s 21 Homosexuality in San Francisco in the 1950s 28 Lesbian Life in San Francisco in the 1950s 33 Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon in the 1950s 35 Chapter Three—Methods 40 Chapter Four—Results 43 Introduction to the Results 44 Reliability and Validity in Phyllis Lyon Narrative Life Story 46 vii A Narrative Life Story and Reflections of Activist Phyllis Lyon 49 Phyllis Lyon 53 Del Martin 56 Phyllis Meets Del Martin 59 Del and Phyllis Find a Home 67 A “Secret Social Club for Lesbians” 72 The Ladder 75 “The Personal Becomes Political” 76 National Lesbian Conference 79 Lesbians and Gay Males Collide 80 The Church, Couch, and Courts 83 Challenging the Legal and Political Views of Homosexuality 83 Challenging Religious Views of Homosexuality 85 Challenging the Psychiatric Community 88 Phyllis and Del as Feminist Rights Activists 89 Del and Phyllis Write Lesbian/Woman 92 Phyllis Lyon and Glide Memorial United Methodist Church 96 Battered Wives 97 Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club 99 Old Lesbians Organizing for Change 102 Gay Marriage 102 viii Chapter Five—Discussion 109 Chapter Six—Conclusions and Implications for Social Work Practice 119 Social Work Core Values 127 Service 127 Dignity and Worth of a Person 129 Importance of Human Relationships 130 Integrity 131 Competence 131 6.04 Social and Political Action 132 6.04 Social and Political Action, part a 132 6.04 Social and Political Action, part b 134 6.04 Social and Political Action, part c 135 6.04 Social and Political Action, part d 136 Other Implications 136 References 138 Chapter Seven—Appendices 148 Appendix A: Potential Questions for Phyllis Lyon Interview 149 Appendix B: Student Research Protocol Checklist 161 Appendix C: Informed Consent Document 164 Appendix D: Outline from the OAC (Online Archive of California) 169 Appendix E: Personal Letter to Phyllis Lyon, January 2010 178 ix Appendix F: Personal Letter to Phyllis Lyon, January 2011 179 Appendix G: Journal Entry from November 5, 2010 180 Appendix H: Journal Entry from November 9, 2010 182 Appendix I: Phyllis Lyon’s Service and Activism 184 Appendix J: List of Del Martin’s Service and Activism 185 x Chapter 1: The Research Proposal Introduction The history books present the 1950s as a time of economic boom. The standard was two cars in every garage. The country was full of post-war pride and anti-communist patriotism. The Golden Age of television introduced The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, I Love Lucy, and Father Knows Best. These television shows characterized the stereotypical 1950s white, middle class American family.
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