The Re-Union

Doesn't this picture make you think of all the LGBT people who died without their loved ones being legally and formally recognised? All those people who died and their loved ones were turfed out of homes because of no legal recognition in the eyes of the law.

This couple nearly didn't make it after being together over 50 years, Phyllis Lyon ,83 and Del Martin, 87, who live in California. They 'tied the knot' 4 years ago but (mostly) supernaturalist bigots opposed all those unions, which were then nullified. These two activists fought with a host of other people and were able to make their union legal at last.

Woman-Vision.org reviews a documentary about these two women who have battled hard over the years for true equality, entitled: "No Secret Anymore:The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon"

"Phyllis and Del's story is a testament to how individuals can influence the course of history. In 1955, against the backdrop of terror created by Senator Joseph McCarthy's hunt for homosexuals and Communists, Del and Phyllis joined with six other women in San Francisco to found the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), America's first lesbian rights organization (named after The Songs of Bilitis, an obscure book of lesbian love poems.) At the time, social taboos against homo-sexuality were so strong that gay people were in constant danger of harassment, physical violence, and losing their homes, jobs and families. When their sexuality was discovered, lesbians were declared unfit mothers by the courts and denied custody of their children.

Homosexuality was viewed as a psychiatric disorder and lesbians were often incarcerated in prisons and mental institutions, where they were subjected to electro-shock therapy and, in extreme cases, lobotomies."