Lesbian activist Del Martin dies as poll shows Proposition 8 headed for defeat...

I'm sad to report that Del Martin, a woman who was part of the first legal gay marriage in California when she married her partner of 55 years in June, died Wednesday.

It's a beautiful thing though that she was able to get married to Phyllis Lyon before she passed on at age of 87 and got to be a part of history. Del helped found the pioneering lesbian-rights group the Daughters of Bilitis.

Ms. Lyon, 83, said in a statement, "I am devastated, but I take some solace in knowing we were able to enjoy the ultimate rite of love and commitment before she passed."

Her death came on the day that a new poll showed that a majority of California voters oppose a ballot initiative to ban gay marriage, though they are evenly split on the practice itself.

The discrepancy between voters' general attitudes against gay marriage and their position on banning it could be explained by a hesitancy to remove a constitutional right, said Mark Baldassare, president and chief executive of the Public Policy Institute of California, which conducted the poll.

On Thursday morning in Denver, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom paid tribute to Del during an address to California delegate in town for the Democratic National Convention calling her "one of the great civil rights leaders of our time."

It was Newsom who married the couple earlier this summer - just as he had back in 2004 when when the San Francisco mayor challenged California's marriage laws by announcing that the city would issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples who requested them.