Diane Olson, Marriage Equality Activist, Dies at 65

Marriage equality activist Diane Olson, part of the first same-sex couple to marry in the Los Angeles area when California first legalized such unions in 2008, has died at age 65.

Olson, the wife of comedian and fellow activist Robin Tyler, died Wednesday night of brain cancer at the couple's home in the North Hills section of L.A., the Los Angeles Blade reports. Olson and Tyler had been together for 25 years.

They were the first plaintiffs in a lawsuit that resulted in a marriage equality ruling from the California Supreme Court in 2008. They married at 5:01 p.m. on June 16 of that year, as soon as they could legally do so, at a courthouse in Beverly Hills. Another pioneering lesbian couple, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, married at the same time in San Francisco, so they and Tyler and Olson were the first same-sex couples legally married in the state.

An Advocate reporter attended Olson and Tyler's wedding. "The couple, flanked by loved ones, the media, and a handful of naysayers -- whose protests were drowned under a sea of jubilation -- were dressed in complementary cream-colored outfits and held each other close throughout the ceremony," The Advocate reported at the time.

Rabbi Denise Eger of West Hollywood's Kol Ami Synagogue officiated. "Great floods cannot dampen your love," Eger proclaimed. "Your courage brought you here today."

Beginning in 2001, Olson and Tyler had gone to the same courthouse every year on Valentine's Day to apply for a marriage license and had been rejected. That led to the lawsuit they filed in 2004 along with Rev. Troy Perry and Phillip Ray de Blieck. They were represented by prominent attorney Gloria Allred. Their suit was eventually consolidated with others and resulted in the California high court's May 2008 ruling.

The marriage equality window of 2008 proved to be a narrow one, as in November of that year, voters approved Proposition 8, which amended California's constitution to ban same-sex marriage, therefore nullifying the state Supreme Court's ruling. The marriages of couples who had already wed, like Olson and Tyler, remained valid, but other same-sex couples could not marry. A federal court eventually struck down Prop. 8, and the U.S. Supreme Court let that ruling stand in 2013, so the Golden State had legal marriage equality once more. Olson and Tyler had filed a suit challenging Prop. 8, but it was a different suit that resulted in the 2013 ruling.

Olson, who was known as the more reserved member of the couple, was a California native with a political heritage. She's the granddaughter of California's first elected governor, Culbert Olson, and her great-grandmother was a suffragist who became Utah's first female elected official. Governor Olson was a big proponent of the separation of church and state and initially refused to put his hand on a Bible at his swearing-in ceremony.

Olson developed lung cancer in 2012, and it metastasized into brain cancer in 2016. She told The Advocate in 2017 that she wanted to be remembered for her role in the marriage equality movement and for her sobriety. "I'm a recovering heroin addict," she said. "One in a thousand get sober and stay sober. I am that one, and I am very proud of that."

Funeral arrangements are pending.