Diane Sabin

Diane Abbe Sabin (born 1952 in New York City) is a lesbian feminist activist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her early work was in production of lesbian musical performers as well as the San Francisco Pride stages. She co-founded 100 Lesbians and Our Friends, a lesbian philanthropic community initiative, and serves on the board of directors for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, and Woman Vision. She received the Astraea Philanthropic Activism Award in 2001. She grew up in a suburb of Chicago. She graduated from Johnston College at the University of Redlands in Southern California.

Career

After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area and before becoming a chiropractor, Sabin produced events in San Francisco including the tour of "Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women" based on the collection of well-known poet and activist Cheryl Clarke. Sabin co-produced in collaboration with two local lesbians of color, Sharon Page Ritchie and Cara Vaughn. She was also responsible for the production of the early San Francisco Pride stage in the 1980s.

She maintained a chiropractic practice in the Castro for more than 15 years where she developed a community-based private clinic.

The group 100 Lesbians and Our Friends held periodic meetings modeled after lesbian pot luck or CR groups, designed to re-educate women about the power of philanthropic giving. The philosophy was that girls are miseducated about their relationship to money from early youth and needed to rethink how they used their economic power and how they might support each other.

Sabin is the executive director of The Lesbian Health & Research Center at University of California, San Francisco.

Right to marry lawsuit She and her partner, Jewelle Gomez, along with twelve other gay couples became part of Woo v Lockyer, a lawsuit against the State of California in 2004. The couple met in 1984 and became friends, but had to delay any romance until both were available to each other years later in 1993. They subsequently registered as domestic partners under California law.

The suit sought the right to marry and the complainants are being represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and the American Civil Liberties Union. Sabin had once served as chairwoman on the board of NCLR.

Images of the interracial couple were used by news outlets to illustrate the gay marriage issue, particularly when the 2008 decision striking down California Proposition 8 and DOMA was announced. They were on hand at San Francisco City Hall when the announcements from the U.S. Supreme Court was aired. Their subsequent marriage in October 2008 was reported in The New York Times.