Diane Sabin facts for kids

Diane Abbe Sabin, born in 1952 in New York City, is an important activist. She works to make things better for people in the San Francisco Bay Area. She helped organize music events and stages for the San Francisco Pride celebrations.

She also started Sabin Chiropractic, a successful health clinic. Diane Sabin works hard to improve health care for women and the LGBTQ+ community. She wants to make sure everyone is included in health research and institutions.

Sabin is a leader at the Lesbian Health & Research Center (LHRC) at the University of California, San Francisco. She is also an Associate Director for the National Center of Excellence in Women's Health. She helped create a group called 100 Lesbians and Our Friends. This group encourages people to give back to their community. She also serves on the boards of several important organizations. These include the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. In 2001, she received the Astraea Philanthropic Activism Award for her work.

Early Life and Education

Diane Sabin was born in New York City. Her parents were Helene and Alan Sabin. She grew up in a suburb near Chicago. She went to Johnston College at the University of Redlands in Southern California. Later, she earned a doctor of chiropractic degree. She studied at Life Chiropractic College West in Hayward, California.

Before moving to California, she lived in Boston, Massachusetts. During this time, many people were working for equal rights for women and LGBTQ+ people. She even joined an early group that supported LGBTQ+ women.

Career Highlights

After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, Diane Sabin became a producer of events. She helped organize a tour for "Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women." This was a collection by the well-known poet and activist Cheryl Clarke. Sabin worked with two local women of color, Sharon Page Ritchie and Cara Vaughn, on this project. She also helped produce the early San Francisco Pride stages in the 1980s.

For over 15 years, she ran her own chiropractic clinic. It was located in the Castro neighborhood. This clinic became a valuable part of the community.

The group 100 Lesbians and Our Friends held regular meetings. They wanted to teach women about the power of giving to charity. The idea was to help women understand how they could use their money to support each other.

Diane Sabin is the executive director of The Lesbian Health & Research Center. This center is part of the University of California, San Francisco. She leads programs that work with community groups. These programs create information and educate people about the health of women, including bisexual and trans women. She also helps manage the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at UCSF.

Working for Marriage Equality

In 2004, Diane Sabin and her partner, Jewelle Gomez, joined a lawsuit. They were one of twelve gay couples involved in the case Woo v Lockyer. This lawsuit was against the State of California. Diane and Jewelle first met in 1984 and became friends. They started a romantic relationship in 1993. Later, they registered as domestic partners under California law.

The lawsuit aimed to gain the right to marry for same-sex couples. The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and the American Civil Liberties Union represented the couples. Diane Sabin had previously been the chairwoman of the NCLR board. She spoke about the importance of the lawsuit in a legal newspaper. She said it was about ending unfair treatment.

News organizations used pictures of Diane and Jewelle to show the issue of marriage equality. This was especially true when important court decisions were announced in 2008. These decisions struck down laws that limited marriage rights. Diane and Jewelle were at San Francisco City Hall when the U.S. Supreme Court announcements were made. Their marriage in October 2008 was reported in The New York Times.