Lyon-Martin Community Health Services is a nonprofit clinic that serves low-income cis-gender women and transgender people with sensitivity to sexual orientation and gender identity, regardless of ability to pay. Named in honor of pioneering lesbian activists, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, the clinic was originally founded in 1979 by UCSF OBGYN Residents Sherron Mills, Patty Robertson, and Alana Schilling to give lesbians in the San Francisco Bay Area access to free, nonjudgmental, affordable health care.
Moving to several locations across the city throughout its history, Lyon-Martin’s current location at 1735 Mission Street has allowed the clinic to expand their services to include abortion care and outreach services to unhoused communities.
Lyon-Martin was the first clinic to successfully obtain Medi-Cal coverage for a variety of gender affirming surgeries including vaginoplasty, phalloplasty, facial feminization surgery, and hair removal. In the early 2000s, they also became one of the first community clinics in the country with a formalized program to ensure safe access to gender affirming hormone therapy prescriptions and surgery referrals. The business concurrently changed their name from Lyon-Martin Women’s Health Services to Lyon-Martin Health Services to be inclusive on the transgender clients that didn’t identify as women.
Last year, Lyon-Martin separated from HealthRight360 (which it merged with in 2019) to become an independent clinic once again.
The clinic joined San Francisco’s Legacy Business Registry on April 26, 2021.
