More than half a century of love

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com

Few relationships last half a century — even fewer in the LGBTQ+ community, it seems. Vivienne Armstrong and Louise Young have surpassed even that golden 50-year mark, and, on Saturday, April 18, they will celebrate 55 years together.

The couple met in 1971 at a gay and lesbian event at University of Colorado Boulder where Young was a doctoral candidate and Armstrong worked as a nurse. They moved to Dallas in 1976, soon joining the newly formed Dallas Gay Political Caucus. They quickly moved into leadership positions as the organization morphed into the Dallas Gay Alliance and the Lesbian/Gay Political Coalition. In 1984, Young became the first out person elected to the Texas Democratic Executive Committee, the body that sets policy for the state Democratic Party.

Young was also among the founders of Texas Instruments’ LGBTQ+ employee resource group, one of the first ERGs in the country. When her division was sold to Raytheon, she helped create an ERG there as well. She urged Raytheon to establish partnership benefits that she had worked for at TI, and, when it did, the company became the first defense contractor to receive a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.

Young said she was successful because she showed each company the cost benefits of retaining the best LGBTQ+ employees rather than having to recruit, hir

Armstrong worked for Visiting Nurses Association for more than 30 years and became a leader in providing care for people living with AIDS. At a time when Parkland Hospital orderlies were leaving meals on the floor outside the rooms of its AIDS patients, Armstrong was a role model for offering actual care. In 1986, she was appointed by Mayor Annette Strauss to the City of Dallas Health and Human Services Commission where she won awards for her work.

The Democratic Party quickly noticed the couple’s influence in local and state elections, especially after the 1992 presidential elections. To reward them personally for their work and to thank the LGBTQ+ community for its support, President Bill Clinton invited Armstrong and Young to ride on a “Family of America” float in his 1993 inaugural parade celebrating diverse American families.

“This has to be the thrill of our political lives,” Young told then-Dallas Voice Editor Dennis Vercher at the time. “We were riding on the side of the float facing the street where we knew lots of gays and lesbians would be gathered. As we approached, we raised our hands aloft, holding hands, and the people went nuts.”

“It was just such a thrill to be there,” Armstrong told Vercher. “President Clinton has set a wonderful tone. I think that’s what this parade did, by including a gay and lesbian band [that included eight members of the Oak Lawn Band],” panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt and “by including gay and lesbian couples on the family float.”

Of course, just weeks later, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was enacted and, also during the Clinton administration, the Defense of Marriage Act was passed and signed into law. But Armstrong and Young’s relationship outlasted both of those pieces of homophobic legislation, and the couple has taken advantage of each increment in the battle for marriage equality.

While the federal government was making it more difficult for same-sex couples to have their relationships recognized, Austin was one of the cities that made it a little easier. So, in 1993, Young and Armstrong traveled to Austin to register in Travis County’s Registry of Domestic Partnerships. After Vermont began offering the country’s first civil unions in 2000, Armstrong and Young became the first Texas couple to travel to New England to have their civil union legally recognized.

Young applied for a transfer to Raytheon’s Boston office. But the couple lived in Southeast Vermont while Young commuted for a year before they returned to Texas.

And during a six-month window in 2008 marriage was legal in California. Young and Armstrong traveled to the West Coast for a wedding there. While marriage equality in that state was voted out with Proposition 8, those who had already been married continued to have their relationships recognized.

Then, in 2014, a San Antonio federal judge, Orlando Garcia, threw out the Texas marriage ban in what became the first step in having their relationship recognized at home.

Young said she and Armstrong have talked about the secret to their long-lasting relationship.

“There has to be a foundation of love,” Young said. “But the secret is never move out. Never separate. Stick it out, whatever the situation and differences.”

Whatever might cause anger and upset, let it pass and then sit down to talk and work out the differences.

“Then remember and share with each other why you love each other,” Young continued.

“And common interests are really paramount.”

Young said the first time Armstrong asked her over for coffee after they had been out dancing at the Cherry Creek Bar in Denver, she said to her, “Before this goes any further, one question: Are you a Democrat?”

Armstrong smiled and said yes, but that wasn’t enough for Young.

“What have you done for the Democratic Party,” Young asked. Armstrong answered that she had been active in Youth for LBJ.

“I remember saying, ‘That sounds good,’ and ‘I think we should start seeing each other,’” Young said.

Each faced obstacles early in their careers because they refused to hide their sexual orientation. Young was teaching at East Central University in Ada, Okla. She co-taught a class with a member of the sociology department on homosexuality. At the end of that semester, she took a sabbatical to write her doctoral dissertation, moving to Colorado to be closer to her faculty advisor.

Young was working on a self-imposed deadline to finish the dissertation within a year, partially to make sure her mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s, and her father, who had Parkinson’s, would be able to attend her graduation. Her close-knit family had always treated her partner as a second daughter.

“I finished my dissertation in record time,” Young said. “Every morning I’d get up and head for my Smith Corona electric typewriter. I’d write til evening [when] Viv returned from her job as school nurse at Cerebral Palsy Center of Denver.”

Just as the couple was about to head to Ada at the end of Young’s sabbatical, she received a letter that the university would not be extending her contract. After a year of applying for a number of teaching positions, she decided to try business instead. And Texas Instruments invited her for an interview and hired her.

Armstrong quit her job with the cerebral palsy school and let them know she was moving with Young to Dallas. When there was a delay in their move to Texas, Armstrong went to the school to get her job back temporarily, but they refused to hire her because they realized she was lesbian.

Once they got to Dallas, Young said, they swore they would never again hide who they were.

She said she told the head of her department who she was and that she had a same-sex partner. He told her, “Makes no difference to us. You’re who we want.”

And in 2025, the university that wouldn’t allow Young to return from her sabbatical named her a distinguished alumnus.

Armstrong and Young have, through the years, become one of North Texas’ most recognizable same-sex couples through their efforts within the Democratic Party and in their respective job. Now, as the couple celebrates their 55th anniversary together, North Texas honors and applauds two people who have always worked hard for equality and made our community proud.