Edith Windsor, RIP

[LoveNDino]

Ms. Windsor, Rest In Peace. We owe you.

Edith Windsor celebrates the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

 

Edith Windsor, whose Supreme-Court case struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and paved the way for the legalization of same-sex marriage throughout the U.S., died in Manhattan on Tuesday, the New York Timesreports. She was 88.

 

Windsor filed a lawsuit against the federal government in 2010 after her partner, Dr. Thea Spyer, died, and Windsor inherited her estate. Heterosexual couples are exempt from paying taxes on their spouses’ estates, and Windsor sought the same exemption — but was denied it under the Defense of Marriage Act. In her lawsuit, Windsor claimed that the law singled out same-sex couples for “differential treatment,” which violated the constitution.

 

In 2013 the court ruled in her favor, striking down DOMA’s definition of marriage as “between one man and one woman.” The so-called Windsor decision took effect in 13 states and D.C., but since the court didn’t declare a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, it remained illegal in 37 states with specific laws against it. (Those laws would be overturned by another Supreme Court decision two years later.)

 

Still, Windsor was elated. Immediately after the decision was announced, she headed to Stonewall Inn, where riots jump-started the gay-rights movement. Addressing a crowd of supporters there, she said, “Now’s the part when I try not to cry.”

 

Windsor worked as a computer programmer at IBM, rising through the ranks to become a senior systems programmer. She met Spyer in 1963, and the two dated for several years before Spyer proposed with a brooch (a ring would’ve prompted awkward questions). Then in 1977, Spyer was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. As her condition grew steadily worse, she and Windsor decided to travel to Canada to get married, which they did in 2007.

 

“Married is a magic word,” Windsor said at a rally at City Hall in New York in 2009, shortly before Spyer died. “And it is magic throughout the world. It has to do with our dignity as human beings, to be who we are openly.”

 

Windsor is survived by her second wife, Judith Kasen-Windsor, who she married in 2016.

[+ sniper]

Who wrote that article? It wasn't her partner who died, it was her WIFE.

[edjames]

I met Edie at a SAGE luncheon this past spring. We sat together and she was a true inspiration.

http://files.constantcontact.com/de3ef1d9301/8f019722-6e66-4801-847e-f17b74c2e7fe.png

 

SAGE is deeply saddened to learn of the death of our hero, supporter, and friend, Edie Windsor, on Tuesday, September 12, 2017, at the age of 88. Windsor, known nationally for paving the way for the rights of same-sex couples to marry under federal law, worked tirelessly for her beloved LGBT community and has been a staunch advocate of SAGE, the nation's largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBT elders.

"Words can't describe how important Edie Windsor is to SAGE and LGBT elders across the country," says SAGE CEO Michael Adams. "Long before she was a household name, Edie was as an early leader of SAGE, serving multiple terms on our Board of Directors. She shed her brilliant light in every corner of SAGE's work. She was a trailblazing pioneer in every sense, appearing in an early New York Times ad for SAGE at a time when few others had the courage to be out.

As Edie became an iconic leader for our movement and community through her historic litigation, she always returned home to SAGE, regularly joining fellow elders in activities and programs at our SAGE Centers. All LGBT people will remember and celebrate Edie for her pioneering leadership on marriage equality. We at SAGE will also honor Edie for being our friend, for making SAGE her home for more than three decades, and for being an endless source of inspiration for LGBT elders across the country."

[LoveNDino]

@edjames I envy your luck. I would have loved to have met her too. She was a true hero.

[Bearofdistinction]

And Edie was a Native Philadelphian!

[LoveNDino]

At a memorial service held Friday at Temple Emanu-el synagogue in New York, Hillary Clinton encouraged continued resistance in her rousing eulogy for civil rights icon Edith “Edie” Windsor.

 

Windsor, who died Tuesday at the age of 88, was the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that successfully struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 2013, paving the way for national marriage equality.

 

“Doesn’t it just feel great being here to honor and remember someone who had such a positive, lasting influence on our country and the world?” Clinton asked the crowd.

 

“When I think of Edie, I think of that line from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ’And though she be little, she is fierce.’ She was fierce.”

 

“It is fitting that she will be immortalized in history books in that landmark decision synonymous with equal rights and dignity under the law,” said the former Secretary of State. “But she didn’t stop there. She continued to support the needs and the rights of the LGBT community. She helped change hearts and minds, including mine. And we are forever grateful to her for that.”

 

“There wasn’t a cynical, defeatist bone in her body,” Clinton continued. “Through her determination and sheer force of will, she brought us another step closer to that more perfect union. Now, in this moment when so much hard-fought progress is hanging in the balance, it is up to all of us to pick up where she left off. We really owe it to her.”

 

“It’s easy to grow weary fighting these fights, but remember Edie Windsor who took on and won against the U.S. government,” she added. “She pushed us all to be better, stand taller, dream bigger.”

 

Clinton concluded her speech with a quote from poet Mary Oliver: “Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

 

“Let us continue to be inspired by Edie’s wild and precious life,” she said. “And let us make her proud every day of how we answer that question for ourselves.”

 

Prominent LGBT community members and allies, including President Barack Obama, paid tribute and offered condolences in the wake of Windsor’s death. A candlelight vigil was held Wednesday outside of the historic Stonewall Inn to commemorate her trailblazing activism.

 

Watch Clinton’s full speech below.