Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Equal Marriage Rights Champion Edith Windsor Passes Away

LGBT rights advocate Edith Windsor died Tuesday in Manhattan. She was 88.
According to The New York Times, Windsor's wife, Judith Kasen-Windsor, confirmed the death. She did not say how her wife died.

Windsor's victory at the Supreme Court paved the way for nationwide same-sex marriage.
Windsor met her first wife, Thea Spyer, in the 1960s. Spyer died in 2009, two years after the women married in Canada. Windsor challenged the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prohibited the federal government from recognizing the couple's marriage, after she received a $363,000 estate tax bill following Spyer's death.
The 2013 Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key provision of DOMA is also credited with providing the legal framework for 2015's landmark ruling in Obergefell, which found that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry.
On the day the high court handed down its DOMA ruling, former President Barack Obama appeared at a press conference. The president hailed “the countless small acts of courage of millions of people across decades who stood up” for LGBT rights. “Sometimes, there are days like this when that slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt,” he added.
Windsor remarried last year. According to the Times, a “romance blossomed” between the women after Kasen-Windsor took Windsor out on a date, which took place at a Hanukkah party hosted by Roberta Kaplan, Windsor's lawyer in the landmark case.
Kasen-Windsor, a banking executive, is Windsor's only survivor.

No comments: