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Edith Windsor remembered for her monumental fight for marriage equality

The same-sex marriage rights hero has died.

Sasha Lekach

on September 12, 2017

Edith Windsor remembered for her monumental fight for marriage equality

Edith Windsor was a force for equal rights. Credit: Getty Images

Edith Windsor was a computer programmer who became a gay rights pioneer.

Back in 2013 she helped overturn the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that kept same-sex couples from being recognized as spouses (and receiving federal marriage benefits) -- and it all started because she wanted a tax refund.

She died today at the age of 88, according to the New York Times.

Windsor, who often went by her nickname, Edie, first met her future wife, Thea Spyer, at a Greenwich Village New York restaurant in 1963. But it wasn't until two years later that Windsor started dating Spyer more seriously.

In 1967, Spyer proposed engagement. The two remained in legal limbo for 40 years, until the couple wed in Canada in 2007. When Spyer passed away in 2009, Windsor inherited her estate -- but was forced to pay $363,053 because she didn't qualify for a spousal exemption. Her marriage wasn't legally recognized by the U.S. government.

She sued for a tax refund. Her case ended up all the way at the U.S. Supreme Court and resulted in the end of DOMA.

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Her death elicited a huge response from LGBTQ activists and organizations, and politicians.

Barack Obama released a statement praising Windsor's monumental steps toward equality over the years. He said he was reflecting on "all the millions of quiet heroes across the decades whose countless small acts of courage slowly made an entire country realize that love is love – and who, in the process, made us all more free."

Other people posted messages on social media.

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Major LGBTQ organizations remembered Windsor as a champion of equality.

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An ACLU video from 2013 summarizes Windsor's decades-long relationship with Spyer.

Like Windsor said, "Don't postpone joy."

Heather Dockray contributed reporting.

Topics Activism Social Good

Sasha Lekach

Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.