From the New York Times via Joe My God. Edith Windsor has passed away at the age of 88. It was Windsor who successfully challenged the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in United States v Windsor, decided in 2013.
She was, by all accounts, a remarkable woman. Born in Philadelphia to Russian Jewish parents of modest means, after a brief, failed marriage to a man she went back to school and obtained an advanced degree in applied mathematics and went on to great success in the field of computer programming (very rare for a woman in the 1950s and 1960s). She began her relationship with Thea Spyer in 1963. Spyer proposed in 1968, beginning an engagement that lasted 39 years. Spyer was diagnosed with MS in 1977 and had other health challenges. They were married in Toronto in 2007 at a time when marriage equality had not yet really come to New York State, though the state recognized same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. After Spyer passed away, in 2009, because of DOMA Windsor was subject to federal income taxes as the result of the settlement of Spyer’s estate that she would not have been liable for if she had been married to a man. She chose to fight and she won.
Her courage was undeniable. Her personality was amazing. Her most memorable quote was “Don’t postpone joy.”
May she rest in peace (and in power) and may her memory be for a blessing.