NGLCC mourns the loss of Edie Windsor, who paved the way for marriage equality in the United States. Edie was known for her smile, her laugh, her exceptional mathematics skills that she expressed during her years at NGLCC founding partner IBM, and her innate ability to melt your heart with stories of her life. That was especially true when talking about her more than forty year love affair with Thea Spyer.
When Thea passed away in 2009, Edie inherited the estate they shared. However, the IRS charged her over $300,000 in taxes because she was denied the same inheritance benefits opposite-sex couples received at the time. The foundation of the Supreme Court case which bears her name was about fundamental economic equality for all couples. And while NGLCC and our partners made the passionate case that marriage equality is, indeed, good for business on those principals of economic fairness and opportunity— it was Edie’s loving spirit that humanized the fight and made it possible for other plaintiffs to follow.
In 2013, immediately following her victory in the Supreme Court, President Barack Obama said, it was, “..a great day for America — a victory for human decency, equality, freedom and justice.”
We couldn’t agree more. And we at the NGLCC pledge to keep fighting for that spirit of equality, freedom, justice, and opportunity every day in Edie’s memory. All of us send our sympathies to her beloved wife, Judith Kasen-Windsor.
We will miss you, Edie. But your memory and your legacy live in the hearts of everyone in the NGLCC family.
