Board of Education, for example, as we entered a previous era of civil-rights litigation. Americans as less than equal. How Edith Windsor fell in love, got married, and won a landmark case for gay marriage. By Ariel Levy.
By Rachel Shteir. Richard Socarides is an attorney and longtime gay-rights advocate. He served in the White House during the Clinton Administration and has also been a political strategist.
He now oversees public affairs at GLG. Opinions expressed here are only his own. The Daily The best of The New Yorker , every day, in your in-box, plus occasional alerts when we publish major stories. Enter your e-mail address.
Windsor now finds herself transformed into an icon of the gay-rights movement. She wears the mantle well. Feisty, funny and extroverted, Windsor has been, at different points in her life, a leader. At 13 she was elected vice president of her eighth-grade class. The homes she shared with Spyer in New York City and the Hamptons were salons for many people in the gay and lesbian community.
Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia. By Olivia B. Get our History Newsletter. Put today's news in context and see highlights from the archives. Please enter a valid email address. Their trip to Toronto for a civil ceremony in May , as well as their decades-long devotion, was chronicled in an award-winning documentary titled "Edie and Thea — A Very Long Engagement.
And like they first did at the Greenwich Village restaurant Portofino in , they danced, Edie on the arm of Thea's wheelchair. You've lived together for over 40 years — what could be different about marriage? The return flight from Canada was Spyer's last. She died on Feb. But the marriage lived on -- in court. In fragile health herself with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator but still walking 10, steps a day, Windsor focused on winning her case — and returning to private life as much as possible.
But after the victory, the gay rights community — particularly the young people who would high-five her during Gay Pride parades — didn't allow it. Her fame exceeded even that of Jim Obergefell , the lead plaintiff in the Ohio-based case in that toppled all state bans on same-sex marriage.
Obergefell had sued to be listed on his partner's death certificate. And it becomes still easier for us to be ourselves. She will always be the light for the LGBTQ community, which she loved so much and which loved her right back.
Facebook Twitter Email. Edie Windsor, unlikely heroine of same-sex marriage case, dies at Show Caption. Hide Caption.
0コメント