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Marriage Equality Activist Edie Windsor Dies at 88

HeadlineSep 13, 2017

And marriage equality pioneer Edith Windsor died Tuesday in New York at the age of 88. Windsor was the lead plaintiff in a 2013 case at the U.S. Supreme Court challenging DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman. Windsor had been forced to pay additional estate taxes because the IRS did not recognize her marriage to a woman, Thea Spyer, who passed away in 2009. In a landmark 5-4 decision, the court ruled DOMA unconstitutional, meaning legally married same-sex couples are entitled to claim the same 1,100 federal benefits as heterosexual couples. This is Edie Windsor speaking in June 2013 just after the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Edith Windsor: “I am honored and humbled and overjoyed to be here today to represent not only the thousands of Americans whose lives have been adversely impacted by the Defense of Marriage Act, but those whose hopes and dreams have been constricted by the same discriminatory law. … Children born today will grow up in a world without DOMA. And those same children who happen to be gay will be free to love and get married as Thea and I did, but with the same federal benefits, protections and dignity as everyone else.”

Marriage equality pioneer Edith Windsor, dead at the age of 88. Tune in later in the broadcast, when we bring you video of her marriage ceremony.

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