Edith "Edie" Windsor (1929-2017)

Edith "Edie" Windsor (1929-2017) was an American technologist and LGBTQ+ rights activist. She and Thea Spyer were together 44 years, marrying in Canada in 2007. When Spyer died in 2009, the federal government treated Windsor as a legal stranger and billed her more than $363,000 in estate taxes a surviving heterosexual spouse would not have owed. She sued. In United States v. Windsor (decided June 26, 2013), the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act in a 5-4 ruling, requiring the federal government to recognize married same-sex couples. The decision was a major step toward nationwide marriage equality, reached two years later.