11 years ago today, Edith “Edie” Windsor won her case against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), moving the country one step closer to full marriage equality.
We can and must continue to build on wins like Windsor v. US and push back on extremists who are recycling their 2010s playbook to pass anti-trans legislation.
Edie and her partner, Thea Spyre, were together for over 40 years before getting married in 2007 in Canada. When Thea died two years later – after living for decades with multiple sclerosis – the federal government refused to recognize their marriage and taxed Edie’s inheritance from Thea as though they were strangers.
With the help of the ACLU, Edie challenged this discriminatory treatment, arguing that DOMA was unconstitutional. In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down DOMA, extending thousands of protections to same-sex couples like Edie and Thea. This meant that in states like Washington where same-sex marriage was legal, couples could not be denied federal benefit...