Died 88-year-old LGBT activist Edith Windsor. She has achieved equal rights for heterosexual and same-sex families in the U.S.
On 12 September in new York at the age of 88 years died, Edith Windsor — LGBT activist and former employee of IBM. In 2013, the Windsor came into the fight with us law, demanding to include same-sex couples in the law on the protection of families — and won. “Medusa” recalls how one woman fought for their rights — and ultimately changed the lives of all homosexuals in the United States.
In 2007, Edith Windsor (which all of her adult life, called Edie) and her partner, psychologist Thea spayer were married in Canada. The couple has been together for more than forty years and experienced many things: the women met in the early 1960s in new York, both at the time were in a heterosexual relationship, trying to lead a “normal life” and only a couple of years later started secretly Dating. Windsor even invented the legend about the affair with his brother spayer to hide his relationship with a woman. They wanted to get married since 1967, participated in the wave of LGBT protests in the 60s and 70s, and their house became a kind of salon for secular LGBT community.
Most of us spent my whole life filtered information. At one point, you could say that you have a wife, and it was safe, but not in another. Edith Windsor
In 1977, Thea spayer was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and in 2007 said that she would not live more than a year. Windsor and Spier realized that they have their last chance to get married — especially since in some countries it was already legal. However, in the state of new York, where lived women, same-sex marriages were not allowed, so Windsor and Spier went to Toronto — where they painted an openly gay judge Harvey Blountstown.
Thea spayer died in 2009, bequeathing all his property to his wife. However, when Edith Windsor tried to start a legacy, it became clear that it is not subject to tax exemptions for widows and widowers: in American law the defense of marriage make clear that family is considered to be only a Union of two people of the opposite sex. For the inheritance of his wife Edith Windsor had to pay to the Federal Treasury 363 thousand dollars. If she was married, and not married, to pay she would not have had. “In addition to my grief, I realized that for the state we’re outsiders, and this meant a huge inheritance tax. For this I had to sell a bunch of stuff and parting with them was difficult. Besides, I had very limited incomes,” explained her decision to fight.