Edith Windsor
| Edith "Edie" Windsor | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Edith Schlain June 20, 1929 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Residence | New York City, New York |
| Alma mater | New York University and Temple University |
| Employer | IBM |
| Known for | United States v. Windsor |
| Movement | LGBT rights |
| Spouse(s) | Saul Windsor (?-?; div.) Thea Clara Spyer (m. 2007; Spyer's death 2009) Judith Kasen (m. 2016) |
| Awards | see below |
| Website | ediewindsor |
Edith "Edie" Windsor (née Schlain; born June 20, 1929) is an American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights activist and a former technology manager at IBM. She was the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court of the United States case United States v. Windsor, which successfully overturned Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act and was considered a landmark legal victory for the same-sex marriage movement in the United States.
Windsor, the youngest of three, was born on June 20, 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to James and Celia Schlain, a Russian Jewish immigrant family of modest means. During her childhood, her family suffered as a result of the Great Depression, and father lost both his candy-and-ice-cream store and their home above it. In school, she at times experienced anti-Semitism. Throughout school, she dated boys her age, but said later she recalls having crushes on girls.
She received her bachelor's degree from Temple University in 1950. During college, she met Saul Windsor. Their relationship ended at one time during the engagement when Windsor fell in love with a female classmate. However, after Windsor decided she did not want to live life as a lesbian, they reconciled and got married after graduation. They divorced less than one year afterward, and she confided in him that she longed to be with women. Shortly after her divorce, Windsor left Philadelphia for New York City. In 1955, she began pursuing a master's degree in mathematics, which she obtained from New York University in 1957. She then joined IBM, where she worked for the next sixteen years. During this time, she spent two semesters studying applied mathematics at Harvard University on an IBM fellowship.
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