News & Opinion
Marriage Equality Pioneer Edie Windsor Remarries
Windsor has married Judith Kasen, a longtime community activist.
October 03 2016 9:26 AM EST
October 03 2016 5:26 AM EST
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Windsor has married Judith Kasen, a longtime community activist.
Edie Windsor, the lesbian widow who brought the lawsuit that gutted the Defense of Marriage Act, making federal government recognition of same-sex marriages possible, has gotten married again.
Windsor, 87, married Judith Kasen, 51, at New York City Hall Monday, The New York Times reported Friday.
The women had a "understated ceremony," the Times notes, with a single witness, Danielle Reda, described as Kasen's best friend.
Kasen had seen Windsor at numerous LGBT rights events and tried to flirt with her with getting any results. But Windsor finally agreed to go on a date with her late last year -- to a Hanukkah party hosted by Windsor's attorney in the DOMA case, Roberta Kaplan. Then "a romance blossomed," the Times reports.
"I was empty and then this woman walked into my life," Windsor told the newspaper. "I didn't think it would happen again and it did. She is it.".
Windsor's first marriage was to Thea Spyer. They became partners in the 1960s and were finally able to marry in Canada in 2007. But the U.S. did not recognize their marriage, with the result that when Spyer died two years later, Windsor owed $363,000 in estate taxes -- which she would not have owed if she had been married to a man.
Windsor sued the federal government for a refund and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in the 2013 decision Windsor v. U.S.struck down the portion of DOMA preventing federal recognition of same-sex marriages. The ruling paved the way for other marriage equality victories.
Kasen is a longtime community activist and a vice president at Wells Fargo Advisors. She and Windsor live in New York's Greenwich Village. However, they told the Times they plan to move to Barcelona, Spain, if Donald Trump becomes president.