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SPEAKER_05: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. We're celebrating Pride Month with icons, supreme queens of queer culture. Some are household names, others are a little more behind the scenes. All have defied social norms and influenced generations of people to be unapologetically themselves. Today we're talking about a woman who waged war against the federal government for the recognition of same-sex marriage. Let's talk about Edith Windsor. Edith, better known as Edie, was born on June 20th, 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. The family struggled during the Great Depression. At one point during Edie's childhood, they lost their home and their business. In high school, Edie excelled academically and socially. She caught the attention of many of the boys and even had a few boyfriends, but she remembers always being attracted to girls. The same thing happened in college. While studying at Temple University, Edie got engaged to her brother's friend, Saul, but she ended it when she fell in love with a female classmate. But despite her deep feelings, Edie was not ready to come out as a lesbian, so in the end, she agreed to marry Saul. The two tied the knot after she graduated in 1950. Ultimately, Edie couldn't live a lie. She told Saul he deserved better, and the two divorced within a year. Edie moved to New York for a fresh start. She worked secretarial jobs while getting her master's in applied mathematics from New York University. In 1958, IBM hired Edie as an early computer programmer. This time, Edie excelled professionally, but struggled socially. In those days, Edie felt it was impossible to live openly as a gay woman. As she worked her way up to a senior systems programmer, she hid her sexuality from her coworkers. But privately, Edie was ready for love. She eventually asked a friend to take her to lesbian bars. This led her to Portofino, a restaurant known for providing a safe space for lesbians on Friday nights. There, in 1963, Edie met Dr. Thea Speyer. Thea was a successful clinical psychologist. The two women danced the night away. It was like there was a magnetic force pulling them together. But they were both in relationships with other people. Over the subsequent two years, they kept running into each other at parties. Finally, in 1965, Edie and Thea officially started dating after a run-in in the Hamptons. Two years after that, Thea proposed. She gave Edie a diamond brooch instead of a ring to avoid questions that neither was prepared to answer. In 1969, Edie and Thea decided to stop hiding. Upon their return from a summer trip to Italy, Edie and Thea heard about the Stonewall Inn raid that had happened the night before. The courage of their peers inspired them. Edie later said, "'From that day on, I had this incredible gratitude. They changed my life. They changed my life forever.'" Edie and Thea agreed. They would start living openly as lesbian women, and they did. They attended pride parades, joined gay and lesbian organizations, and expanded their LGBTQ social network. And for decades, they remained dedicated to each other, engaged but not married. But in 1977, everything changed. Thea was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Edie turned her attention to taking care of her. Because same-sex marriage wasn't legal, Edie and Thea couldn't receive the same benefits that heterosexual married couples could. In 1993, they signed up for the Domestic Partnership Registry, which granted benefits like housing and health insurance. They were the 80th couple in the country to enroll. In 2007, the doctors told Thea she had only a year left to live. Edie and Thea didn't have time to wait for New York to legalize same-sex marriage. After a 40-year engagement, they decided it was time to tie the knot any way they could. On May 22nd, 2007, Edie and Thea were married in Toronto by Canada's first openly gay judge. Edie was ecstatic. She didn't take marriage lightly. She said, "'Married' is a magic word, and it is magic throughout the world. It has to do with our dignity as human beings, to be who we are openly." The next year, in 2008, New York recognized the union as a valid marriage. Edie and Thea enjoyed 21 months as newlyweds before Thea succumbed to her illness. Edie inherited Thea's estate like any widow would, but she was shocked to learn that she didn't qualify for the tax exemption that was given to all heterosexual couples. She'd have to pay over $300,000 to the IRS. A decade earlier, in 1996, the U.S. had passed the Defensive Marriage Act, or DOMA. To be federally recognized, a marriage had to be the legal union between a man and a woman. So even though Thea and Edie had been together for 40 years, were legally married in Canada, and had a union recognized by their home state, to the U.S. government, they were legally strangers. Edie had reached her boiling point. On November 9th, 2010, she sued the federal government for refusing to recognize her marriage. Most lawyers didn't want to touch the case. Eventually, Roberta Kaplan and the ACLU signed on. Edie and her team argued that Section 3 of DOMA was unconstitutionally singling out same-sex partners for differential treatment by recognizing only marriages between a man and a woman. As two lower courts ruled in Edie's favor, the case worked its way up to the Supreme Court. Finally, Edie got her big win. On June 26th, 2013, the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of DOMA, and DOMA was ruled unconstitutional. This was the first time that the law affirmed that gay people must receive equal treatment when it comes to a fundamental human right like marriage. President Barack Obama said, "'Because people like Edie stood up, my administration stopped defending the so-called Defense of Marriage Act in the courts.'" 2013 turned out to be a big year for Edie. She became a gay rights matriarch. She was appointed a grand marshal of New York City's LGBT Pride March, and she was a runner-up to Pope Francis for Time Magazine's Person of the Year. Amid the celebrations, the fight for same-sex marriage waged on. Edie's case only extended to 13 states and Washington, D.C. Exactly two years later, on June 26th, 2015, the Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage a constitutional right nationwide. Edie threw a party to celebrate this historic victory. On September 26th, 2016, Edie got to reap the benefits of these wins. She married Judith Kaysen, whom she'd met at a gay rights event in 2015. Edie Windsor died on September 12th, 2017. She was 88 years old. All month, we're talking about icons. For more information, check us out on Facebook and Instagram, at Wamanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02: Evidence-wise, we had virtually no evidence.
SPEAKER_07: In 1995, Detective Tony Richardson was trying to figure out who killed a fellow officer. The case comes down to who is believed and who is ignored. Oh my goodness, we did convict an innocent man. I'm Beth Shelburne from Lava for Good Podcasts. This is Ear Witness. Listen to Ear Witness on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER_01: Coming to Hulu this Friday and Saturday night. Don't miss our 2023 iHeartRadio Music Festival. The biggest superstars from all genres of music on one stage. Foo Fighters, Fall Out Boy, Kelly Clarkson, Lenny Kravitz, Travis Scott, Tim McGraw, TLC, and more. From T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, it's the can't-miss music event of the year. Our iHeartRadio Music Festival. Stream it live, only on Hulu, and listen on iHeartRadio stations. Friday night and Saturday night, starting at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific.
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