Edith Windsor, 83, who brought the case against the Defense of Marriage Act, spoke about the meaning of marriage and expressed optimism that the law will be struck down Wednesday, during a news conference following oral arguments at the Supreme Court.
“Someone wrote me a large speech which I am not going to make,” Windsor said, speaking outside the court. “There are a couple things I want to say. I want to tell you what marriage means to me.”
Windsor married Thea Spyer, her partner of several decades, in Canada in 2007. When Spyer died in 2009, Windsor was required to pay over $360,000 in taxes on her inheritance because under DOMA, the federal government didn’t recognize their marriage.
“When she died four years ago, I was overcome with grief,” Windsor said. “Within a month, I was hospitalized with a heart attack. And that kind of conduct is usually looked at as broken heart syndrome. In the midst of my grief, I realized the federal government was treating us as strangers and I paid a humongous estate tax. This was not easy.”
“Many people asked, why get married?” Windsor continued, noting that they were around 75-years-old at the time. “Maybe we were older than that at that point. But the fact is that everybody treated it as different. It turns out marriage is different, ok? And I asked a number of different long-range gay couples who they got married, I’ve asked them, you know, was it different the next morning? And the answer is always yes. It’s a huge difference… So, it’s a magic word. Anyone who does not understand why we want it and why we need it, ok, it is magic.”
On the outcome of her case, Windsor said, “I think it’s going to be good.”
