Judith Kasen kisses Edie Windsor's cheek at the September 18 AIDS Ride welcoming home party at the LGBT Community Center – barely a week before their wedding at City Hall. | DONNA ACETO
Edie Windsor, the heroic marriage equality plaintiff who successfully challenged the federal Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, got married this week at City Hall in New York.
On September 26, Windsor, 87, wed Judith Kasen, who is a vice president at Wells Fargo.
The newlyweds. | DONNA ACETO
Windsor arrived before the Supreme Court in her challenge to a federal estate tax bill of more than $360,000 after the 2009 death of her spouse, Thea Spyer. Windsor and Spyer, both New Yorkers who began dating in 1965, traveled to Toronto in 2007, where they legally married. The following year, a New York court ruled that the state would recognize legal same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions despite the fact that such marriages could not yet be formalized within the Empire State.
The federal government, however, under the 1996 law, continued to deny recognition to such marriages, and Windsor was saddled with the tax bill she otherwise would not have received. With her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, Windsor advanced her case to the nation's highest court, setting up the dramatic victory on June 26, 2013.
According to the New York Times, Windsor and Kasen, who is 51, had their first date at a Hanukkah party hosted by Kaplan.
