Edith 'Edie' Windsor, Activist Who Helped End Gay Marriage Ban, Dead At 88
NEW YORK (AP) -- A woman who brought a Supreme Court case that struck down parts of a federal law that banned same-sex marriage has died.
An attorney for Edith Windsor says she died Tuesday in New York. She was 88.
Windsor was 81 when she sued the federal government in 2010 over the Defense of Marriage Act following the death of her first spouse, Thea Spyer. They legally married in Canada in 2007 after being together for more than 40 years.
Windsor said the marriage law meant she faced a huge estate tax bill she wouldn't have to pay if the law didn't discriminate against same-gender couples.
The 2013 Supreme Court opinion became the basis for the wave of federal court rulings that struck down state marriage bans and led to a 2015 Supreme Court ruling giving same-sex couples the right to marry.
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