Edith Windsor

Edith "Edie" Windsor  (née Schlain; June 20, 1929 – September 12, 2017) was an American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights activist and a former technology manager at IBM.

Windsor was the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court of the United States case United States v. Windsor, which successfully overturned Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act and was considered a landmark legal victory for the same-sex marriage movement in the United States.

Windsor died in Manhattan, New York on September 12, 2017 at the age of 88.

 Early life and education 
Windsor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to James and Celia Schlain, a Russian Jewish immigrant family of modest means. She was the youngest of three children. During her childhood, her family suffered as a result of the Great Depression, and her father lost both his candy-and-ice-cream store and their home above it. In school, she at times experienced anti-Semitism. Throughout school, she dated boys her age, but said later she recalls having crushes on girls.

Windsor received her bachelor's degree from Temple University in 1950. In 1955, she began pursuing a master's degree in mathematics, which she obtained from New York University in 1957. She then joined IBM, where she worked for the next sixteen years. During this time, she spent two semesters studying applied mathematics at Harvard University on an IBM fellowship.

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 Other websites 




Category:1929 births
Category:2017 deaths
Category:American LGBT rights activists
Category:Lesbians
Category:LGBT people from New York City
Category:LGBT people from Pennsylvania
Category:New York University alumni
Category:People from Philadelphia