Lawmakers, celebrities pay tribute to Edith Windsor: 'Few made as big a difference to America'
"Few made as big a difference to America," former President Barack Obama.
— -- After the death Tuesday of Edith Windsor — whose landmark Supreme Court case struck down parts of a federal anti-gay-marriage law and paved the way toward legalizing same-sex nuptials nationwide — lawmakers, celebrities and other public figures were quick to honor her legacy and contribution to LGBT rights.
She was 88. She died in New York, her lawyer Roberta Kaplan said.
"America's long journey towards equality has been guided by countless small acts of persistence and fueled by the stubborn willingness of quiet heroes to speak out for what's right," former President Barack Obama said in a statement. "Few were as small in stature as Edie Windsor — and few made as big a difference to America."
Obama said he spoke with Windsor a few days ago and told her "one more time what a difference she made to this country we love."
When Windsor was 81, she brought a lawsuit that led to a major moment for gay rights. The genesis of the lawsuit was the death in 2009 of her first wife, Thea Spyer. They were married in 2007 in Canada — where same-sex marriage was already legal — after spending more than four decades together.
Windsor said the federal Defense of Marriage Act's definition of marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman prevented her from getting a spousal exemption from inheritance taxes on Spyer's estate. That meant Windsor faced a $360,000 tax bill that the surviving spouse in a heterosexual couple would not have.
Fast-forward to June 2013, when the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that an essential section of the law was unconstitutional and that legally married same-sex couples are entitled to the same federal benefits that heterosexual couples receive.
But the journey to marriage equality didn't end there. The opinion in Windsor's case became the basis for several federal court rulings that struck down state same-sex marriage bans and led to a 2015 Supreme Court ruling giving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry across the country.
Below, a roundup of public figures who took to social media to pay tribute to Windsor:
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y.
Former President Bill Clinton
Former NYC City Council Speaker Christine Quinn
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez
Hillary Clinton
Chelsea Clinton
GLAAD
Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio
Filmmaker Dustin Lance Black
Actress and former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell
Actor George Takei
Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Talk show host Andy Cohen
Tennis star Billie Jean King