Edie Windsor’s labor of love

Civil rights movements that begin with a roar in the streets often find their most momentous victories in the hushed tones of the courtroom. This is the story of Edith Windsor. Born 88 years ago, she died Tuesday in the New York she called home for more than 60 years, having been instrumental in redefining American marriage not as a union of man and woman, but as the union of two people who love each other.

Windsor was with the gay-rights movement from the earliest days, inspired by the raucous Stonewall riots. But the seismic victory she enabled was the result of a quiet advocacy, the natural outgrowth of a literal love story.

She and her partner of more than 40 years, Thea Spyer, married in Toronto in 2007. In 2009, Spyer died, leaving Windsor with a huge estate tax bill in the face of a federal Defense of Marriage Act barring benefits to gay couples.

Windsor took her fight to the Supreme Court. Her 2013 win sundered DOMA and set the stage for the 2015 ruling legalizing marriage equality for all. Men who love men and women who love women now have their unions seen as equal under law. We should all love Edie Windsor for that.