Edith Windsor

The brave, indefatigable octogenarian led the charge for same-sex marriage in the US – and passed away knowing she’d changed history.

- Sandra Lee

On June 26 last year, 87-year-old Edie Windsor told a big lie. Or, to be more precise, her white crew-neck T-shirt did the lying for her. “Nobody knows I’m a lesbian”, it stated in bold capital letters. Of course, every one of the several thousand people who marched behind Windsor as she led the 24th annual New York City Dyke March down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue knew that she was, indeed, a lesbian. How could they not? By then, Windsor was arguably one of America’s most famous and beloved lesbians, having fought and won a landmark Supreme Court case in 2013 that helped upend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which limited the definition of marriage to that between a woman and a man. It was a critical victory that paved the way for the legalisation of same-sex marriage across the US just two years later.

Looking at images of Windsor striding down Fifth Avenue that day, it’s hard to imagine this hard-of-hearing geriatric as a political force of nature, or, as one LGBTI advocate called her, “the Rosa Parks of our community”. With her coiffed blonde hair worn in the style of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, her lips painted red and her nails a summery shade of silver, Windsor appears more like a carefree socialite, which is how she often described herself. She favoured hot pink, pastels, pearls and fun, yet she was made of seriously tough stuff, prepared to fight for the same rights and protections afforded to heterosexual couples. But the vivacious woman with a rasp-like voice, ready laugh and infectious Hollywood smile was not obviously destined to become a marriage equality matriarch.