Obama offers condolences after passing of LGBT activist Edith Windsor

Former President Barack Obama offered his condolences Tuesday following the death of Edith Windsor, 88, an LGBT rights activist whose lawsuit against the federal government led to the federal recognition of same-sex couples. 

“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. Few were as small in stature as Edie Windsor — and few made as big a difference to America,” Obama said in a statement. 

Windsor sued the government when she received a bill for an estate tax after the passing of her first wife, which led the Supreme Court to issue a decision in 2013 overturning part of the Defense of Marriage Act.

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“In my second inaugural address, I said that if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” Obama said Tuesday.

“The day that the Supreme Court issued its 2013 ruling in United States v. Windsor was a great day for Edie, and a great day for America — a victory for human decency, equality, freedom, and justice. And I called Edie that day to congratulate her.”

Edith is survived by her second wife Judith Kasen-Windsor, whom she married in 2016 after the Obergefell v. Hodges decision guaranteeing the right of same-sex couples to marry.

“I thought about Edie that day,” Obama said of Windsor’s landmark case, “I thought about all the millions of quiet heroes across the decades whose countless small acts of courage slowly made an entire country realize that love is love — and who, in the process, made us all more free.”