Just steps from Washington Square Park, a street sign marks Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer Way.
The naming honors two New Yorkers whose decades-long relationship and a staggering tax bill ultimately dismantled the federal ban on same-sex marriage.
Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer fell in love after meeting at a Greenwich Village restaurant in 1963. The women remained engaged for over 40 years, privately building a life together in the city during an era when gay marriage was illegal across the country.
As Spyer fell ill, Windsor became her full-time caregiver. Seeking legal recognition of their union, the couple traveled to Canada to marry in 2007.
Two years later, Spyer passed away. Because the United States government refused to recognize their marriage, Windsor was hit with over $360,000 in estate taxes to inherit their shared home. It was a financial burden that no heterosexual widow was required to face under the law.
A Landmark Legal Battle
Instead of accepting the penalty, Windsor fought back.
Her lawsuit, United States v. Windsor, escalated all the way to the Supreme Court. On June 26, 2013, the court ruled in her favor, striking down the federal law that defined marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman, declaring it unconstitutional.
To honor her historic victory, Windsor was named Grand Marshal for the 2013 NYC Pride Parade. Her legal triumph paved the way for the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, which fully legalized gay marriage throughout the United States.
The green street sign now serves as a permanent neighborhood marker of the couple’s lives and the local origins of a legal challenge that changed the course of American history.
