LGBTQ Organizations Remember Edie Windsor

It's with profound sadness that the LGBTQ community mourns the passing of Edie Windsor, LGBTQ rights activist and icon, who died on Tuesday. Windsor worked passionately and tirelessly throughout her life to support LGBTQ communities and fought tenaciously for LGBTQ rights.

According to a statement released Tuesday by her wife Judith Kasen-Windsor and attorney Roberta Kaplan, in lieu of flowers, gifts should be made to the Edie Windsor Memorial Fund at www.gaycenter.org/edie. All gifts will equally support LGBTQ community healthcare organization Callen-Lorde, New York's LGBT Community Center, LGBTQ youth advocacy group Hetrick-Martin Institute and advocacy organization for LGBTQ elders, SAGE.

Each organization remembered by Windsor issued a statement Tuesday in response to the icon's passing.

From Callen-Lorde Community Health Center
"Edie's tremendous contributions cannot be understated. While she has changed the face of marriage equality in the US and inspired millions around the globe, she also dedicated her life to philanthropy and activism. Her championship supported us in opening the Thea Spyer Center - dedicated to her late wife Thea, which has served thousands of LGBTQ community members with critically needed mental health and primary care services since its opening in 2014. Edie's contagious energy and tenacious spirit will be remembered and will impact LGBTQ communities for years to come. We already miss her deeply. Our thoughts are with her wife, Judith Kasen-Windsor, and the millions of people whose lives she touched."

From The LGBT Community Center
"It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that we mark the passing of Edie Windsor, LGBTQ rights activist and icon, Center founding member and cherished friend. Edie worked passionately and tirelessly throughout her life to support the LGBTQ community and fought tenaciously for LGBTQ rights. At The Center, Edie volunteered over a span of more than 30 years. She donated her time and coding expertise to modernize our technology systems and infrastructure, and in May 1985, she helped organize our first women's dance. It was there that Edie and her future wife, Dr. Thea Spyer, danced to the disco version of "If You Could See Me Now" alongside 300 other women. That is how many of us will always envision her, dancing, laughing and enjoying life in a way that only she could, with impeccable style and grace. Her life's work and legacy are inextricably intertwined with our work and for that we will always be grateful."

From Hetrick-Martin Institute
"It is with deepest sadness and most profound gratitude we mark the passing of Edie Windsor. The effervescent joy she exuded in her commitment to the LGBTQ community, and especially our youth, was plainly visible, and a beacon for all those around her. Few in our times have emanated such ebullient resilience and commitment to progress and social justice. Above and beyond what she did for marriage equality, she was clear and distinct in her commitment to LGBTQ youth, a marginalized and vulnerable population our society far too often neglects and overlooks. More than once she took the time to meet with our youth and our donors to affirm her commitment to making a better future for all of us. The role model she will always be, for our youth and for all of us, is more than iconic. It is heroic. It is legendary. It is an unforgettable little lady with a HUGE heart. Her bravery and memory will live forever in the hearts of the many whose lives she changed; forever a symbol of hope and the power of self-advocacy, for our youth and generations to come."

From SAGE
"Words can't describe how important Edie Windsor is to SAGE and LGBT elders across the country. Long before she was a household name, Edie was as an early leader of SAGE, serving multiple terms on our Board of Directors.�She shed her brilliant light in every corner of SAGE's work.�She was a trailblazing pioneer in every sense, appearing in an early New York Times ad for SAGE at a time when few others had the courage to be out.�As Edie became an iconic leader for our movement and community through her historic litigation, she always returned home to SAGE, regularly joining fellow elders in activities and programs at our SAGE Centers. All LGBT people will remember and celebrate Edie for her iconic leadership on marriage equality.�We at SAGE will also honor Edie for being our friend, for making SAGE her home for more than three decades, and for being an endless source of inspiration for LGBT elders across the country."
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A public memorial will be held Friday, September 15 at Riverside Memorial Chapel at 12:30 p.m.