11 Quotes from our Hero — Edie Windsor — at Lesbians Who Tech New York
Edie Windsor has spent most of her life breaking boundaries. Beginning in 1956, she spent two decades working with mainframe computers, first as a research assistant at NYU and then, starting in 1958, at IBM where she attained the highest technical rank. However we know her best for her role as defendant in the case of United States v Windsor, arguably the most influential legal precedent in the struggle for LGBT marriage equality. In its landmark 2013 ruling in Windsor, the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which by its terms had excluded gay couples from all the benefits and protections of marriage under federal law. We were so lucky to hear from Edie at the New York Summit, here are just a few of our favorite quotes from her remarkable keynote address.
Edie on IBM
- “I have a confession. Even though I’ve won an award as one of the pioneers in operating systems, I am to date a lousy end user.”
2. “Women in fact were my prime supporters as far as promotions were concerned.”
3. “Almost accidentally I became what people were calling a supervisor. And then they got hell for it. There was the first attempt at a major main frame, there were 30 bugs that no one could find the answers too. Ultimately, not sure how I became this person, I walked down the hall talking to people about each of the bugs. And we solved them all and that’s how we became this unit.”
4 . “I had this reputation. They couldn’t fix the code because they couldn’t read it. But I could read code until it wrapped around the room and back again. A guy I was working with said, ‘give this woman a roll of toilet paper, she can do anything.”
5. “I can still read code for anyone. People come and tell me they are doing stuff on the internet and I can read it and find the spots in trouble.”
Edie on life with Thea
6. “I was closeted all the time I was at IBM and my group at the time was really close. We got drinks together, we ate dinner together. I lied all the time. Actually at some point I met Thea, I didn’t know what to do because people kept asking, ‘Who’s this? She’s calling a lot.’ And I finally said I’m dating her brother. Her brother who’s name is — I forgot. Oh, Willy! Oh Willy was actually Thea’s doll and to this day still lives in my closet.”
7. “When I first met Thea, we danced all night. I danced a hole through my stockings.”
8. “Thea asked me after three years, what would you do if you got engaged? Would you wear an engagement ring to IBM? I said of course not. She conned me then. She conned me into agreeing on wearing a round pin with diamonds on my lapel and that remained my engagement ring till the end.”
9. “I made sure to add ‘and days past’ in our vows because by the time we got married, we had already lived together for 42 years. You can’t forget that.”
Megan Smith Upon Presenting Edie with a Pin
“Edie, I spent the day at a workshop where all these young people work at designing things — really cool things. I saw one woman had made this pin that lights up and it reminded me so much of that pin that Thea gave to you. So, I wanted to present this to you today.”
Edie on her work with LGBTQ organizations
10. “I computerized everybody.”
“I got calls from gay organizations that wanted to computerize their mail systems. And so I did that I started with the NY Setter and kept going. All of my IBM experience continues throughout my life, I assure you.”
Edie on meeting Robbie Kaplan
11. “I loved her guts in telling me she lost this case and I thought, I definitely want her. She was smart, how could I get this lucky with anyone else. But I asked how much is it gonna cost me? And she said zero.”
