From Dan’s Papers:

We don’t use the word “hero” lightly, but the late Edie Windsor — activist, advocate, trailblazer and part-time Southampton resident whose landmark Supreme Court case in 2013 brought us marriage equality and granted federal recognition to same-sex couples — is unquestionably a hero to the LGBTQ community and to those who celebrate civil rights.

She also threw a great barbecue every Memorial Day weekend in her backyard in Southampton, and this year the tradition happily continues on Saturday, May 28 when Edie’s Backyard BBQ returns (after a two-year absence, due to the pandemic).

Hosted by Windsor’s surviving spouse, Judith Kasen Windsor, proceeds from Edie’s Backyard BBQ will benefit the Edie Windsor Healthcare Center at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, whose mission is “to provide accessible, compassionate, comprehensive, state of the art care to all members of the LGBTQ+ community and to people living with HIV infection,” says Kasen Windsor, an activist in her own right.

Judith Kasen Windsor is more than busy these days. As a financial vice president advisor/portfolio manager, she is a member of one of the largest independent teams that works with Wells Fargo.

But her passion for all-things-Edie and her tireless advocacy for LGBTQ+ causes and efforts to carry on the legacy of Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer, Windsor’s longtime partner of 42 years and first spouse, is unparalleled.

(After Spyer’s death, the fact that Windsor was hit with a $363,000 estate tax — which she would not have normally received if the government had recognized her legal rights in her marriage to Spyer — spurred Windsor to sue the U.S. government, which lead to the landmark legal victory.)

“I feel honored and grateful to keep Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer’s continuing legacy in terms of helping the community they loved so dearly, not to mention their lifetime of grassroots altruism creating the thriving community we have today. There is ALWAYS more work to do,” says Kasen Windsor.

Read the entire interview with Judith Kasen Windor at the Dan’s Papers website