From 39ec5c8a9582fcf94a9d835bbc6f64a96cf19681 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Lance Parsons Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2025 14:51:32 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 1/4] Pride Month Spotlight - Edith Windsor --- _posts/2025-06-13-pride-month.md | 3 +- _posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md | 72 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 74 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) create mode 100644 _posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md diff --git a/_posts/2025-06-13-pride-month.md b/_posts/2025-06-13-pride-month.md index 85a16bbbf..0da8973ff 100644 --- a/_posts/2025-06-13-pride-month.md +++ b/_posts/2025-06-13-pride-month.md @@ -33,7 +33,8 @@ We’ll be publishing these posts during the month of June to highlight such people, where we talk about the person and tie their work and life to the RSE movement. - +* [Edith Windsor]({% post_url 2025-06-16-edith-windsor %}) - + June 16, 2025 In conjunction with these blog posts, we ask the community to think about how they will celebrate and reflect on pride this month. This will likely come in diff --git a/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md b/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c11da6904 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "US-RSE Pride Month Spotlight - Edith Windsor" +tags: [dei, pride-month] +--- + +US-RSE's [DEI working group (DEI-WG)](https://us-rse.org/wg/dei/) is proud to +help US-RSE celebrate and participate in Pride Month. Throughout June, the +US-RSE will spotlight LGBTQ+ individuals who have been involved in computing, +science, engineering, and/or math, and have inspired our members through their +accomplishments in their careers and their personal stories. + +## This week's Pride Month spotlight features Edith Windsor + +{% include image.html +url="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Edie_Windsor_DC_Pride_2017.jpg" +description="Edie Windsor at DC Price, 2017, Photo by Rex Block, CC0 +, via Wikimedia Commons" +style="float:right; padding:1em; max-width:350px;" %} + +Did you know that the lead plaintiff in the US Supreme Court case that +overturned Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 2013, leading to +marriage being expanded to include same-sex couples, was a systems programmer +at IBM and then a software development consultant in her own company? + +Edith (Edie) Schlain was born in 1929 in Philadelphia. She graduated from +Temple in 1950, where she met her future husband, Saul Windsor, who she married +in 1951 and divorced in 1952. She later earned a master's in math from NYU in 1957. +She then joined IBM, where she worked for 16 years in senior technical +and management positions related to systems architecture and implementation of +operating systems and language processors. As AnitaB.org +[describes](https://anitab.org/profile/remembering-edith-windsor-tech-pioneer-equality-advocate/), +she started as a mainframe programmer and later rose to "the company's highest +technical rank, Senior Systems Programmer, on the strength of her top-notch +debugging skills. 'They couldn't fix the code because they couldn't read it,' +Edith told a journalist. '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.'" During this time, in 1963, she met and +began dating Thea Spyer, who asked Edith to marry her in 1967, and they began +living together six months later. + +In her professional life, as AnitaB.org [continues to +describe](https://anitab.org/profile/remembering-edith-windsor-tech-pioneer-equality-advocate/), +"Edith left IBM in 1975, becoming the founding president of PC Classics, a +consulting firm specializing in major software development projects. During +this time, Edith also helped countless LGBTQ groups become tech literate. 'I +computerized everybody,' she quipped. 'I got calls from gay organizations that +wanted to computerize their mail systems. All of my IBM experience continues +throughout my life.' Her love of computing was personal, too — she was the +owner of the very first IBM-PC delivered in New York City." In 1993, when New +York City first began registering domestic partnerships between same-sex +couples, they registered. Because the US did not allow same-sex marriage, they +traveled to Toronto in 2007 where they were married. Two years later, Thea +died, and left her estate to Edie, but because the US did not recognize their +marriage, Edie had to pay taxes on the estate. This was the cause of her +lawsuit that led to Section 3 of DOMA being ruled unconstitutional, enabling +same sex marriage to become legal, after which the US government refunded the +estate tax. + +Again +[quoting](https://anitab.org/profile/remembering-edith-windsor-tech-pioneer-equality-advocate/) +AnitaB.org, "Edith was recognized by the National Computing Conference as an +operating systems pioneer. In 2013, she was the Grand Marshal of the New York +City LGBT Pride March and a runner-up for Time's Person of the Year.” She died +in 2017, and was eulogized by Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama said about her, +"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 Edith Windsor — and +few made as big a difference to America." + +[Read more about US-RSE's planned Pride Month +activities](https://us-rse.org/2026-06-13-pride-month/). From 22ec8f3d6982629b3900b90ff19503f4a949ae28 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Lance Parsons Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:00:34 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 2/4] Fixed typos and quote-style --- _posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md | 6 +++--- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md b/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md index c11da6904..1f90678bb 100644 --- a/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md +++ b/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ accomplishments in their careers and their personal stories. {% include image.html url="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Edie_Windsor_DC_Pride_2017.jpg" -description="Edie Windsor at DC Price, 2017, Photo by Rex Block, CC0 +description="Edie Windsor at DC Pride, 2017, Photo by Rex Block, CC0 , via Wikimedia Commons" style="float:right; padding:1em; max-width:350px;" %} @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ she started as a mainframe programmer and later rose to "the company's highest technical rank, Senior Systems Programmer, on the strength of her top-notch debugging skills. 'They couldn't fix the code because they couldn't read it,' Edith told a journalist. '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 +room and back again. A guy I was working with said, 'give this woman a roll of toilet paper, she can do anything.'" During this time, in 1963, she met and began dating Thea Spyer, who asked Edith to marry her in 1967, and they began living together six months later. @@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ Again [quoting](https://anitab.org/profile/remembering-edith-windsor-tech-pioneer-equality-advocate/) AnitaB.org, "Edith was recognized by the National Computing Conference as an operating systems pioneer. In 2013, she was the Grand Marshal of the New York -City LGBT Pride March and a runner-up for Time's Person of the Year.” She died +City LGBT Pride March and a runner-up for Time's Person of the Year." She died in 2017, and was eulogized by Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama said about her, "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 From f1b24afa0c9f37a13d43e4ff1b8b8bbfd4025b16 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Lance Parsons Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:06:33 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 3/4] Fixed linkback url --- _posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md b/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md index 1f90678bb..bd22dc6a6 100644 --- a/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md +++ b/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md @@ -69,4 +69,4 @@ speak out for what's right. Few were as small in stature as Edith Windsor — an few made as big a difference to America." [Read more about US-RSE's planned Pride Month -activities](https://us-rse.org/2026-06-13-pride-month/). +activities]({% post_url 2025-06-13-pride-month %}). From f9cb5757f470a90f871dc13e78aacbb290eca254 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Lance Parsons Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:12:34 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 4/4] Fixed dobule space --- _posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md b/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md index bd22dc6a6..6a79f69bf 100644 --- a/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md +++ b/_posts/2025-06-16-edith-windsor.md @@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ at IBM and then a software development consultant in her own company? Edith (Edie) Schlain was born in 1929 in Philadelphia. She graduated from Temple in 1950, where she met her future husband, Saul Windsor, who she married in 1951 and divorced in 1952. She later earned a master's in math from NYU in 1957. -She then joined IBM, where she worked for 16 years in senior technical +She then joined IBM, where she worked for 16 years in senior technical and management positions related to systems architecture and implementation of operating systems and language processors. As AnitaB.org [describes](https://anitab.org/profile/remembering-edith-windsor-tech-pioneer-equality-advocate/),