West Vil Block Could Be Named For Couple Who Won Gay Marriage Rights

WEST VILLAGE, NY — A Washington Square block could soon be named for a local couple who won gay marriage rights in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The West Village Community Board voted unanimously Tuesday night in support of co-naming the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and Washington Square North "Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer Way."

"I can’t imagine a more appropriate co-naming for the corner of the home where they lived for more than four decades," a CB2 board member said when discussing the resolution Tuesday evening.

“It’s because of the work they did — and Edie Windsor’s fight at the Supreme Court which she won for marriage equality — that my husband and I were able to be legally married."

Windsor and Spyer, who lived on the corner for 43 years, worked for decades as local LGBTQ advocates before Windsor's historic battle in the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2013 that federal law banning recognition of same sex marriage was unconstitutional.

Spyer and Windsor, who met in 1965, were married in Canada in 2007, at which time the Defense of Marriage Act restricted the term "spouse" to marriages between a man and woman.

Windsor brought a lawsuit claiming "spouses' rights" and changed the course of the nation's history.

The couple got engaged shortly after meeting, and in 2009 a documentary came out about their relationship called "Edie and Thea: A Very Long Engagement."

The documentary came out the same year Thyer died. Windsor passed away in 2017.

Following Windor's lawsuit, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down DOMA's definition of spouse, and granted same-sex married couples the rights to federal benefits that only heterosexual married couples were allowed previously.

President Barack Obama at the time called the DOMA ruling a "historic step forward for marriage equality"

Windsor and Spyer were also major forces within LGBTQ activism in the Village.

The couple were founding members of the LGBT Center at 208. W. 13th St., as well as SAGE — New York's oldest advocacy group for LGBTQ+ elders.

Windsor and Spyer volunteered their services at these and other community institutions throughout their lives and also were involved in the activities of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, an NYC LGBTQ+ synagogue that at the time was located in the West Village, according to the community board resolution.

Windsor was a technology manager at IBM and helped set up all the electronics at the LGBT Center, according to the co-naming resolution. Spyer was a celebrated clinical psychologist.

Support of the street co-naming passed at the end of the five-hour full board meeting and will head to the City Council is the final approval.

One speaker at the local meeting said she was "concerned" that co-naming the location would set a precedent for blocks around Washington Square Park to receive new names, which was something Community Board 2 generally avoided given the famous park's history.

Board members pushed back on that comment, though, saying that the street was not actually one that directly bordered the park.

"They're legends," one board member said in support of the co-naming. "They deserve it."