NEW YORK (AP) - Edith Windsor thought life was over when her longtime lesbian partner and spouse died nearly four years ago. But at age 83, the New York City woman is finding she's a celebrity in some circles. Her challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act that defines marriage as solely between a man and a woman is one of two tests to the law that the Supreme Court will hear next year.

 

Windsor says the time is ripe for a ruling that Americans will cheer and a gay population too often tormented in the country's past will celebrate.

 

The Philadelphia-born Windsor says that will be a tribute to her own longtime love that blossomed in the 1960s, when she and Thea Clara Spyer still had to keep their relationship a secret.

 

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