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"  The Supreme Court is set to hear two cases on same-sex marriage this week\u2014Hollingsworth vs. Perry on Tuesday and United States vs. Windsor on Wednesday\u2014and at the root of these these two pivotal cases are some damn courageous women.  The first case is between Kristin Perry, who married her partner Sandra Stier in San Francisco in 2004 only to have the nuptials reversed by the Supreme Court, and former state senator Dennis Hollingsworth, who staunchly defended Prop 8, the California measure banning gay marriage. Perry and Stier, who have been together for 10 years and have four children together, felt compelled to take action with the passing of the marriage ban in 2008, when they decided to become advocates of the cause. Now, Perry&amp;#039;s name could end up being as recognized as &amp;quot;Jane Roe,&amp;quot; the alias as the heart of Roe v. Wade.  In the second case, Edith Windsor (pictured above), is taking on the entire country, challenging how the Defense of Marriage Act banned federal recognition of same-sex marriages. Windsor spent most of her life (40 years!) engaged to her late partner, Thea Spyer, before they wed in 2007. But, after Spyer&amp;#039;s death, Windsor was told she had to pay a whopping $363,053 in federal estate taxes\u2014because &amp;quot;technically&amp;quot; she wasn&amp;#039;t actually married according to DOMA. Had Thea been Theo (as in, a man), Windsor told NPR, she wouldn&amp;#039;t have had to pay any taxes on what she inherited from her partner.  We&amp;#039;re rooting for these ladies this week because, seriously people, love is love. And love is amazing. And we all deserve it\u2014no matter who we love.  Want more from Natasha? Follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook. Photo: Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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