Thanks to Golden Age of Gaia.

Megan Cavanagh and her wife, Anne Chamberlain celebrate the supreme court decisions in California. Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

sage:  In one word – YAY! (finally). On a personal note:  friends of mine had lived together for years, in essence every bit as married as a couple with “papers”. At that time, in Canada, they were seen as common-law in respect to income tax, medical and life insurance, voter status, census status – everything except for important things like survivor income and pension payouts in case of death.  It seems that when one of them died, poof! they weren’t married anymore.  Wills were up for contest, insurance was hung up in red tape and all manners of hell were opened instead of recognizing the years they had spent together, in love.

My wish is that every union be recognized in whatever fashion they wish, and the same rights and privileges be accorded to all.

DOMA Ruling Will Allow 100,000 Legally Married Gay Couples Equal Rights

By Karen McVeigh, The Guardian – June 26, 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/26/doma-ruling-legally-married-equal-rights

With Defense of Marriage Act struck down, gay couples will now be eligible for tax breaks, social security and health benefits

By striking down key provisions of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law that banned the US government from recognising same sex-marriage, more than 100,000 legally married gay and lesbian couples will now enjoy the same recognition as opposite-sex partners.

Gay couples will now be eligible for tax breaks, social security and health benefits.

It will also make same-sex married couples eligible for green cards or immigration visas – ensuring that an estimated 36,000 same-sex couples in the US where one partner is not a legal resident, can now apply for green cards for their spouses.

By striking down section 3 of Doma, a 1996 law signed by President Bill Clinton, the justices handed a “resounding victory” to equality advocates, campaigners and same sex couples, who celebrated vigorously across the US.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who delivered the opinion for the 5:4 majority, declared that Doma was unconstitutional because it violated the right to liberty and equality for gay couples.

Kennedy wrote: “The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity.”

But the complexity of federal laws and benefits mean it will be some time before the full consequences of the ruling become clear.

President Obama said he had directed the attorney general lead the federal government’s efforts on implementation. “I’ve directed the Attorney General to work with other members of my cabinet to review all relevant federal statutes to ensure this decision, including its implications for federal benefits and obligations, is implemented swiftly and smoothly.”

Chuck Hagel, the defense secretary, said the government intends to make the same benefits available to all military spouses, regardless of sexual orientation, as soon as possible. “The department will immediately begin the process of implementing the supreme court’s decision in consultation with the Department of Justice and other executive branch agencies,” he said.

Anthony Infanti, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh law school and specialist in tax law for gay people, said that the end of Doma would mean “confusion and chaos” until the government and government agencies make clear how each will define marriage.

“A lot of people will feel that if they strike down Doma everything will be clear but that’s not the case,” said Infanti.

The plaintiff at the centre of the Doma case, Edie Windsor, 84, sued the federal government after the Internal Revenue Service denied her refund request for $363,000 in federal estate taxes she paid after her spouse, Thea Spyer, died in 2009.

According to ACLU lawyers, Edie will now get “every cent of her money back”.

Kennedy’s opinion states that Doma had “written inequality” into US law. He wrote: “When New York adopted a law to permit same sex marriage it sought to eliminate inequality: but Doma frustrates that objective through a system-wide enactment with no identified connection to any particular area of federal law. Doma writes inequality into the entire United States code.”

It was, he said, “more than a simple determination of what should or should not be allowed as an estate tax refund” but affected more than 1,000 state benefits, including “social security, housing, taxes, criminal sanctions, copyright and veterans benefits.”

Kennedy was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito all filed dissenting opinions.

Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said: “Today’s historic decisions put two giant cracks in the dark wall of discrimination that separates committed gay and lesbian couples from full equality.”

It had, “ended the ‘gay exception that relegated same-sex couples to second class citizens for too long” said Evan Wolfson, of Freedom to Marry. Griffin is calling for Congress to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, in order to ensure that the “right of celebration” and not the “right of residence” is applied to federal benefits, to ensure all marriages are considered legal by the federal government.

Infanti, the law professor, said there would be debates about definition. “Who is married and when are they married? What if you have someone in Massachusetts, where it is recognised who lives there and one of them gets a job in Pennsylvania where I live?”

Infanti said that overturning Doma “raises a real question” for agencies, as to whether they recognise a marriage because of where it took place, the “state of celebration” or the “place of residence”.

Hello, It’s President Obama on the Line

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/thomas-roberts/52318300

The California couples who challenged Prop. 8 — Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, and Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami — were clearly delighted to be speaking about this morning’s Supreme Court rulings, but their MSNBC interview was interrupted this morning. President Obama wanted to extend his personal congratulations.