Time moves on, and so does government. With the death of Section 3 of the “Defence [sic] of Marriage Act, the federal government has moved to implement equality. Today, two more bits of equality arrived.
First, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has decided that legally married LGBT couples will be treated the same as opposite gender married couples for tax purposes. This is very big news.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a memo clarifying that all beneficiaries in private Medicare plans have access to equal coverage for care in a nursing home where their spouse lives. This is the first guidance issued by HHS in response to the Supreme Court ruling.
This is all on top of the US Government treating legally marries same-gender couples the same as opposite-gender couples for immigration. That was in itself a big deal.
This is how change happens: Once the decision is made to move forward, everything else falls into place. The US Supreme Court stuck down Section 3 of DOMA, and now federal agencies are moving to implement the ruling, It’s bot logical and welcome—and who could argue with that?
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