How the DOMA Ruling *Could* Affect Pennsylvania

Yesterday I reported that the status of gay marriage in Pennsylvania won’t be affected at all by yesterday’s Supreme Court rulings on DOMA and Prop 8. Even if a gay couple gets married in New York and lives in Philly, PA still doesn’t consider them married, so neither do the federal offices who administer the benefits married couples receive. But there are at least a couple groups of people that will profit from the DOMA decision, even if they can’t get married here. Newsworks reports:

Israeli Sharon Gershoni has struggled to maintain legal status in the United States for almost a decade because her wife, Sarra Lev, could not sponsor her for a visa. Speaking just after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling was released on Wednesday, [Philadelphians] Gershoni and Lev said they’re overjoyed to be newly eligible for immigration relief.

And as NPR reports, it seems that federal employees can also now hop onto their spouses’ Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan. And beyond that, there feds are still trying to figure out what other benefits same-sex couples can receive, regardless of what state they live in.