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The White House<\/a> has announced that the same-sex spouses of military vets are now granted spousal benefits.<\/p>\n The Supreme Court’s rejection of the Defense of Marriage Act<\/a> (DOMA) means that the spouses of vets can collect federal benefits, regardless of their gender. Prior to this ruling, both the Defense<\/a> departments and Veterans Affairs<\/a> only granted benefits to the heterosexual spouses of veterans.<\/p>\n The opening up of benefits came on the heels of DOMA\u2019s backers dropping their formal opposition to benefits for same-sex spouses. The White House has announced that couples who are legally wed must be treated the same across the board in terms of federal taxes, regardless of their gender. Same-sex couples can now file joint tax returns and get any available federal tax benefits that were previously only enjoyed by opposite-sex spouses.<\/p>\n Changes to same-sex benefits have also been made to family and medical leave benefits, immigration and Medicare<\/a>, and in other (more…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The White House has announced that the same-sex spouses of military vets are now granted spousal benefits. The Supreme Court’s rejection of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) means that the spouses of vets can collect federal benefits, regardless…<\/span><\/p>\n