Ann Meitzen and Joanne Pedersen
Waterford, Conn.
The couple: Meitzen and Pedersen began dating 15 years ago, after bonding over their Golden Retrievers on an online dating website. They got married in 2008, the same year Connecticut legalized same-sex marriage.
Financial impact: After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, Pedersen decided she would retire from her job as a special security officer for the Office of Naval Intelligence as soon as she was eligible, which was in 2008.
As a federal retiree, she has great retirement benefits that include health insurance. But when Meitzen became very sick and had to quit her job, Pedersen's medical plan wouldn't extend benefits to her, because they weren't recognized as married by the government.
Because she was too young to qualify for Medicare, Meitzen started tapping into her Social Security benefits early and is now spending more than half her roughly $800 in monthly benefits on medical costs.
"What [the DOMA decision] really boils down to financially is Ann won't be paying hundreds of dollars a month for health benefits out of pocket," Pedersen said. "Now we can make our monthly bill payments, maybe go out to dinner once in a while -- it just means that our life will be a little bit easier."
