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Reuters

With Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act struck down by the Supreme Court, many same-sex married couples are about to have their marriages recognized by the federal government.

If you're married to someone of the same sex and you live in one of the 13 states where gay marriage is or will soon be legal, the federal government will start treating you as married.

It's not immediately clear how the ruling will affect same-sex couples married by one state but living in another that does not recognize gay marriage.

Federal recognition will mean a lot of new rights and responsibilities for gay married couples. 1,138 of them, in fact, according to a 2004 report from the General Accounting Office, updating this longer report from 1997.