Did Hell Freeze Over? Reaction to the Marriage rulings

Posted this originally in the "We Are Family" blog, but thought it was worthy of its own topic.

One interesting question raised by the DOMA ruling:

Are the feds going to afford benefits to married same-sex couples in states where their marriages aren't recognized by the state?

For example: A married couple moves from New York to Texas. Do they lose federal recognition? Say a surviving spouse is drawing Social Security benefits and moves from New York to Florida. Does she lose them? Can a couple from Arkansas who holds a valid marriage license from Massachusetts expect to get federal benefits?

I've heard various opinions on this today, but it is something that is going to have to be ironed out.

Also, going into these rulings, I had not feared the Prop. 8 case, thinking it was going to apply to CA only and didn't pose much relevance elsewhere. Boy, was I wrong, and we narrowly averted disaster on this ruling. The minority view was that the initiative (vote of the people) should hold precedence. If that view had prevailed then it would have essentially said that the public had the right to vote on our civil rights, and that the state constitutional amendment elections were not subject to the review of most courts. We dodged a real bullet here, thanks to, of all people, Antonin Scalia? I about dropped dead of a heart attack when I saw that he voted in favor of a gay rights case. Did hell freeze over?