After denying same-sex couples vital veteran’s benefits, the Department of Veterans Affairs will now extend those benefits to couples in all fifty states. This policy change will affect thousands of veterans.

Prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday, veterans in same-sex marriages could not receive VA disability pay, death pensions, burial rights or home loan guarantees in states that did not recognize those marriages. Now that these unions are legal nationwide, the VA can provide its benefits indiscriminately.

(Photo credit: Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)