health care savings accounts and flex spending plans, and that same day, the social security administration announced it was starting to process some paid benefits to the surviving members of same-sex marriages. oh, and the woman who sparked it all, edie windsor? she was a runner-up for "time" person of the year. but she lost out to the pope who said, "who am i to judge" when talking about gay people in the catholic church. but the respect and dignity being afforded lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender americans stood in stark contrast to their counterparts elsewhere. in australia, the highest court there overturned a law in the national capital territory that allowed same-sex couples to marry in october. that's because australia has had a version of doma on the books since 2004, and efforts to change that have been thwarted at least twice by the prime minister and his conservative coalition. in india, the supreme court there held that it was constitutional to ban, quote, carnal intercourse against the order of nature.