Visibility is always good for LGBT progress, and these women look like a very nice pair of people, not at all sick or scary degenerates the right wing is always going on about.. But what is find remarkable is the Florida
Sun-Sentinel's word choice (emphasis mine):
[Tara] Tuttle (pictured with her wife, Cary Tullis on the left) chose the one-time, lump-sum payment option of $6.5 million The winning ticket was purchased from Publix, located at 2201 N. University Drive in Coral Springs.
The article doesn't note where, or if, Tuttle and Tullis were legally married. And if one wanted to get very pedantic about it, the couple is not married in the state of Florida. The state has a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. But it's nice
Sun-Sentinel's choose to respect the wording the couple presumably used to describe their relationship. There have been ugly disputes over the media acknowledging such things in the past.
Language matters and we're seeing it subtly evolve too. I can recall being a part of a very long and arduous debate between editors, copy editors and fact checkers in a major consumer magazine whether it was appropriate to describe Ellen Degeneres as being "engaged" since she would not be able to legally wed her betrothed, Portia de Rossi. And this was only a few years ago in New York City in a very LGBT supportive environment.
While I'm sympathetic to a desire to be "factually accurate," in my opinion, it seems a petty thing to dispute. That would be unless the outlet has a policy of verifying that heterosexuals are in fact "married," by asking to see a copy of the marriage certificate before reporting them as such. Which of course no one does. Media would presume no one lies about such a thing, and if they were lying, it wouldn't be a terribly important inaccuracy to have repeated. Likely they don't ask for proof because many (heterosexual) people would find a request to be offensive ("You don't believe she's my wife?").
I don't know the Sun-Sentinel's general idealogical leanings, but just being in Florida this is remarkable. Florida despite having pockets is sadly is one of the least progressive states in the nation on LGBT rights, so good for them for being out and proud.
The UK Guardian created a very interesting and informative graphic mapping relative progress of LGBT rights, the regional differences is really, really apparent.
Congratulation to the Tuttle/Tullis family, may you enjoy your new prosperity in good health and happiness. And if you're looking for a place to park some money (other than the nearby Caymen Islands) maybe you can offset Mitt Romney's "charitable giving" by donating a little money to Freedom To Marry.
May we can look forward to the day (soon) the state of Florida will like, the Sun-Sentinel recognize your marriage.