If the Supreme Court repeals gay marriage, what happens to married gay people?

Six weeks into Donald Trump’s second administration and America is already eyeing an end to freedoms it has enjoyed for decades. The nation is bracing itself for another recession — or perhaps another full-blown depression — as the first of Trump’s terrible policies kick in, and there’s plenty more where that came from.

Right now, stateside citizens are melting down over the cost of eggs and other grocery goods, but while we bulk buy beans and rice, Trump’s team is working overtime to steamroll our rights. A flurry of executive orders signed by Trump already banned gender affirming care for Americans under 19 and attacked the language we use to describe ourselves, so it’s little wonder that an eventual attack on landmark Supreme Court ruling Obergefell v. Hodges was next on the docket.

Multiple states are joining the Trump administration in re-examining the 2015 ruling, which enshrined marriage equality as a base American right. That right could come to an end if Trump gets his way, but what would that mean for those of us who’ve already tied the knot?

What happens to married gays if the Supreme Court eliminates marriage equality?

Gay marriage has literally harmed no one https://t.co/xAguKfoAFz

— Chase Oliver (@ChaseForLiberty) February 26, 2025

Many Americans thought, just a few years ago, that the U.S. Constitution was a sentinel, stalwartly protecting our rights. But under Trump, it’s just another document — easily reworked and revised to suit his aims, and damn the precedent.

Republicans already showed that legal and Constitutional precedent doesn’t matter a lick if they have an issue with the ruling. Which is how they managed to rob millions of women of their reproductive rights with the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, something they clearly intend to replicate during Trump’s second term.

Obergefell v. Hodges has long been unpopular in Republican circles, and with someone like Trump in charge, there’s a very real chance that it joins Roe on the cutting room floor of human rights. That’s horrendous news for the members of the LGBTQ+ community who’ve yet to find their forever, but it shouldn’t mean a mass cancellation of 10 years worth of queer unions.

Now this is all based around something called “laws,” which Donald Trump doesn’t really vibe with. He’s not a fan of things like precedent or legality, so even though this is how things should work out, there’s no real way to guarantee it.

Even with an absolute maniac in the White House, there’s no reason — for now — to fear that existing gay marriages will be nullified, even if Obergefell is overturned. In 2022, President Joe Biden repealed the Defense of Marriage Act — a 1996 law that limited the definition of marriage to a union of one man and one woman — and signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law. That timely decision — which came on the heels of Roe v. Wade’s repeal — protects religious liberties across the nation and requires the federal government and all U.S. states and territories to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial marriages in the United States.

But laws, like constitutional amendments, can be repealed. So while my marriage, which I entered into in September of 2024, is technically protected under the law, even if Obergefell is overturned, that protection could be rescinded at any time — just as it could for the other 1.3 million married gays out there. It hopefully won’t be, particularly considering the pushback the decision would inevitably get, but under Trump, rock bottom is just the beginning.