Trump hasn't banned same-sex marriage in US; claim he has is Pants on Fire!

The U.S. has recognized same-sex marriage nationwide for nearly a decade, but a recent social media post claims that President-elect Donald Trump has now banned same-sex marriage.

A Nov. 18 Facebook post said that South Africa, where same-sex marriage has been legal since 2006, experienced an increase in same-sex marriages this year and adds this:

"This is a practice that Donald Trump has officially banned in all 50 states in America and any person caught in the act faces a jail term," the post said. "The only genders recognized by the USA government are male and female."

(Screenshot of Facebook post.)

The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

The U.S. has not banned same-sex marriage. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 26, 2015, that same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 states. 

Its Obergefell v. Hodges ruling says:

"Under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, all states must license a marriage between two people of the same sex and recognize such a marriage if it was lawfully licensed and performed in another state."

PolitiFact found no White House statements or credible media reports in the Nexis news database that same-sex marriage recently has been banned in the U.S. or that President-elect Trump has supported undoing the Supreme Court ruling. 

Although Trump won the 2024 presidential election against Vice President Kamala Harris, his term won’t begin until Jan. 20. President Joe Biden has said nothing about banning same-sex marriage. Furthermore, a president cannot use executive action to overturn a Supreme Court ruling.

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Trump’s views on same-sex marriage also have evolved over the years to a stance that generally supports same-sex people’s right to marry.

In 2022, Congress passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which requires all states to recognize same-sex marriages — although states would not be obligated to issue same-sex marriage licenses — should the Supreme Court ever overturn Obergefell v. Hodges. 

The Facebook post also said the U.S. government only recognizes male and female genders. This is untrue. The government prohibits the discrimination of federal employees and job applicants on the basis of gender identity. A federal regulation also prohibits sex discrimination in educational settings receiving federal funding, applicable to all people regardless of their sex, gender identity or gender expression.

The State Department also allows passport applicants to select male, female or X as their gender identities. And the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have adopted a nonbinary gender option for its forms and associated documents.

The U.S. Census Bureau has also allowed people to identify as transgender since 2021.

Trump has not banned same-sex marriage in all 50 states, nor can he unilaterally do so when he takes office in January. He also has not recently supported overturning same-sex marriage in the U.S. We rate the claim that Trump has banned same-sex marriage in the U.S. Pants on Fire!