No Suze Orman, Trump can’t take gay marriage rights away

It’s one thing to exploit fear for advice that, in the very least, might be helpful. It’s particularly horrendous when you do it to push horrible advice.

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Financial self-help guru Suze Orman, in an interview with USA Today, encouraged gay couples to quickly marry because the Donald Trump administration might take away their right to marriage.

“Don’t take (the right to be married) for granted, because this administration could absolutely take it away,” she says. “If I were you, I would do it now, rather than wait. You have to be crazy if you are in a relationship where you feel like you are already married to not legally be married.”

You’d have to be crazy to take her unhinged advice. Wow.

First of all, the Trump administration cannot take away one’s constitutionally protected right to marry our same-sex partner. That’s not how constitutional protections work. In theory, President Trump could nominate a conservative Justice to replace a liberal one, when and if the time comes (it is likely). Then, I suppose, there could be renewed challenges to the right to gay marriage, which would work its way back to the Supreme Court and the previous 5-4 decision could return, but this time against gay marriage. But that is unlikely and, if it happened, it would be the Supreme Court, not the Trump administration, that made that change.

Perhaps she is suffering from her use of generic language to discuss a nuanced topic. I suppose I shouldn’t expect nuance from someone who has made a fortune off of general advice that doesn’t take into account your personal situation. But, even if she legitimately fears these rights being revoked, her advice is awful.

Marry someone you’re not ready to marry? If they already “feel married” and have yet to go through with the marriage, it’s for a reason. Perhaps they don’t want that ultimate commitment, even if they would benefit from tax breaks for married couples. Perhaps, by getting married, this hastens a divorce because, as we know, rushing into something you’re not ready for tends to lead to bad things happening.

And is this rights revocation danger imminent in the eyes of Orman? If so, definitely don’t get married: you’ll lose those tax breaks with the right to marriage anyway. Is it worth ruining a relationship where you’re perfectly content without the marriage label?

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