Trump: Gay Marriage is “Settled”

President-elect Donald Trump sat down for his first televised interview since the election, telling 60 Minutes that overturning the Supreme Court’s 2014 gay marriage decision was not among his priorities. Asked where he stood on the issue, Trump said it was irrelevant.

“It’s law. It was settled in the Supreme Court,” Trump said. “It’s done. These cases have gone to the Supreme Court. They’ve been settled, and I’m fine with that.”

Anyone who thought they would hear anything else – from hopeful social conservatives to hysterical LGBT activists – hasn’t been paying attention. Trump has made it abundantly clear throughout the campaign that he is not on the same page as the Republican Party when it comes to gay marriage (to say nothing of many other issues).

And they’re already coming out of the woodwork to roast him. The NeverTrumpers are rubbing their hands together, screaming I TOLD YOU SO in their increasingly-dwindling echo chambers. They are still under the mistaken impression that 60 million Americans voted for Trump in spite of his views, rather than because of them. That’s an odd delusion, but they’re apparently sticking with it.

Hopefully, social conservatives who voted Trump did so with their eyes open. As far as the culture wars are concerned, Trump has promised to bring back “Merry Christmas” and appoint conservatives to the Supreme Court…and that’s about it. Anyone surprised that he is already at odds with the Republican platform did not follow the election very carefully.

That said, the biggest problem with the gay marriage decision wasn’t the decision itself, but its potential (and, as we’ve seen, manifest) destruction of religious liberty. It’s one thing to allow gays to marry; it’s another to deprive business owners of their right to free speech.

Under Trump, these fears will hopefully dissipate. Just because the horse is out of the barn doesn’t mean we have to lie down and let it trample us. Insofar as he and his VP have anything to say about it, Trump will give us an opportunity to hold on to the freedoms that the Democratic Party wants so badly to take away.

Or perhaps all of these conservative critics would have been happier with Hillary Clinton.