Now's the Time: With Trump 2.0 Looming, Gay Families Wed, Investigate IVF

Donald Trump called himself "the father of IVF" and his running mate, JD Vance, claimed they would attract "normal gay guy" voters – but queer Americans are not convinced, stepping up plans for marriage and kids while they still can, NBC News reported.

Anxieties around the right to marry are rooted in the way a heavily conservative Supreme Court – with three Trump appointees – stripped away women's right to end pregnancy on the federal level, sending the issue to the states and ending a half century of recognition for a Constitutional right to choose.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have been vocal about wanting to revisit the Court's own 2015 ruling that ushered in national marriage equality, ending a chaotic patchwork of rights that varied, sometimes dramatically, from state to state.

One couple who have accelerated their timetable to the altar are Ben Nelson and Adam Weinberger, NBC News relayed, noting that the men had planned for an October wedding in 2025 – until the results of last month's election, that is. Now they're planning a December elopement.

"We kind of decided that we would take a step back and do what we think is necessary for our lives, not necessarily what our first choice was," Weinberger told NBC News.

"This is not what equality looks like," Nelson added.

Another gay couple – Michael Kaye and his partner, who was not named in the story – are similarly contemplating an elopement before January 20, Inauguration Day, rather than sticking with their original plan for a June 2025 wedding.

"It just feels like we took a step backwards and that fear is resurfacing," Kaye explained. "I just feel like there is this fear again around the queer experience."

Another source of anxiety for queer families in advance of the incoming president's inauguration next month is whether IVF will remain legal in general, and if it will be within reach of queer couples. IVF – in vitro fertilization, which enables families who would otherwise not be able to have children to become parents – is a major avenue to parenthood for same-sex couples and other families that do not fit into the binary heterosexual mold.

Some wedding vendors have taken action to help couples who want to move quickly to get things on track. "After hearing from concerned clients, some wedding venues, photographers and planners have begun offering free or discounted services to same-sex couples before Inauguration Day," NBC News said.

The outlet noted developments from which couples can take hope, though, including the Biden Administration passing the Respect for Marriage Act, which would act to preserve marriage rights in the event that the Supreme Court were to nullify its 2015 ruling.

Moreover, NBC News recalled, Trump has chosen "Scott Bessent, who is gay and married, for treasury secretary," and "same-sex weddings [have been] hosted at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's resort in Palm Beach, Florida, in recent years."

"The GOP also removed language that had been in its platform for decades that explicitly defined marriage as being between 'one man and one woman,'" NBC News added.

A ruling from the Alabama State Supreme Court earlier this year that embryos created for IVF can be considered children sent waves of fear through the country's fertility clinics and the families making use of their services. Some religious conservatives oppose IVF because the technique generates embryos that may never be used in a pregnancy.

Trump spoke out for IVF even as Alabama lawmakers – Republicans and Democrats alike – moved to safeguard access to the medical technology.

But Trump's campaign targeted the queer community in other ways, especially transgender Americans. Trump has denounced what he has characterized as "transgender insanity," seemingly suggesting that gender reassignment surgeries happen in schools and take parents by surprise.

In reality, gender reassignment surgery for minors is quite rare, and when surgery is part of gender confirmation care, even for adults, it typically follows years of counseling and hormone therapy.

Still, anti-transgender laws have made up the bulk of record-breaking levels of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation championed by Republican state lawmakers in recent years, and Trump's campaign jumped on that bandwagon, with the incoming president – who banned active military service by transgender people – reportedly considering to throwing trans people in uniform out of the armed services once more. But the Trump camp has denied those reports.

That track record leaves many queer Americans feeling uneasy about the future. NBC News quoted Matt Woodruff, who, with his partner, has been looking into using IVF.

Woodruff expressed fear to the news outlet that in his second term, Trump might create roadblocks designed to stop "same-sex couples from accessing IVF benefits or adopting children," NBC News explained.

"Why should who's sitting in the White House affect my life plans and my timing for really personal choices that only affect me?" Woodruff asked in his comments to the news outlet. "It's very frustrating."