If you would like to get ordained in order to perform a wedding ceremony, you may be wondering what the official Universal Life Church (ULC) position is concerning same-sex marriage. Although it is important to point out that no minister in the ULC is forced to participate in a wedding ceremony or perform a wedding for a couple if it violates the minister’s personal beliefs, the ULC does favor marriage equality. Recent legal trends in the US courts have agreed with the ULC stance towards marital equality.

For example, on May 19, 2014, U.S. district Judge Michael McShane struck down Oregon’s constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage. McShane specifically cited that the law would have broken the Equal Protection Clause provided by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Just a few days earlier, on May 9, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza issued a similar decision against an Arkansas statue banning same-sex marriage. Piazza cited the recent court decision by the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Windsor. In this 2013 case, the Supreme Court found that the portions of the Defense of Marriage Act that defined marriage in heterosexual terms and as a union between a man and a woman violated an individual’s right to Due Process under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

On May 20, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones, III declared that the Pennsylvania law banning same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. The decision by Jones, who was originally appointed by President George W. Bush, made Pennsylvania the tenth state to strike down a same-sex marriage ban since the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling.

You will have the freedom to follow your own personal values and beliefs when choosing whether or not to perform a same-sex wedding ceremony after you get ordained by the ULC. But if you choose to agree with the legal precedent, the ULC supports your decision to perform a wedding ceremony for both heterosexual and same-sex couples.