Unitarian Universalist to offer same-sex marriage if legalized

Update: Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Luis Garcia ruled the state gay marriage ban unconstitutional today. The judge ordered that the Monroe County Clerk begin granting marriage licenses to same sex couples starting Tuesday, July 22. The decision applies only to Monroe County. 

If same-sex marriage is legalized by Florida courts, the Unitarian Universalist Church said it would perform marriages before injunctions were filed.

The church, located at Fruitville Road and Bobby Jones Road, said in a press release that it anticipates the legalization of same-sex marriage any day now. It expects that the legalization would be challenged with injunctions to stall the change in the law.

“The church has promoted the rights of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender people to marry since 1984,” the release said.

The release encourages couples who would like the church clergy to marry them need to apply for a license and take an online pre-marital counseling course or follow a three-day waiting period.

The church posted a page guiding couples who are interested in getting married if the motion to overturn the state’s gay marriage ban is successful.

The 2013 Florida statute, 741.212, says the state will not recognize the marriage of a same sex couple as a legal union, even if the union was done outside the state or the country.

The state constitution was amended in 2008 to ban gay marriage.