Wedding Officiant in Oklahoma

There are many reasons why you might want to hire a lesbian wedding officiant or to find a transgender wedding minister to officiate your Oklahoma wedding ceremony. Indeed, an LGBT wedding pastor can offer many things that a good majority of marriage officiants in Oklahoma cannot. This is because many cisgender, straight ordained ministers in Oklahoma might have little intercultural experience and friends or family within the LGBTQIA community. Indeed, even if these wedding pastors have degrees in theology or divinity, those types of degrees cannot compare to those in science or healthcare.

Of course, this does not apply to all cisgender, straight marriage ministers in Oklahoma, but for many church pastors from congregations like the Baptist Christian denominations, or for Mormons, Muslims, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, these “leaders” can be outright nasty and discriminatory against the LGBTQIA+ community. From hate speech to bigotry to nazi-like genocidal actions toward the transgender and other LGBT communities, people who are within the 2SLGBTQIA+ need to avoid these hateful rednecks because they will definitely do more harm than good.

On the other hand, when you have a gender and sexuality affirming clergy member or a culturally sensitive LGBTQIA+ wedding officiant to officiate a marriage ceremony in Oklahoma and sign the marriage license for a gay, straight, bisexual, nonbinary, transgender, or other wedding clients in the LGBTQIA+ community, then the marriage ceremony can flow much more smoothly. You want a safe person leading such an important wedding ceremony, and this also applies to wedding planners, event planners, catering staff, makeup artists, and DJs.

Special Considerations for Gay, Bisexual, and Lesbian Wedding Ceremonies:

A wedding minister who is going to officiate a gay wedding ceremony for a gay, lesbian, or bisexual couple needs to bear several crucial factors in mind. These items will help ensure a smooth, safe, and affirming lesbian marriage ceremony or gay marriage ceremony for the couple involved. Some of these special considerations include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Ask if there are any special considerations the gay, bisexual, or lesbian couple would like with their vows.
• Ask if special attire, LGBTQIA+ pride flags, or other clothing items need to be worn during the wedding ceremony.

• The marriage minister needs to be on the lookout for anyone at or nearby the wedding ceremony for a gay, lesbian, or bisexual wedding couple who could be hostile or openly homophobic. This includes the possibility of people objecting to the marriage during the bisexual wedding ceremony or gay wedding itself.

• Be sure the wedding venue in Oklahoma is safe and affirming for the gay, lesbian, or bisexual couple you are going to officiate it for. The wedding pastor or ordained minister for the LGBT community may need to serve as an advisor and advocate for the gay, lesbian, or bisexual couple. If needed, the LGBTQIA+-friendly wedding officiant may need to help remind the owners of the wedding venue that it is illegal for anyone there to discriminate against those who are LGBTQIA+.

Special Considerations for Transgender Wedding Ceremonies:

There are some key factors that a transgender ordained minister will want to keep in mind when conducting a transgender marriage ceremony. Some of these include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Be sure to ask which pronouns to use with wedding ceremony couples where one or both people are transgender or gender nonconforming.

• Do not ask about what surgeries or genitals any transgender individual has.

• A wedding minister in Oklahoma needs to confirm which name or names to use for people who are transgender, noting that these preferred names might differ vastly from their legal name on their Oklahoma wedding licenses.

• Be on the lookout for any guests, friends, family, or passersby who may express hostilities toward the transgender couple.

• Remember that some persons who are transgender or LGBTQIA+ in general may not want a religious wedding ceremony, because many religious leaders and major religions have historically been very anti-science and anti-LGBTQIA+. It is important to inquire as to what kind of wedding ceremony, including any special accommodations, vows, etc., the LGBT wedding couple desires.

• A wedding pastor for the LGBTQIA+ community will also want to help the transgender or lesbian couple ensure that the wedding venue they choose is gender affirming and that other passersby there who are anti-LGBTQIA+ will not have access to the gay or trans couple.

• Transgender marriage couples need to remember that just because someone is gay, lesbian, or bisexual, it does not mean that they are transgender friendly or otherwise transgender affirming. Indeed, some people who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual are very anti-transgender and do not even want the transgender part or “T” letter associated with the LGBTQIA+ acronym.

Special Considerations for Nonbinary Marriage Ceremonies:

Nonbinary wedding couples also need special considerations when a nonbinary marriage minister officiates a wedding ceremony for non-binary wedding couples. Indeed, many wedding ministers have never officiated a marriage ceremony for nonbinary marriage couples before, or if they have, most ordained officiants have done very few of them. Thus, the recommendations below will hopefully serve as a partial reference guide for those who will be officiating wedding ceremonies for nonbinary wedding couples in Oklahoma:

• One of the biggest considerations to keep in mind with nonbinary or otherwise gender-neutral marriage ceremony couples is that one or both persons will likely ask that you replace the traditional titles “husband” and “wife” with “spouse” instead. Use of pronouns “they” and “them” instead of “he/him” and “her/she” like the chocolate will also likely be required.

But to know for certain, it is important for even the most experienced wedding officiants to first check with the nonbinary or other gender nonconforming wedding couple. Indeed, in our modern society there are so many different pronouns that what the nonbinary wedding couple prefers to be called could vary widely. For reference, a new wedding officiant or even an experienced ordained wedding minister who needs a reference guide to the vast but forever incomplete list of pronouns a gender nonconforming person might use can be found here.

It is important for all wedding officiants, event planners, and other ministerial staff to remember just how much they must learn about the ever-evolving experiences of those who are gender diverse and sexuality diverse. This applies even to those who are LGBTQIA+. Science is showing us that religion has forever been wrong about sexuality and gender, sadly infused with the imperfections and bigotry of humankind that come from ignorance, an absence of intelligence, insufficient exposure to other cultures and people of diverse backgrounds, and a lack of understanding of how our world really operates.

Our lesbian wedding officiants and gay wedding pastors at Lifelong Wedding Ceremonies also offer a few other generalized pieces of advice and counsel for those seeking to officiate wedding ceremonies for the LGBTQIA+ community. These helpful tidbits of information and wisdom include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Remember that many gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and other gender and sexuality nonconforming would-be brides, grooms, and future spouses have some degree of anxiety and apprehension about trying to locate a wedding minister in Oklahoma. Indeed, as of the date of this publication, religious institutions may stupidly and hatefully discriminate against the LGBTQIA+ community and thus refuse to officiate their marriage ceremonies in Oklahoma. This is completely illegal, and it is also immoral, but society here in the United States has sadly yet to sufficiently evolve and believe in science over religion. Therefore, many gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual couples are often afraid and have much apprehension in their voices as they ask marriage officiants if they marry gay, lesbian, transgender, and/or bisexual couples. ☹

Thus, it is vital that anyone who officiates LGBT wedding ceremonies be extra considerate and sensitive to the needs the LGBTQIA+ marriage couples have and the previous traumas they have already experienced. You do not want to add to or otherwise accidentally retraumatize an already oppressed sexual and/or gender minority, many of whom also suffer from other comorbidities like autism, anxiety, bipolar disorder, OCD, borderline personality disorder, etc. Indeed, many 2SLGBTQIA+ persons have also suffered terrible discrimination at school, from their religious institutions, from their families and so-called friends, at work, and from the bigoted, discriminatory, unintelligent, uneducated, and redneck areas of society in general. Always be especially mindful when interacting with members of the LGBTQIA+ community who wish to hire a wedding minister for a transgender wedding ceremony or a lesbian or gay marriage ceremony.

• Avoid phrases like “partners” or “civil unions,” as well as other offensive homophobic, transphobic, or any other slurs or sayings that promote biphobia, misinformation, disinformation, or which promote bigotry and prejudice against gender and sexuality diverse individuals. A reference guide for this can found here and especially here.

• You also want to make sure that you do not “talk over” or speak above a transgender person, gay individual, lesbian woman, nonbinary person, etc. Do not tell them what their experiences are, because you have little to no real idea about it anymore than a White person telling a Black person what racial profiling feels like when in a mostly White community. Besides, you learn nothing when you speak; listen as much as possible and really take in what wedding couples seeking to get married and sign a marriage license in Oklahoma City have to share with you about their own experiences and needs.

• Remember that marriage equality only became legal in Oklahoma in 2014 an only gained nationwide acceptance in 2015 after a United States Supreme Court ruling affirming the Constitutional rights of everyone in the USA to marry someone of the same gender or sex. Even so, many right wing Nazi-like conservatives are nonetheless bitter about having to be equal to others – heaven forbid! – and are still trying to undo the lawful right for two men, two women, or others of different genders and sexes to marry one another.

Please be mindful of how delicate of a right that same-sex and same-gender marriage is in the USA. Just like women, men who are transgender, non-binary, and other gender non-conforming individuals lost the right via the United States Supreme Court under former United States Republican President, convicted felon, and civilly convicted rapist Donald John Trump to have an abortion in 2022, the right for same-sex and same-gender couples could also disappear in the blink of an eye if conservatives are ever successful in their atrociously evil efforts to once again strip away that right.

• It is also worth noting that transgender rights both in the United States and indeed worldwide are completely under attack. The states in the USA with the most statistically uneducated and unintelligent inhabitants, of which Oklahoma is the sad leader, are also concomitantly the most religious and conservative. Thus, since conservative Nazis have currently lost the right to oppress others over whom they marry, they have instead decided to turn and project their sexual and gender insecurities, bigotry, hatred, ignorance, lack of intelligence, and prejudice onto the transgender community. ☹

As such, transgender persons, especially in states like Florida and Oklahoma where the intelligence of the average person is lower than average and where the state ranks last in the nation on its educational achievement and attainment, have lost many of the rights they have long enjoyed. Boomers, generation X, and older millennials have “suddenly realized” that there are transgender and gender nonconforming individuals living among them. Panicking from their ignorance, lack of LGBTQIA+ friends, lack of intelligence, and from what disinformation and misinformation they have seen on the news media, they have stripped away the following rights for trans persons in Oklahoma and elsewhere in the USA:

• Medical Care for Kids and Economically Disadvantaged Adults – Conservative Bigots Tried But to Strip It Away From All Adults Up to Age 26.

• Bathroom Rights in Schools & Governmental Buildings

• The Right to Change Gender Markers On Birth Certificates & Drivers’s Licenses

• The Right to Remain in a Prison Facility That Aligns With Their Real Gender, Subjecting Transgender Inmates to Bigotry, Rape, & Other Forms of Oppression & Degradation

• Atrocious “Don’t Say Gay/Trans” Laws Throughout Oklahoma and Elsewhere

• And Many More! For a Partial List of Bills Our Ignorant Oklahoma Legislature Has Tried to Pass, See Here.

Thus, as with gay, lesbian, and bisexual wedding ceremonies, each wedding pastor and ordained wedding minister in Oklahoma needs to be especially careful and considerate when assisting marriage clients in Oklahoma who are LGBT. Go the extra step and make the extra effort for people who have already suffered greatly in our backwards and bigoted state.

We at Lifelong Wedding Ceremonies are an LGBTQIA+ and women-owned wedding officiant company in Oklahoma. We are very gender and sexuality affirming, and both owners are female and are LGBTQIA+. Indeed, many of our ordained ministers are also female and/or LGBTQIA+ as well. People seeking to hire a wedding pastor to officiate a marriage ceremony for someone who is transgender, non-binary, gay, lesbian, bisexual, gender fluid, gender nonconforming, or with some other variation of gender or sexuality will find an extremely safe, affirming, and welcoming environment.

If you or someone you know needs any special accommodations or anything else to make your Oklahoma wedding ceremony extra special, no matter who you are, whom you love, etc., then Lifelong Wedding Ceremonies is the perfect place for you! 😊 Please reach out and give us a call at (405) 696-6450 or reach us on our cell phone at (405) 593-3515 by call or text today for more information. Dr. Makayla Saramosing, Vivien Keefe, and the others here will do everything they can to make your wedding ceremony experience truly unforgettably wonderful! 😊