Church of Pride was born from a moment most people can probably relate to: sitting in a ceremony that was supposed to be about love, and feeling like the institution behind it didn't really mean it.
Our founder attended a friend's wedding in 2019. The couple — two women who had been together for eleven years — had struggled for months to find an officiant who would perform their ceremony without conditions, without a lecture, without the unspoken weight of an institution that had spent centuries telling them their love was wrong. They eventually found someone, but the experience left a mark. Why should finding someone to say “you may now kiss” be so hard?
“We didn't set out to start a church. We set out to make sure that when two people want to stand in front of their friends and family and make a promise, the person at the front of the room actually believes they should be there.”
An Alternative, Not a Replacement
Church of Pride is a for-profit religious organization, and we're upfront about that. We're not trying to replicate the spiritual traditions that bring comfort and meaning to billions of people. We exist because, for many in the LGBTQIA2+ community and their allies, the available options for ordination come with baggage — institutions whose histories are entwined with colonialism, white supremacy, and patriarchal control.
We believe you shouldn't have to subscribe to a worldview that was built to exclude you just so you can stand at the altar and tell two people they're married. That's the gap we fill.
What We Actually Do
The mechanics are simple: you fill out a form, pay a one-time fee of $20, and receive a certificate of ordination as a minister of the Church of Pride. That ordination is valid for life and recognized for the purpose of officiating legally binding marriages.
But what we really do is give people permission — not from us, but from themselves. Permission to be the one who stands up and says, “I believe in your love, and I'm honored to make it official.” We've ordained teachers who married their colleagues, siblings who officiated for each other, best friends who'd been waiting years for the ask. Every single one of them tells us the same thing: it meant more because it came from someone who truly knew them.
Who We're For
Everyone. Full stop. Church of Pride is for LGBTQIA2+ people who want an affirming path to ordination. It's for allies who want to stand with their community. It's for people who've left organized religion and people who never joined. It's for the spiritual and the secular, the devout and the questioning, the loud and the quiet.
The only thing we ask is that you believe in the dignity of all people and the right of every couple to be married by someone who celebrates their union.
Where We're Going
We started as a simple idea: ordination without exclusion. Today, we're building a community of thousands of ministers across every state. Tomorrow, we're expanding our resources to include state-by-state officiation guides, ceremony templates, and a network where our ministers can support each other.
Because this was never just about a certificate. It's about building something that reflects who we are — a community that leads with love, refuses to exclude, and believes the best person to marry you is someone who actually knows your name.