Tina Beardsley, who has written this guest blog, is a Church of England priest. The first trans trustee of the former Changing Attitude England, Tina has co-edited/authored a trilogy of books about trans Christians, the latest being Trans Affirming Churches: How to Celebrate Gender-Variant People and Their Loved ones (Jessica Kingsley 2020). Tina is now a member of the current Changing Attitude England’s steering group.
I write this as an interested party.
I was a member of the Church of England’s Living in Love & Faith (LLF) Coordinating Group for eighteen months and left because I believed that the process was unable to recognise that some theologies and opinions are harmful to LGBTI+ people.
I am also a personal friend of Debbie Hayton, a trans Christian woman, who appears, along with her wife, Stephanie, in one of the LLF film story videos. Trans people’s spouses have often been overlooked and it is good that LLF has made an effort to represent their voices. I don’t have a problem with that.
What is a problem is Debbie’s relentless journalism, which many, including me, perceive to be anti-trans. Yes, it is possible to be transgender oneself and anti-trans. Some people might even describe this phenomenon as internalised transphobia.
I am not going to add links to her writings – you can look her up if you haven’t come across her – but Debbie is most well-known for claiming that trans women are men, an opinion that is deeply offensive to many transgender people because it:
denies that people are the gender that they say they are
ignores the UK’s legal provisions for gender recognition
undermines the therapeutic principles underlying gender transition
plays into the narrative that trans women’s needs are in competition with those of other women and girls
Debbie has caused further consternation – and confusion – by allying herself with those who portray the treatment of gender diverse children as a form of conversion therapy.
Debbie’s views are not expressed in her LLF film story. Dr Eeva John, LLF’s Enabling Officer, explains that ‘We were careful to make sure that none of the films incorporated “campaigning” of any kind, but were simply personal stories.’
Unfortunately, though, Debbie now has a very high profile, having developed a second career as a journalist, and frequently propagates these ideas in the Spectator and other publications. Indeed, barely a day goes by without an article from her pen on these and related matters. As Dr John acknowledges, ‘I understand that even since the film was made (in the autumn of 2019), Debbie has become more outspoken and public in her views, which is why the film has a deeply “triggering” impact on many trans people who find her views offensive.’
It was due to this triggering effect on a participant in the LLF course that I and others brought the matter to the attention of Dr John who passed on our concerns to the LLF Next Steps Group.
The full film story of Debbie and Stephanie is something one can choose to view or not – one has to register online to access the films – but a segment of their story appears in the Session Five video of the LLF course, and trans people and their allies will attend that session without knowing that to be the case or expecting to watch it. Here is the impact this segment of the LLF course video had recently on one trans participant, poet and campaigner for LGBT inclusion, Jay Hulme, a recently baptised Christian, who was part of a group from his diocese that tried out the LLF material:
‘We got to the final week of the LLF course - and it had actually been an interesting experience for me - hard, but interesting, and after spending the first week focussing entirely on respect and kindness, I felt genuinely safe and comfortable within the group.
The LLF course comes with videos of people telling their stories - and so we put them on. And I absolutely froze. Because ... the Church of England had chosen to film ... Debbie Hayton.
Trans people will know EXACTLY why that turned my innards to ice - ... All you have to do, is google "Debbie Hayton" to see articles in news outlets speaking about her being condemned for transphobia. She is one of those rare examples of a member of a minority who sides with those who fight against their rights. She doesn't speak for trans people.
Mostly, Debbie writes articles for RT (Russian State Media) and The Spectator. Her stance on trans issues; on our rights, inclusion, medical care, even on our basic dignity, is directly opposed to almost every other trans person in the UK. It's not even subtle. There's no way this could have been overlooked if they'd done even the slightest bit of research ...
This whole thing shook my faith in the entire project (I will readily admit that I began the LLF course with no hope at all, but before the final week, I was actually coming round to it a little), and its impact on trans people shouldn't be easily overlooked. I guarantee this will dissolve the trust and hope of any trans person taking part.’
These are significant concerns, yet the LLF Next Steps Group, who are all bishops, having discussed the matter at some length, nevertheless decided to retain Debbie’s film story as part of the LLF resources. Their decision ‘is based on the premise that the deep divisions among us are not resolved by excluding or vilifying people, but by engaging with one another in love.’
To vilify means to speak or write about another in an abusively disparaging manner. That is precisely what Debbie’s journalism does. We are not vilifying her as a person. We are calling attention to her behaviour and its impact on others. Involving her in such a prominent manner in the LLF material means that trans people will exclude themselves from LLF. According to Galop’s Transphobic Hate Crime Report 2020 ‘Trans people are under such high rates of physical, sexual, and verbal attack that more than half feel less able to leave their home’ and as one respondent explained: ‘The fear is particularly prevalent when public figures – politicians, high profile newspaper columnists etc – demonise trans people in print or on air; it makes the fear more pronounced because you worry someone’s going to act on it.’
Currently the UK is witnessing an unprecedented and unremitting attack on trans people’s basic rights and freedoms by well-funded individuals and organisations. The medical and therapeutic consensus and the reality of trans people’s lives are ignored by this rhetoric. Given this wider social and political context in which LLF is taking place, the Next Step’s group’s decision to ignore our concerns is hardly a neutral one. It would have been easy enough to remove the segment of Debbie and Stephanie’s film from the course video, leaving their full story available in the main archive for those who wished to access it. But it seems that the bishops would rather hold a space for someone with opinions like Debbie than address the impact of her views on trans participants. Just as they would rather pay for therapy for LGBTI+ people traumatised by opinions of this kind than admit that they are genuinely harmful in the atmosphere they create and the actions that can flow from them.
When other trans people were consulted about this concern the advice to remove the film was not unanimous, presumably because some trans people in the Church of England remain hopeful that LLF will deliver the kind of equality that they, like we, are looking for. Changing Attitude England wishes the LLF project well, but we do not believe that the goal of equality for LGBTI+ people is at its heart, as this episode demonstrates. Rather, we detect in LLF a fantasy of ‘fair play’ that is blind to the inequalities of power at work in the process. Given the negative experiences some LGBTI+ people reported following the earlier Shared Conversations, it should be no surprise that many people are rightly wary of LLF.
Changing Attitude England is campaigning for the full equality of all LGBTIQ+ people in the Church of England, not least those most likely to be vilified and vulnerable simply for being who they are: trans and non-binary people.