Feeling Unsafe by Christina Beardsley

The spread of coronavirus is alarming, and we’re urged to keep safe and look out for the safety of others. Do take care.

Since the publication of This is my body: hearing the theology of transgender Christians in 2016, there has been an alarming rise of alarmist narratives about trans people in the media. During the 2018 consultation about proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) of 2004 several such claims were made.

The most vocal one was that allowing trans people to ‘self-declare’ without a medical diagnosis would threaten women’s safety in women-only spaces. No matter that there’s no evidence of this happening in jurisdictions that have adopted these protocols, or that statistics show that trans people, trans women in particular, are frequently at risk of verbal and physical abuse in public spaces. 

Like the assertion that children in the UK are being rushed towards gender transition, this is a ‘false alarm’. But swathes of the British press have been peddling these misleading ideas and some journalists have appeared to be on a mission to promote them - to such an extent that the government became decidedly nervous about reforming the GRA. Brexit has been one excuse for delay, and no doubt recovery in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic will be the next.

Meanwhile, the media’s alarmist false alarms have made life increasingly difficult for trans people. A friend of mine who happily played in women’s golf tournaments for several years let her golf club subscription lapse rather than argue whether she has a physical advantage over other women because she is trans.

That’s a small example but revealing of the current atmosphere in which trans people no longer feel safe. Little wonder! In her 2018 Inclusive Church lecture Baroness Ruth Hunt said, ‘For the record I think the abuse that trans people are experiencing is the like of which we saw around HIV in the 1980s, and it should be a wake-up call to all of us.’ Commenting on Twitter now, she observes wryly that it has taken a global pandemic to stop ‘mentions full of hatred about my trans siblings … I’ve been waiting for people to take a day off since 2015.’

This is my body was published the following year just before this tide of hate began to rise. In the book we addressed the absence of trans voices in Church documents about trans people, and the obvious – but largely overlooked – point that it is trans people themselves who should be producing theology about gender variant people and writing about their perspectives.

There was little theology about trans people by the start of the twenty-first century. What there was sounded hostile to trans Christians in the Sibyls (Christian spirituality for trans people and their loved ones) and reflected the rejection many had experienced from churches. The book came about to counter this negativity, especially the false, alarmist ideas that trans people were both unsafe to be around and beyond salvation. In the past two decades an increasing number of churches have become trans aware, and provide safe spaces for trans people. There’s lots of good theology about and by trans people now as well.

But there’s also been a growing number of Christian books that adopt the alarmist line about trans people. They tend to quote the same, exceptional, anecdotes, or the few academics who dissent from the medical and therapeutic consensus represented by the Standards of Care issued by the major international body in the field, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).

Books like This is my body, that engage with this consensus, and enable trans Christians to articulate their faith journeys, are still needed to ensure trans people’s safety. In a pandemic no one feels safe. As we emerge from it, I’d like to think that we won’t return to the scapegoating trans people have experienced in recent years, and that churches will ponder further the link between our doctrines of salvation and people’s fundamental need to hear that they are within God’s safe keeping.

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Each day, we will post a short article by one of Darton, Longman and Todd’s amazing authors, offering a personal reflection on our current situation in life. Sometimes this will be written with reference to one of their books, and sometimes about how they are living in response to the coronavirus and our current world situation. We hope it will give you a taste of the depth and diversity of DLT’s list – books for heart, mind and soul that aim to meet the needs and interests of all.

Today’s post is by Christina Beardsley, co-editor, with Michelle O’Brien, of This is my body: Hearing the theology of transgender Christians, which you can buy in print here or as an eBook here.