Climbing out from being thrown under the bus: queer faith futures in a transphobic political world

ABSTRACT

Since the achievement of marriage equality, culture wars focused on religion have intensified and the political spotlight has turned more sharply towards transgender and other gender-diverse people. Grounded in the experience of Australia’s first out transgender priest, this article explores these developments by focusing on the marginalisation of transgender and queer people of faith in queer activism and mainstream Australian churches during and after the Australian marriage-equality plebiscite. The normative cisgender assumptions underpinning the ‘yes’ campaign reflected the continuing marginalisation of queer people of faith in much secular LGBTIQ + advocacy and organising as well as the lack of progress in addressing gender-diverse people’s chief concerns. A political framework that gives agency to the voices and priorities of transgender and other queer people of faith is urgently needed to challenge the processes of othering and exclusion that predominate in right-wing populist and gender-critical quarters.

KEYWORDS:

• Faith
• LGBTIQ+
• marriage equality
• queer
• transgender

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 While I recognise the contested nature of the word ‘queer’ in some (mainly older) LGBTIQ+ circles, I use the term here in its reclaimed, positive articulation.

2 The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) is a conservative right-wing lobby group, partly modelled on US-style conservative activist groups, that is strongly anti-LGBTIQ+ (Maddox 2005).

3 This legal requirement had to be reversed in the year following the changes to the federal Marriage Act, as in Queensland on 13 June 2018 (Smee 2018).

4 Legislative changes such as the legal ability to change gender identity without surgery or the outlawing of ‘conversion therapy/orientation’ had to wait until 2023 to even be considered, as raised by Independent NSW MP Alex Greenwich in introducing his Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill (2023).

5 The LGB Alliance has opposed the inclusion of transgender people in legislation (the Scottish Gender Recognition Act 2004) banning conversion therapy – including with advertisements that attracted an ‘Advice Notice’ from the Advertising Standards Authority (Parsons 2020) and opposed young people’s access to medical gender-affirmation treatment, as in the Bell v Tavistock (2020) legal case.

6 The Metropolitan Community Church is a longstanding international LGBTIQ+-celebrating mainline Protestant Christian denomination, founded in 1968. It has 222 member congregations in 37 countries and a specific outreach to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families and communities.

7 At the time of writing, four ordained transgender Anglican clergy in Australia are licensed, one serving in the Uniting Church. There are also some other transgender individuals leading less mainstream Christian congregations.

8 Adopted at its 2018 Synod. See pages 68–73 in its annual report (Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney 2018).

9 Following the explicit instructions of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia.

10 A prominent Pentecostal Christian, Scott Morrison served as Australian Prime Minister between 2018 and 2022. During the marriage equality parliamentary debate in 2017, while serving as Treasurer, Morrison abstained from voting due to his faith views. On the rise and influence of the religious right in Australian politics, see Maddox (2005, 2014).

11 Reflections borne out of involvement in such faith leadership and frequent conversations with other such leaders.

12 Key faith contributors to the Victorian process were the national survivors network SOGICE and the evangelical Christian-based Brave Network in Melbourne, together with Ro Allen, the then Victorian Commissioner for LGBT+ Communities, a former worker in the Uniting Church.

13 Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021 (Vic).

14 Health Legislation Amendment Act 2020 (Qld).

15 Addressed by leading Australian queer-faith leader Anthony Venn Brown, UK queer-faith campaigner Jayne Ozanne and others.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Josephine McDonnell Inkpin

Josephine McDonnell Inkpin is a transwoman and an ordained Anglican priest, theologian and justice advocate.