The Church of England now has its first ‘non-binary’ priest in its ranks. Originally trained in the Diocese of Durham and ordained in 2020, Vicar Bingo Allison has since joined the Diocese of Liverpool. Allison has praised the diocese’s openness and welcoming attitude: “it does so much to support and empower LGBT people.”
Allison, 36, grew up in a family of deep faith in which homosexuality, in accordance with biblical teaching, was considered a sin. Seven years ago, however, Allison reportedly had an ‘epiphany’ after reading Genesis:
“There’s space in God’s creation for change and transformation, just because you’re created one way doesn’t mean that you can’t live another.” According to Allison, the Bible speaks of ‘maleness and femaleness,’ not of man and woman. “It was a deepening spiritual experience.”
Self-identifying as ‘gender-queer’ and using the pronouns they/them, the vicar is married to a woman and has three children. Allison admits that this ‘revelation’ seven years ago was not very easy for his wife: “Obviously you marry what you think is a straight guy and obviously things are more complicated than that.” The process of coming out was very gradual, in order to let their young children get used to the idea. Allison feels that they now have had no difficulty in accepting his new identity: “My children are young and when you’re little really you accept most things and they’ve been lovely about it.” The groundwork had been laid beforehand, as the couple “taught them about trans people before [Allison] came out so it wasn’t a completely alien thing for them.”
Allison continues to reinterpret biblical texts, claiming that biblical interpretation has been biassed for centuries. The vicar intends to take this fight far beyond the confines of the small gay and trans world: “The history of biblical interpretation is littered with the opinions of rich, white, straight, cisgender, able-bodied, neurotypical men assuming that everyone in the passages that they read thought like them and perceived the world like them.”
Today, Allison uses social media for activism by wearing heavy makeup and using the slogan “Jesus loves sparkly eyeshadow” in videos. Similarly, the vicar stresses that LGBT people have a place in the Church, and frequently makes appearances in schools.
Allison welcomes the rise of the transgender cause among young people, calling them particularly “open-minded.” A survey for Stonewall, an LGBT organisation, found that more than a quarter of 16-26 year-olds now identify as LGBT—evidence for them that Britain is becoming a ‘rainbow nation.’
