God was my guide says Church’s first non-binary priest
THE Church of England’s first openly non-binary priest has revealed how God guided them to come out in a ‘moment of revelation’.
Bingo Allison – who identifies as gender- queer and uses the pronouns they/them – has used social media to speak about gender issues and posted selfies with captions saying Jesus ‘loves sparkly eyeshadow’.
Rev Allison, 36, said they experienced an epiphany seven years ago while reading the story of Adam and Eve in the Old Testament. On studying Genesis 1:27, they realised: ‘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.’
The priest, who works in Liverpool, said their wife found things ‘difficult’ when they first came out because ‘obviously you marry what you think is a straight guy’.
Speaking to BBC Radio Merseyside, they described coming out as a ‘gradual process for me and my family’. Rev Allison added: ‘I’m married and I’ve got three children, and it was really important to come out to them, give some time letting them understand about me before I emerged on the world.
‘My children are young and when you’re little really you accept most things and they’ve been lovely about it. We taught them about trans people before I came out so it wasn’t completely alien for them.
‘It was difficult for my wife to begin with... But I’d like to believe you marry the person someone becomes as much as you marry the person that they are.’
Rev Allison trained to become a priest in Durham and said the Church of England was ‘open to me coming out’. But it was ‘difficult’ for some people ‘ because I was the first transgender person they had worked with closely’.
Since moving to Liverpool, Rev Allison has found their new congregation ‘wonderful’. They added: ‘ On the outside you might think, “Oh, they’re quite a traditional church so might have traditional views”, but I’ve always been treated as a person and as a priest.’
The priest grew up in a ‘strongly religious’ home in Yorkshire and was raised to believe being gay was sinful.
Rev Allison, who also spoke of being autistic and dyspraxic, visits schools and youth groups to encourage other LGBTQ+ people that they have a place in the church.