The Bible is pro-transgender, according to guidance promoted by an Anglican campaign group.
It claims that “not everyone in the Bible is cisgender” – their gender at birth – and says that biblical stories contain “some clear queer characters”.
This argument rests on the treatment of eunuchs in scripture and women taking part in apparently masculine activities in the Bible.
The guidance is contained in resources hosted on the website LGBT Faith UK. A link to the document states: “The Bible affirms trans, intersex and queer people.”
The text begins by stating: “Not everyone in the Bible is cisgender. Nor is everyone in the Bible biologically or anatomically male or female.
“In the Bible, the clearest example of this are eunuchs, who can be seen as the biblical ‘ancestors’ of trans people.”
The guidance states that in chapter eight of Acts, an angel is sent to instruct one of the early evangelists to go and seek an Ethiopian eunuch, who he finds reading scripture.
Philip, the evangelist, delivers the Christian message to the eunuch and subsequently baptizes him.
The guidance states that this shows that the eunuch could be “a full member [of the Church] without having to be totally male or totally female. God called him just as he was”
The resources further claim that Jesus’s encounter with a Samaritan woman in the book of John hints that she is “intersex”, and also shows that Christ “affirms” her identity.
It adds that while “finding queer characters in the Bible” can be difficult, “looking at queer in terms of gender performance shows some clear queer characters”.
The example given is the female judge Deborah, who, despite being female, leads the Israelites into battle, a “very male thing for a woman to do”.
On the same site it is stated that the Bible “affirms gays and lesbians” and “affirms bisexuals”.
The website LGBTQ Faith UK supports the lobby group Changing Attitude. It has lobbied Church of England bishops for “radical inclusion” of sexual orientations and gender identities.
The pressure group was founded by Colin Coward, a retired Anglican priest, and wants to bring about a “radical transformation of the patriarchal, heteronormative, white, western privileged culture of the Church of England”.
It wants the church to become one that “embraces unconditionally lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people”.
The group lobbied bishops extensively as the Church sought to consult on issues of sexuality and gender as part of a process titled Living in Love and Faith.
It was hoped that responses to this process could push bishops to adopt a new “radical” stance ahead of the 2023 Synod.
Ann Reddecliffe, the campaigner who wrote the guidance, was also a representative for Inclusive Churches. The educational charity lobbies for greater inclusion and has hundreds of churches registered with it.
