The Church of England – in the shape of former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and various other senior clergymen – has weighed in on the trans debate. And no, to borrow that old phrase so beloved of tabloid commentary, you really couldn't make it up:
Not for the first time, Downing Street is facing the holy fury of the Church of England. Following the news that the government will no longer seek to ban trans conversion therapy, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has signed an open letter to the prime minister, along with other senior clergymen, condemning the u-turn.
The letter, signed by Williams, the Bishop of Buckingham, the Dean of St Paul’s, the Dean of Manchester and others, describes the process of becoming transgender as ‘a sacred journey of becoming whole’.
These church leaders are following the lead of the more than 100 LGBT organisations that have pulled out of the UK government’s flagship LGBT conference in protest against the u-turn.
The quote in full:
To be Trans is to enter a sacred journey of becoming whole: precious, honoured, and loved, by yourself, by others and by God.
Oh dear. It really is a religion, this trans business.
They have, of course, entirely missed the point – as is the way with so many of our elderly self-appointed moral guardians, mostly men, desperate to highlight their virtue. Philip Pullman comes to mind:
To ban conversion therapy, so-called, is good. To make a deliberate exception for trans people is pure, cold-eyed evil. No justification, no reason, no excuse: just to appease the transphobes. Evil.
The so-called conversion therapy for gender dysphoric teens, is, as we get tired of saying, simply the idea that someone should talk to these kids rather than set them off unquestioningly on the path of irreversible medical intervention. So it's back to front. Transing children who might very well be gay is the actual gay conversion therapy here.
Still, it's good to know we can still get a laugh from the C of E.
Mick Hartley 
Leave a comment