A non-binary priest says God guided them to come out after an epiphany.
Bingo Allison, 36, is to their knowledge the first openly non-binary priest to be ordained in the Church of England.
Bingo, who now works in Liverpool, visits schools across the area and hopes to inspire LGBTQ+ young people and show them they have a place in church.
Bingo, from West Yorkshire, grew up in a “strongly religious” household and said they were raised to believe that acting on being gay was “sinful”.
But the parent-of-three has been on a 15-year journey that included meeting other LGBTQ+ Christians that has completely changed their previously ‘very traditional and conservative’ outlook on life, the Liverpool Echo reports.
“A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God.’ Deut, 22:5
Bingo told the Echo: “My views used to be very traditional and very conservative certainly. Some might call them bigoted and there was a lot of ignorance and a lot of ‘othering’.
“I didn’t take the time to learn from other people’s experiences. I was definitely in a lot of denial and some of that denial came out in denial of other people’s identities.”
The 36-year-old was halfway through their vicar training – a seven year programme – when they first came across the term gender-queer.
That was seven years ago – and Bingo originally considered putting off revelations about their gender identity – but found it difficult.
