 At the Actors Centre today in Sydney for the Australian Directors Guild awards, with the wonderful Rachel Lane, celebrating her awards nomination for our short Equal Voices trans faith documentary with Rhett Pearson - ‘Faithfully Me’.
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With thanks to the terrific Fr Peter Maher, it was good yesterday to share in our national Equal Voices' welcome of Pope Francis' support for 'same sex' civil unions (see our media release below, and here) - in itself a very small step of LGBTIQ+ affirmation, but historically highly significant and very important within the largest and most powerful Church in the world's largest religion. It is also a small ray of light in the face of reaction (not least recently in the Anglican Church of Australia).
I have to say however that I do remain quite frustrated, not only by the slowness of fuller Christian affirmations, but also by the continued use of the outdated binary term 'same sex' - which has been unhelpfully extended by many (like the leading Anglican Australian bishop aka Primate) to cover relationships like my own 'same gender' marriage. Trans and non binary relationships need to be recognised properly, not just lumped in with binary 'same sex', whilst transphobia is at stake in religious limiting of relationships too. It is multi-dimensional 'equal marriage' we're seeking everywhere, for the diversity of loving human relationships who seek this - not other clumsy conceptions. However one step forward is better than nothing :-) ...  Delightful day yesterday with fellow researchers Ann Edwards and Katelyn Goopy (speech therapists from the ACU School of Allied Health), bringing together the main themes of findings from interviews recently with different gender diverse people - exploring what they/we themselves want for their/our voices and what voice means to them (personally, professionally, spiritually etc). Sadly - on a subject so important to many (and not just those trans women who suffer the pains of puberty voice change) - there has been so very little work done anywhere in the world based on gender diverse people’s own experience and hopes. Consequently professionals continue to miss the mark - as with other sections of society which presume to know who and what gender diverse people are and require.
After further consultation with the terrific participants who shared their voices in this study, we hope the published results may help bring some change in both approaches to, and content of, much voice therapy - and, most of all, strengthen gender diverse people’s own advocacy and agency. 🙏 We continue to thank those who have contributed so helpfully to this small but significant study. May gender diverse people continue to evolve and express our gloriously diverse voices, and may we be heard and empower others in doing so ❤️ (photo from transgender people-led workshop at the Equal Voices conference in Melbourne 2018)  I speak today as both a proud member of our LGBTIQA+ community, and also as a dedicated person of faith, indeed as an Anglican priest. I do so, because people like me are typically erased, our lives and voices ignored. Yet we queer people of faith do exist! - and we are increasingly seeking to be visible. For our very existence gives lie to the monstrous misuse of religion for political ends. We suffer particularly profoundly from religious discrimination. We do not want religious exemptions which hurt us and others, and betray the heart of who we are. We also know that the majority of our fellow Australians of faith agree with us, as we saw in that dreadful postal survey. So we’ve tried to lobby, spoken to Government inquiries, sought to be part of desperately needed change. Yet, as queer people of faith, our rights to religious expression are seldom recognised...
 "So how do you cope with your enemies?', asked my spiritual director recently. I laughed, with a mixture of emotions. 'Well, I certainly realise I have plenty now', I replied! For you don't have to be paranoid to recognise when some people are out to get you. It is particularly sad however when they are part of your own faith tradition...
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AuthorThe Revd Dr Jo Inkpin: Archives
March 2023
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