This week, Christian Concern chief executive Andrea Williams hosted a fringe event at the Church of England’s General Synod on transgenderism and transformation, and how the Church can bring hope and healing to those who are suffering gender confusion.
Testimony of transgender regret
Christian Concern supporter Pete Benjamin shared his testimony of transgender regret, how events in his childhood had led him into gender confusion, including being introduced to drag queens at the age of 10. Various traumas in his life led him down the path of alcohol, anxiety and depression, deepening his gender confusion.
He shared how easy it was for him to acquire drugs and get surgery to ‘become a woman’ and warned that receiving affirmation in his gender-confused state only led him deeper into depression, anxiety, alcohol and loneliness.
The two psychiatrists that saw him in the two years before his surgery – both of whom he only saw once – failed to look into his mental health issues and referred him onto a private waiting list to rush him into an operation. But the body he was given “didn’t change me one bit,” he conceded.
However, despite the scars that Pete now bears, he admitted that he now feels more like himself than ever before. Since finding faith and being supported by his local church, Pete has left behind his transgender past, finding freedom from alcoholism, anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts. Through the prayer that the church offered, and the welcome that Pete found there, he has finally been able to embrace his true identity in Christ Jesus, as Pete.
Shut down for researching trans regret
Experienced psychotherapist James Caspian also shared his testimony. Having worked with patients who identified as transgender, James shared how he was becoming increasingly concerned about the frequency he was hearing stories of those like Pete, who were rushed into surgery and later regretted their decision to become ‘transgender’. There, he saw an opportunity to do more research into the matter, given that no statistics had ever been released on how many people ‘de-transition’. This remains true to this day.
However, his research was rejected in 2016 by Bath Spa University who were worried about ‘upsetting people’ with controversial research and concerned that there was too great a risk that the university would draw criticism. James commented that transgenderism “has become the pinnacle of the identity politics pyramid … people feel that they can’t say what they think, they can’t talk about it.” He warned that even acknowledging reality was now being labelled ‘hate speech’, urging more people to take a stand to speak out on the real issues.
Cannot deal with matter quietly
Andrea Williams closed the event, warning that the Church must do more to support those experiencing gender confusion, and be willing to speak out against the transgender agenda that seems to have seeped into the Church of England.
The national church’s approach, dealing with this quietly, has cost people their jobs, Andrea said. The church must address this head on. For Pete, it was childhood exposure that led to his gender confusion; schools now are being given training by trans activist group Mermaids and using materials written by Stonewall. What are we going to do to stand up to this agenda and protect our children?