During an interview on This Morning, Bingo Allison, who is claimed to be the Church of England’s first publicly non-binary priest, discussed the difficulties she had integrating her gender identity with her religious calling.
The 36-year-old vicar in Liverpool identifies as gender-queer.
Bingo explained to Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that during vicar training seven years ago, they were faced with what they thought would be a “decision” between their calling and their identity.
On Thursday’s episode, the vicar stated that they experienced a ‘epiphany’ when reading Genesis 1-3 in the Old Testament of the Bible, after wondering that their faith and identity couldn’t be compatible.
Bingo explained that they were raised in a very religious family.
‘I was at vicar training college at the time and so I was choosing between my calling and this identity – everything about how I’d been brought up so far had said that this is a choice that you have to make.’


They then explained that it was during work for a ‘very boring essay’ that they studied the beginning part of the Bible about how the world was made.
‘It has this verse that says, “male and female, God created them” and I just kept coming back to this verse and thinking, “Well, there it is, there’s my decision – I have to choose between this God that crated just male and just female, or my identity that doesn’t feel male or female.”’
However, Bingo – who has a wife and three children – said it was then that they ‘felt the presence and love of God’, which helped them accept themselves and realise a decision wasn’t necessary.
‘In this very fry and dusty academic essay, I felt the presence and love of God – and I had to stop, I had to pray, I had to sing a bit.’
They then finished off the essay, due the next day, and explained: ‘I just really felt that God affirmed me in who I was and that I didn’t have to make this choice.’
A pal who had tuned in to Bingo’s chat with Phillip and Holly tweeted: ‘My friend is on #ThisMorning today with Phil and Holly speaking about being the UK’s first non-binary priest.
‘I am so proud of them, and for their progress on the journey that they have been on across the five years that I have known them, and beyond that.’
‘What a beautiful person,’ commented another viewer.
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV.