Photo by Colin Moody

We got an excellent crowd at the vigil in Bristol this evening. I’m pretty sure it was over 1000. In fact we got so many people that the event rather outgrew the organization. The sound system that we’d been able to get hold of simply wasn’t powerful enough to reach the whole crowd. That’s one of the problems of trying to arrange things in a tearing hurry.

What we did have was great civic support: from the mayors (elected and Lord), the police, the Church of England and local Muslim leaders. That’s both good and bad. It is good to know we have the support, but of course it meant that most of the early speeches were made by people who have no connection to the LGBT+ community. Daryn Carter, the Director of Bristol Pride, was the only community member in the first round of speeches.

The media also turned out in force. We were the top story on the early evening edition of Points West (that’s only on iPlayer until tomorrow evening). I’m expecting more coverage in the late evening news. I think ITV were there too, as were the community TV station, Made in Bristol. Luckily for you, none of this will cover my part. The media were only interested in the great and good, in white gay men, and in Muslim clerics. Their knew what narrative they wanted to push.

The fine people of Shout Out Radio were also there, and are planning to broadcast much of the material in their show on Thursday. You can listen to that online, and on a podcast after the show.

So what did I say? Fortunately it is all written down because I needed top give the sign language interpreter some idea of what I was going to say. I may have deviated slightly in the delivery, but this is more or less what I said:

The atrocity in Orlando is unusual because of the number of people killed in one go. But homophobic, biphobic and transphobic murders are not rare. Every year over 200 trans people are murdered just because of who they are. The majority of victims every year are Latina women. It is therefore particularly disturbing that the attack on the Pulse club should have taken place on Latin night. Our thoughts are with Latinx LGBT+ people everywhere.

Our thoughts are also with Muslim LGBT+ people who are facing an additional dose of hatred because of this incident.

But I want to talk about religion more generally. Over the past couple of days I have seen young trans people talking on social media about how they have been disowned by their families, and how religion has been used as an excuse for abandoning them. I have also heard Christian preachers in the USA calling for violence against trans women who dare to use public toilets. It doesn’t have to be like that.

Last week on my show on Ujima Radio I interviewed a Jewish Trans Man, Surat Shaan Knan, who heads a project called Twilight People that highlights the lives of trans people of faith. The project is funded by Liberal Judiaism as well as by the Heritage Lottery Fund. There are Muslim, Christian and Pagan trans people involved in the project as well as Jews.

Things have got better, of course. In the 1950s life was much more difficult for trans people than it is now. The pioneering trans people, Michael Dillon and Roberta Cowell, both have Bristol connections. Dillon lived here, and began his transition here, during the second world war. Cowell didn’t live here, but she did visit Bristol because she and Dillon had a friend in the city, a man of the cloth who saw in them people in special need of God’s love because of the difficulties they faced in their lives. That man was Arthur Russell Millbourn. He was Canon of Bristol Cathedral.

It is great to see Christian and Muslim church leaders here today. I hope that faith leaders all over Bristol will follow Canon Millbourn’s example and embrace the LGBT+ people within their communities.

God is love. It’s man that kills.

I had a number of things in mind when writing this. First I wanted to emphasize that Orlando was an attack, not just on LGBT+ people, but specifically an attack on Latinx LGBT+ people, a group that already bears an unfair proportion of the violence against our community. Second I wanted to acknowledge that, although the attack did not target Muslim LGBT+ people, they have suffered disproportionately because of it, in particular from many people who claim to be supporting the LGBT+ community.

Mostly, however, that speech was for two young trans friends of mine — one Muslim and one Jewish — whose tweets over the past two days have been particularly heartbreaking. I wanted to make it clear to the religious leaders in attendance that it is not enough to offer sympathy; it is not enough to open their doors only when a tragedy happens. They need to reach out to LGBT+ people and set and example to their congregations, many of whom are still full of hate for us.

It isn’t hard. All you have to do is open your heart to God’s love. She’s waiting for you.

Thanks are due to Alex Raikes, Daryn Carter, Leighton Deburca and Berkeley Wilde for their hard work in making the vigil happen. Thanks also to the lovely people of BGEN who brought the flowers and placards from their Bath vigil last night to pretty up our event. Special thanks to Des and Heather of BristolCon and their fabulously stylish friend for looking after my stuff while I was on stage, and to Lexi for looking after my trans flag.

FYI, you can see Bristol Cathedral through the trees to the right of the photo above. Nothing like centering your narrative in the landscape.