Biography
Beardsley was born in 1951 in Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire. She was educated at the University of Sussex, St. John’s College and the Anglican theological college Westcott House (both at the University of Cambridge) and at the University of Leeds. [1] She was ordained in 1979. [2] [3] Beardsley worked as a parish priest in the Portsmouth diocese before moving to London. [1]
Beardsley is a transgender woman who began exploring her gender transition in 1999. [3] In 2000, she established the Clare Project, a transgender support group, in Brighton and Hove. [3]
From 2008 to 2016, Beardsley was Head of the Multi-faith Chaplaincy at the Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust Hospital in London. [1] [4] [5] Between 2006 and 2013 she was Changing Attitude England’s first transgender trustee. [1] [6] She was also an advocate in the campaign for women to become bishops in the Church on England, and was vocal in her opposition to the General Synod’s 2012 vote denying this, as well as the church's exemption from equality legislation. [7]
From August 2017, Beardsley was one of the five original consultants in the House of Bishops' (the religious governing assembly of the Church of England)'s "Living in Love and Faith" (LLF) project on human identity, sexuality, and marriage. [8] She resigned in 2019 over "remarks made about an LGBTI+ contact." [9] [10] [11] She has continued to campaign for the inclusion of transgender and non-binary people in similar projects and to influence the Church of England's policy and practice in relation to transgender and non-binary people. [12] [13] [14] She has also submitted written evidence to parliamentary committees [15] and protested with Peter Tatchell and Davis Mac-Iyalla over the "victimising, intimidating and bullying" of the gay Anglican priest Canon Jeremy Pemberton in 2014. [16] [17]
Beardsley has published several articles and books, [18] has participated in queer theology panel discussions [19] [20] and has spoken at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas. [21] She has been interviewed on how her personal experience of being Christian and transgender intersect for the Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES), [22] on Soho Radio , [23] and on the Evolving Faith podcast. [24] She has also been interviewed for the 40th birthday of the OneBodyOneFaith (previously the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement) in 2016, with the project archive held at the London School of Economics Library. [25]
As of 2025, Beardsley is retired and assists in London parishes. [26]
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