Prejudice has no foundation in Bible, says transsexual author - Herald Scotland | News | Home News

Prejudice has no foundation in Bible, says transsexual author - Herald Scotland | News | Home News

Prejudice has no foundation in Bible, says transsexual author

JO CLIFFORD: Her new play Jesus, Queen of Heaven attracted Christian protesters on its opening night
Alison Campsie

0 commentsPublished on 4 Nov 2009

The playwright whose depiction of Jesus as a transsexual woman sparked a Christian protest has spoken out against her critics, claiming their prejudice has no foundation in the Bible and revealing she is a regular churchgoer herself.

Jo Clifford, 59, said she had been upset by the demonstration outside the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, where about 300 objectors congregated on the opening night of Jesus, Queen of Heaven.

Ms Clifford, who is both a transsexual and a church­goer, said she wrote the play to examine the roots of prejudice faced by both gay people and those who have crossed genders.

She performs as Jesus in the play, and publicity material for the show depicts her as the Messiah, complete with crucifixion wounds and a halo.

Ms Clifford, of Edinburgh, said: “I think it is very sad that the protest has enlisted Christians who have difficulties with gays and transsexuals. I wanted to point out that this does not have any foundation in the Bible.

“The people who angered Jesus were the scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites – the people who were deeply prejudiced, those who passed judgment on people they did not know.

“Being transsexual, I think an awful lot about where ­prejudice comes from.

“I would say about 95% of the play has the most profound respect of the gospel and the figure of Jesus. I really have no wish to offend anybody, which means that it is a big shame that everyone has taken great offence. That was genuinely not my intention.

“I think there is a great deal of prejudice against transsexuals and I am really sorry to see that. I don’t think that this prejudice has any foundation in the Bible.

“I should also say that I have shown the script to committed Christians, people who know a great deal about theology, and they supported what I have done.”

Jesus, Queen of Heaven is being staged as part of Glasgay!, an arts festival “for queer people and their friends”, whose sponsors include Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Arts Council and Glasgow Culture, Media and Sport.

Ms Clifford has been a professional playwright since 1986 and has written around 65 plays. She is a former professor of theatre at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, and her work has ­featured in venues around the world. Next spring, her play Everyone will be staged at the Lyceum in Edinburgh.

Ms Clifford, formerly known as John, started the process of becoming a woman following the death of her wife in 2005.

“It has been a very slow, gradual process and I finally made the decisive step in 2005 when my wife died. I had performed obligations as a husband but once the children had grown up and I was a widower, it seemed the

right time.”

Those who demonstrated against Jesus, Queen of ­Heaven on Tuesday night blocked Chisholm Street in Glasgow city centre for more than three hours.

Ms Clifford said: “I saw one placard which said: ‘God: My son is not a pervert’. That is a terrible thing to say. I am not a pervert. I often thought I was, and that did me a lot

of harm.”

Among the demonstrators was Jack Bell, pastor of the Zion Baptist Church in ­Polmadie. He led protests against Jerry Springer – The Opera, which has been interpreted as blasphemous by some, when it was staged at the Edinburgh Fringe in August.

The Christian Institute, which is opposed to equality for gay people, described the Glasgay! festival as “further proof of an agenda to use taxpayers’ money to fund assaults on Christian values”.

Ms Clifford added: “I think that the terrible malaise in the world today is partly because we have lost touch with spirituality.

“Christianity has been a great support to me. It does hurt that these people should be experiencing so much prejudice. They should go back and read the Bible again.”



Blasphemy? No, but worth watching


“God: My son is not a ­pervert” and “God save Scotland from blasphemy” – these were two of the banners held by the irate Christians gathered outside the Tron theatre. The object of their protest was ­transgender playwright Jo Clifford’s new work Jesus, Queen of Heaven, in which Christ is ­portrayed as a transsexual.

The scene was reminiscent of the times in the 1970s when Pastor Jack Glass and company used to picket Billy Connolly’s show in protest at his crucifixion sketch, unaware that leaflets deconstructing the sketch and pointing out historical inaccuracies such as “Jesus did NOT wear casual sandals” were funnier than anything the Big Yin himself could have come up with.

So is Clifford’s play, presented here as part of the Glasgay! festival, as controversial as it is made out to be? Is it really a blasphemous affront to Christianity? The answer on both counts would seem to be no.

Sure, it is an unconventional interpretation of Jesus’s life: one which transposes the gender of the Messiah from male to female. But then interpretation is what the Christian faith is founded on.

Other than that, ­Clifford’s monologue – which is delivered to an audience seated on three sides at linen-­covered tables resembling The Last ­Supper – is a far-from-­shocking, ­moving, at times narratively ramshackle mix of modernised parables, gospel, autobiographical snippets and pleas for compassion, love and tolerance of others that echo Jesus’s teachings, rather than denigrating them.

As one protester vehemently declared to me: “I don’t need to go down a sewer to know that it sinks.” Well, quite.

But you might want to at least see the play you’re damning before throwing the first stone.