Christian Matson. Credit: Unknown Church leaders risk sowing scandal and confusion, experts say, by allowing a female monk who has been living as a male for years – and who recently publicly announced her transgender identity – to continue presenting herself as a man.
Christian Matson, a hermit living in the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, went public with her transgender identity in a Religion News Service story published May 19 that was based on interviews with both Matson and Bishop John Stowe, a Conventual Franciscan who leads the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, where Matson lives.
Matson was born female but began identifying as a male years ago. On May 21, the Diocese of Lexington published a statement on the controversy on the diocese’s website.
“On Pentecost Sunday, Brother Christian Matson, a professed hermit in the Diocese of Lexington, has made it public that he is a transgender person,” the statement said, using male pronouns to refer to the female hermit.
Theresa Farnan, a founding member of the Ethics and Public Policy Centre’s Person and Identity Project, told the Register that Matson’s public identification as a male risks confusing Catholics regarding what the Church has said about transgenderism.