In this episode of Europe Talks Back, Juli Simond tells the story of Phyla Kupferschmidt, a 36-year-old trans woman originally from Canada but now living in Leuven, Belgium. As a transgender and Catholic person, Phyla has had a rough relationship with the Church and the congregation she is part of, but she has managed to bridge cultural divides and challenge stereotypes about gender and faith through activism.
After the first awakenings of her sense of womanhood and the experience of the seminary in Canada she attended when she was still a man, Phyla has come out as trans just months after she got married in Belgium to her wife, Laura, in 2020. For Phyla, the transition is part of her faith journey, not contrary to it. Reporting on the ground by Katie Jickling.
