Grey Collier

After Cambridge, Grey’s experiences of youth work and teaching led to advisory work and then to a career in law. He specialised in public law, equality and human rights law. There followed many years of holding the government and other public bodies to account for unlawful decision making, human rights breaches and unfair treatment in a range of domains from family life and housing, to policing and immigration policy. Grey was Legal Director at the Equality and Human Rights Commission where he led a team of 35 to deliver litigation and advisory work and regulatory enforcement across the whole range of anti-discrimination and human rights law.

 

During those years, Grey also raised a family with his (then) partner and founded the South London Lesbian Mums group in 2003, which is still going strong today. Grey spent four wonderful years as Advocacy Director at the human rights and civil liberties NGO, Liberty, where he was responsible for creating new strategic approaches to litigation and advice work, and new organisation-wide integrated advocacy strategies, increasing the reach and impact of Liberty's work substantially. It was at Liberty that Grey finally had the courage and a working environment which made transitioning seem possible. In 2020 Grey became one of the few openly trans senior leaders in the UK NGO sector.

 

That same year Grey was accepted for training for ordained ministry in the Church of England. He was made deacon in 2023 and ordained priest in June 2024. He is Curate at St John's, Waterloo. One of a very small number of openly trans priests in the UK, Grey remains as committed as ever to holding the powerful to account, working to create and embed anti-oppressive strategies in our institutions (especially the church), and to driving substantive equality for all. Grey is one of the organisers of the grassroots movement Christians for Palestine, and sits on the Trustee Board of the trans children and families charity Mermaids.