Jenny-Anne Bishop

Jenny-Anne Bishop (born April 1946) is a Welsh transgender activist. She formerly worked for the LGBT Foundation, and was an organiser and trustee for Sparkle. She is the current chair of Unique, a transgender support group based in North Wales.

Personal life and education Bishop was born in South West London, and spent her childhood in Surrey and Kent. She was raised as a Roman catholic. As a child, Bishop knew that they wanted to be a girl. She borrowed her mother’s and sisters’ clothes, feeling more confident in them. Her parents and teachers were disapproving, calling such behaviour naughty, and wicked. When she was six, her parents took her to see the school’s psychiatrist, who told her parents that it was just a phase. It was while studying in the university's library that she first discovered that transgender people existed. She spoke to her tutors about it, but found them dismissive, telling her that "People like you don't do that." Her wife was initially accepting of Bishop’s crossdressing and helped alter clothes for them. Initially, her wife thought it was a phase and that Bishop would get bored with crossdressing. When she realised Bishop intended to continue, she became depressed and almost ended the relationship. Bishop promised to her that she wouldn't transition during their marriage, as they didn’t want to put their family through the turmoil. She experienced repeated transphobia during this time, with her car being damaged, and hateful messages being painted on her house. In 2012, she was appointed to the Westminster Parliamentary Forum on Gender Identity.

She is the current chair and outreach coordinator for Unique, a transgender support group based in North Wales. Bishop also serves on the board of directors for Manchester Metropolitan Church, and also serves as a lay pastoral leader within the church.

She contributed to the Museum of Liverpool's 2013 exhibition, April Ashley: Portrait of a lady. Bishop provided training to the team involved with the exhibition, and connected them with local trans people who shared their own life stories that featured alongside Ashley’s.

She has worked with the LGBT Foundation In 2013 TransForum began working with the Greater Manchester Police to research transgender people's interactions with the police and their experience when reporting hate crimes. The research was published during Hate Crime Awareness Week in 2016.

LGBT elder activism Bishop has been a staunch advocate for older LGBTQ+ people, and has contributed to a variety of research on the subject.

Bishop helped run The Rainbow Project, which was awarded funding in 2010. The project was organised by Merseyside LGBT+ activists, who were interested in what difficulties elderly LGBT+ people faced, especially when it came to residential care. The project highlighted the impact that homophobia and transphobia had on care home residents. They found that LGBT+ residents were frequently reallocated to different rooms to placate other residents, who held homophobic views. Residents who were open about their sexuality sometimes found themselves excluded from conversations and struggled with depression. Some began taking antidepressants or moved care homes, as they found staff unhelpful and unwilling to intervene.

Awards In 2005 Bishop was crowned Miss Golden Sparkle. In 2015 Bishop was awarded an OBE for her work within the transgender community. In 2025, she was featured on Wales Online's Pinc List, as a national treasure.