Honestly, he is a plonker.
I've spent much of my life working for the C of E, including in a senior role. What he says isn't the result of intentional misogyny, it's the result of the penny not dropping in the mind of a caring but overstretched man that 'persecuted' isn't a uniform category, and that the rights of different groups can be in conflict.
Many senior church leaders (of all traditions) are so guilty about the Church's historic attitude to gay people that they've swung to a 'just be kind and inclusive' default with everything to do with gender. It's the new mantra.
The blind spot here is that if you think 'transwomen are women' is the only kind position, this leads to the invasion of women's sports, prisons, refuges etc by anybody who claims to be a woman. It means you're siding with unhinged and violent activists against the hard-earned rights of biological women.
It's a real blind spot in the Church. Banging on about kindness, without realising kindness has been weaponised by crazies.