Pope urged to reverse church ban on gender-affirming care
STORY: :: LGBT activists urge the pope to overturn a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender people
:: Rome, Italy
:: New Ways Ministry
:: Vatican City
:: Francis held a meeting six months after the Vatican's doctrinal office rejected gender-affirming care
:: Michael Sennett, Activist
"As a transgender Catholic, I really wanted to share my story with Pope Francis and because he's so pastoral and let him know, really illustrate that our stories are all different and give him another perspective to consider when the church is talking about transgender people and gender."
:: October 12, 2024
"He was very pastoral, very interested in my story, and it was just a very welcoming atmosphere and I felt that he wanted to hear everything I had to say."
The 80-minute meeting, held privately at the guesthouse where the pope lives, included a Catholic sister who works with LGBTQ people, a member of the transgender community, and a U.S. medical doctor who helps run a clinic providing gender-affirming hormonal care for adults.
The Vatican’s doctrinal office has said gender-affirming care “risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception”.
LGBTQ groups sharply criticized the Vatican document and said the doctrinal office did not seek input from transgender people about their experiences before rejecting gender-affirming care.
