The trans women who sat with Pope Francis: ‘He told me not to lose faith, because we are all equal in the eyes of God’

The trans women who sat with Pope Francis: ‘He told me not to lose faith, because we are all equal in the eyes of God’

On March 11, 2020, three days after all the parishes in Italy were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Don Andrea looked out onto the street and saw a queue of people circling his church in Torvaianica, a sleepy beach town on the outskirts of Rome. Many of them were transsexuals who prostitute themselves and put their lives at risk every day at the edge of the pine forests close by. They no longer had clients. They had no money for food or medi…