"It was the third papal meeting for Laura, 57, a saucy Paraguayan sex worker who, in her realest moments, described herself as 'una travesti'..."

"... outdated Spanish slang for 'a transgender woman.' She lived by a code: Tough girls don’t cry. But the first time Pope Francis had blessed her, she couldn’t suppress her tears. On their second meeting, they chatted over lunch. He came to know her well enough to ask about her health. On top of her longtime HIV, she’d had a recent cancer diagnosis. During treatment, the church sourced her a comfortable hotel room in the shadow of the Colosseum and provided food, money, medicine and tests...."

From "How Pope Francis opened the Vatican to transgender sex workers/The outreach, reflecting the most radical stage of his papacy, has prompted backlash while also altering the lives of the nearly 100 people he has met" (WaPo)(free access link).

"'Groups of trans come all the time,' Francis told fellow Jesuits in Lisbon last August. 'The first time they came, they were crying. I was asking them why. One of them told me, "I didn’t think the pope would receive me!" Then, after the first surprise, they made a habit of coming back. Some write to me, and I email them back. Everyone is invited! I realized these people feel rejected.'"