"Who am I to judge?"

As for “who am I to judge,” surely the pope is not relinquishing the church’s assertion of authority in matters of faith and morals. But he was adopting a tone of humility. And tone matters.

...it matters to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth, especially those raised Catholic, who grow up thinking that their desires are not just a sin but a perversion, a moral stain of the highest order.

This is so right. 

I grew up in Bala Cynwyd, a suburb immediately outside Philadelphia, in the 60’s and 70’s and actually being myself in life, a trans woman, was something I couldn’t even think about, something I had to bury as deeply as possible, because it was a “perversion, a moral stain of the highest order” according to the Catholic environment I knew.  And as I went on in life --  living in Bala Cynwyd even today -- the moral side which required so much effort for me to come to terms with is now gone, because I continue, in every way I can, to live according to the Will of God.  As a trans woman.  And that is okay before God, I think.

And by doing so, I have come into contact with, and made friends with, some of the most disadvantaged, unpleasant people you can imagine, who are trans, the same as me.  Recently two of them, two of my trans sisters, were killed in separate incidents, one last night, by someone who forced his way into her apartment, another last week, in Philadelphia.  The disposable people, the perverted, the drug addled sex workers, the killable.  Because they are trans.

So thank you Your Eminence.  

Who are any of us to judge?