The White House News

Pope Francis hosted a group of transgender women — many of whom are sex workers or migrants from Latin America — to a Vatican luncheon for the Catholic Church’s “World Day of the Poor” last week.

The pontiff and the transgender women have formed a close relationship since the pope came to their aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they were unable to work. Now, they meet monthly for VIP visits with the pope and receive medicine, money and shampoo any day, according to The Associated Press. 

“Before, the church was closed to us. They didn’t see us as normal people, they saw us as the devil,” one member of the transgender group, Andrea Paola Torres Lopez, told the AP.

Some 1,200 people who are impoverished or homeless also attended the luncheon inside the papal audience hall for a full meal and dessert. 

VATICAN APPROVES TRANSGENDER PEOPLE RECEIVING BAPTISM, BECOMING GODPARENTS 

The invitation to the transgender women comes as the Vatican released a controversial document earlier this month affirming that individuals suffering from gender-identity disorders are allowed to be baptized or be named as godparents under specific circumstances.

The document is an official response to a dubia submitted by Brazilian Bishop Giuseppe Negri of Santo Amaro seeking guidance on the issue. It was propagated by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and signed by Pope Francis.

However, in a somewhat ambiguous clarification, the guidance specifies that in order for individuals with gender-identity afflictions to be baptized, it must not cause “scandal” or “disorientation.”

This same stipulation applied to their eligibility to act as godparents or witness marriages, according to the Vatican. The move was praised by LGTBQ+ advocates.

POPE FRANCIS: ‘GENDER IDEOLOGY’ IS ONE OF THE ‘MOST DANGEROUS IDEOLOGICAL COLONIZATIONS’

The ruling’s ambiguity is consistent with a variety of theological statements from the Vatican under Pope Francis and can make understanding how to implement the ruling difficult for the clergy.

Father Brian Graebe, a priest with the Archdiocese of New York who holds a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, told Fox News Digital previously that the Vatican’s guidance is not contradictory to church teaching, but possibly “deficient.”

“There’s nothing in the document that contradicts church teachings. My reaction to it when I read it yesterday was that it’s deficient. The problem isn’t so much in what it says as in what it leaves unsaid,” Graebe said.

He continued, “What I was disappointed not to see in the document was affirmation that in the right of baptism itself, whatever name the person has, we call it a Christian name [or] their baptismal name […] what we must affirm is that the correct biological pronouns are to be used.”

The Catholic Church teaches that gender ideology and transgender lifestyles are a “grave disorder” in need of correction through spiritual and secular therapy.

CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE DEFENDS POLICY TO NOT ADMIT CHILDREN WHO REJECT THEIR BIOLOGICAL SEX

“I think the fact that Pope Francis today allows us to approach baptism with this legislation, or to perhaps take care of our best friend’s child, or of friends who ask us to be godfather or godmother, is something that makes us transgender [people] feel more human,” Argentine sex worker Carla Segovia said of the pope, Reuters reported.

Fox News’ Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report. 

The three individuals charged with running brothels in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. that allegedly hosted high-profile clientele, including political and military leaders, brought in over a million dollars running the operation, a top federal investigator on the case said Wednesday.

According to an affidavit submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts by the Department of Homeland Security, the alleged ringleaders of the operation, James Lee of California, along with Han Lee and Junmyung Lee of Massachusetts, made the chunk of change while running the service out of high-end apartments in Massachusetts and the Washington, D.C., suburbs since 2020.

The affidavit also said the defendants kept “impeccable” records of the operation showing the amounts it brought in.

FORMER OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL CHARGED WITH HATE CRIME AFTER CONFRONTATION WITH NYC FOOD CART VENDOR

“I do not believe that HAN has legitimate employment but I do believe she has made an astounding amount of money running her prostitution business over the last several years,” DHS Special Agent Zachary Mitlitsky wrote, referencing the alleged ringleader of the operation.

The affidavit added that two of Han Lee’s bank accounts brought in $965,000, mostly in cash, from Dec. 2019 to Oct. 2023, and that she is believed to have access to other foreign accounts.

The DOJ charged the three earlier this month after busting the operation. They face maximum sentences of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and fines of up to $250,000 if convicted.

MARYLAND ATTORNEY GENERAL SUSPENDS HATE CRIME TASK FORCE MEMBER CLAIMING BABIES MURDERED BY HAMAS WERE ‘FAKE’

According to prosecutors, the D.C.-area brothels were housed in apartment complexes in Fairfax and Tysons, Virginia, and hosted a variety of consorts from varying backgrounds. The defendants allegedly rented the apartments while paying for the prostitutes’ transportation and flights to the locations.

They also said the defendants advertised the prostitution for rates going between $350 and $600, and required solicitors to provide a plethora of identifying information, “not limited to, full name, birth date, credit card information, employer information, and websites,” as well as a “reference if they have one.”

“Some of these professional disciplines included, but are not limited to, politicians, pharmaceutical executives, doctors, military officers, government contractors that possess security clearances, professors, lawyers, business executives, technology company executives, scientists, accountants, retail employees, and students,” prosecutors said.

VIRAL VIDEOS SHOW FORMER OBAMA OFFICIAL LAUNCH RACIST RANTS AGAINST NEW YORK CITY FOOD CART VENDOR

One investigator said “there are potentially hundreds of yet to be identified customers that may include other professional disciplines not included in the list above,” but the DOJ has yet to give any further details on the clientele.

Fox News’ Houston Keene and Adam Sabes contributed to this report.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has denied bombshell sexual assault allegations made by an alleged female former colleague in a new lawsuit. 

“The mayor does not know who this person is. If they ever met, he doesn’t recall it. But he would never do anything to physically harm another person and vigorously denies any such claim,” a City Hall spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

Adams is named as a defendant in a summons filed Wednesday night in the state Supreme Court in Manhattan, The Messenger reported on Thursday morning.

“Plaintiff was sexually assaulted by Defendant Eric Adams in New York, New York in 1993 while they both worked for the City of New York,” the summons says, according to the report. 

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Taxpayers are paying for transgender inmates in U.S. prisons to transition to another gender if a medical assessment deems it necessary, according to a June Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) memo obtained by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.

The memo, discovered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request this week, details the “immediate implementation” of a new pathway for inmates to undergo invasive surgery to transition to their desired gender. The last time clinical guidance for BOP was released was in 2016.

All evaluations and procedures are overseen by an advisory group called the Transgender Clinical Care team. Medical review meetings are attended by a pharmacist, psychiatrist, physician and social worker from the group.

“Healthcare providers should utilize a gender-affirming approach, including using the individual’s preferred name and pronouns during each clinical encounter,” the memo reads under the section Gender-Affirming Medical Assessment. “This also includes using non-gender specific terminology (ex. genital instead of penis/vagina or chest instead of breast) for anatomical body parts or asking if the patient has a preferred term to be used.”

ACLU SUES INDIANA OVER DENIAL OF SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY FOR INMATE WHO STRANGLED 11-MONTH-OLD TO DEATH

Some operations listed in the BOP clinical guidelines funded by taxpayers include hormone therapy, feminization and masculinization procedures such as permanent hair removal, male chest contouring, breast augmentation, scrotoplasty, hysterectomy and other surgical operations.

“It’s crazy when you look at the document, the sophistication of the apparatus they built to govern just transitioning prisoners,” Mike Howell, director of the Oversight Project — Heritage Foundation’s investigative branch — told Fox News Digital in an interview.

“And we have other investigative work that shows in state prisons, overwhelmingly and disproportionately transgender prisoners account for sex crimes,” he said. “And we’re just like, diluting these people with taxpayer dollars and giving them surgeries.”

TRANSGENDER INMATE TO BE TRANSFERRED TO WOMEN’S FACILITY, GET SURGERY AFTER LAWSUIT

Sam Dewey, Heritage Foundation’s attorney, said the BOP guidelines apply to all federal inmates, regardless of what crime they are serving time for.

“So this policy applies not to some kid who made some mistake, got caught up with the wrong people on the streets,” he told Fox News Digital. “This would apply here and there for hardened criminals.”

“And why are our tax dollars going to that, when these people are in jail to be punished?” he said.

Lawsuits have already been underway for transgender inmates seeking sex reassignment surgery. A Minnesota transgender inmate is being moved to a women’s prison and will receive a vaginoplasty as well as $495,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections, according to a June ruling.

ACLU, LGBT GROUPS SUE MISSOURI AG OVER GENDER TRANSITION EMERGENCY RULE

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in August against the Indiana Department of Corrections on behalf of a transgender inmate, Jonathan C. Richardson, also known as Autumn Cordellionè, who was convicted of strangling his 11-month-old stepdaughter to death in 2001.

Fox News Digital has reached out to BOP for comment.