Pope Francis held line on gender ideology, had welcoming posture to LGBT community

The late Pope Francis sought to make the Catholic Church more welcoming to transgender and LGBTQ people, often causing stir among traditional conservative Catholics, even as he remained a staunch critic of what he called "dangerous" gender ideology.

While he maintained traditional Catholic teachings on gender and sexuality in official documents, the pontiff's actions often told a different, ambiguous story.

"Being homosexual isn’t a crime," Francis once said to The Associated Press in 2023.