Yes, says Diego Neria Lejarraga, a transgender man who says he had a private audience with the Pope in late January, reportedly a first for the pontiff. Neria was born as a girl in Spain and raised as a devout Catholic. But after his sex change operation eight years ago, many people scorned him in church in his hometown of Plasencia in western Spain. Neria recalls heated discussions with a parish priest and some others in town. Afterward, he started staying away from Mass.