A Westchester-based Catholic nursing facility serving patients with incurable cancer filed a federal lawsuit against New York State on April 6 in an effort to win an exemption from policies protecting transgender individuals’ right to be treated in accordance with their gender identity.
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who operate Rosary Hill Home at 600 Linda Ave. in Hawthorne, New York, filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, accusing the state of violating their First and 14th Amendment rights. The lawsuit particularly took issue with mandates under New York’s LGBTQ Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights, which was enacted in 2023 and championed by out gay state lawmakers Harry Bronson of Rochester and Brad Hoylman-Sigal of Manhattan, who is now Manhattan borough president.
The lawsuit is laced with transphobic, homophobic, and outright hostile language, trashing the law and the state for what the nursing home alleges is a violation of their Catholic faith and the Constitution — all while refusing to even respect transgender individuals and misgendering them. In one example, the lawsuit accuses the state of requiring them to “house men with women upon request,” and another part of the lawsuit said the state’s required training amounts to “gender ideology masquerading as cultural competency.”
The nursing home says the state sent letters explaining that long-term care facilities are required to assign patients to rooms consistent with their gender identity rather than their so-called “biological sex,” allow individuals to use bathrooms in accordance with their gender identity, and refer to individuals by their pronouns.
The suilt also emphasizes that the state requires facilities to make sure “homosexual patients feel comfortable being ‘romantic with each other’ and provide ‘support and acceptance about [patients’] sexual health.”
Notably, the lawsuit accuses the state of failing to respond to their request for an exemption, despite granting a narrow exemption to other religious groups.
“This exception shields [long-term care facilities] operated by the Church of Christ, Scientist from the requirements… The mandate provides no exemption for Catholic facilities or staff members,” the lawsuit charges.
The lawsuit accuses the state law of violating the Free Exercise Clause, which requires that a law burdening religious exercise meet strict scrutiny unless it is “neutral [and] generally applicable,” as well as the First Amendment’s Ministerial Exception and Doctrine of Religious Autonomy. The suit argues that the mandate also violates the Establishment, Equal Protection, and Free Speech Clauses, as well as the right of expressive association.
Ultimately, the lawsuit asks the court to declare that the mandate violates the First and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution — but only as applied to the plaintiffs: the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and Rosary Hill Home. The suit also seeks to recover costs and attorney’s fees associated with the case.
The Office of Governor Kathy Hochul referred Gay City News to the New York State Department of Health.
“While the department does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation, the NYS Department of Health is committed to following state law, which provides nursing home residents certain rights protecting against discrimination, including, but not limited to, gender identity or expression,” the state Department of Health told Gay City News.
In a press release, Sister Stella Mary, OP, administrator of Rosary Hill Home, said, “Our foundress, Mother Alphonsa Hawthorne, charged us to serve those who are ‘to pass from one life to another’ and to ‘make them as comfortable and happy as if their own people had kept them and put them into the very best bedroom.’ We intend to continue honoring this sacred obligation but need relief from the court to do so.”
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and Rosary Hill Home are part of the Catholic Benefits Association, which is providing the facility with legal representation in the case. When asked why the lawsuit repeatedly used the offensive term “gender ideology,” Dave Uebbing, the director of communications for the Catholic Benefits Association, told Gay City News, “In essence, the idea that a person can choose their gender is taking the place of God.”
Uebbing further said the phrase is used “because we understand it as laid out in #59 of Dignitas Infinita,” which is a document on the Vatican’s website. However, that document does not mention the phrase at all, though it does denounce “all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman.”
Marianne Duddy-Burke, a married lesbian Catholic mother who serves as the executive director of the LGBTQ Catholic group DignityUSA, told Gay City News in a phone interview that she wants the sisters at Rosary Hill to respect the law and use their experience of providing appropriate and respectful care for trans elders to help shape improvements in Catholic teaching and practice.
“There are all kinds of studies on the situations of LGBTQ elders, and there is rampant fear — and it’s particularly pronounced around trans elders being forced back into the closet to get care at the end of their lives,” Duddy-Burke said. “This is just another population that is being damaged by Catholic hierarchy and conservative Catholics who are pushing to strip access to healthcare — and in this case, supportive life care from vulnerable populations. I can’t see how the majority of people would see this, in any way, consistent with the values of our faith.”
