Gov. Kathy Hochul is defending New York’s LGBTQ-inclusive policies after Nassau County executive and gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman cast blame on the governor and sided with a Westchester-based Catholic nursing home in its quest to win an exemption from New York State policies requiring facilities to respect queer and trans patients.
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who serve patients with incurable cancer at Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne, New York, sued the state in federal District Court in April, claiming violations of the First and 14th Amendment in response to mandates under New York’s LGBTQ Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights.
The Catholic facility’s lawsuit was riddled with transphobic and homophobic language: The suit described the state’s required training as “gender ideology masquerading as cultural competency,” accused the state of requiring the facility to “house men with women upon request,” and complained that they have to make sure “homosexual patients feel comfortable being ‘romantic with each other’ and provide ‘support and acceptance about [patients’] sexual health.”
In comments to the New York Post, Blakeman, a Republican, blamed the governor for the law, saying she “would rather leave dying people without care than allow Catholic nuns to practice their faith.”
“What Kathy Hochul is doing to the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne is an absolute disgrace,” said Blakeman, who will face off against Hochul, a Democrat, in the general election for governor in November. “For over 120 years, these incredible women have done God’s work, providing unconditional love, comfort, and dignity to people in their final days.”
He added: “They are saints walking among us, and they represent the absolute best of New York. Yet, Kathy Hochul is actually willing to shut them down, strip away their license, and throw terminal cancer patients out on the street — all to enforce her woke garbage.”
Nicolette Simmonds, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, fired back to Blakeman in a comment to Gay City News on July 9.
“This is complete nonsense — no law in New York forces anyone to share a room,” Simmonds said. “Healthcare should not be a political attack line used to divide New Yorkers and discriminate against the LGBTQ community, and any attempt by public officials to do so undermines our healthcare system and the care of New Yorkers.”
Out gay Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who was the lead sponsor of the Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights when he was in the State Senate, said his law does not interfere with the facility’s work.
“All this bill does is ensure that the human rights of these patients are protected by recognizing their gender identity and expression — and that’s the least we can offer someone, especially in their later years of life,” Hoylman-Sigal said in an interview with Gay City News. “So many of these long-term care New Yorkers are under fear and discrimination.”
Hoylman-Sigal further described Blakeman’s comments as “absurd.”
“It’s typical, though, because he’s so divisive and caustic in his rhetoric, and he’s using both LGBTQ seniors and the nuns as political pawns,” the Manhattan borough president said.
The lawsuit recently drew the attention of the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, which announced on June 18 that it would intervene in support of the nursing facility, saying the United States “supports the Sisters of Hawthorne’s argument that the New York law violates the US Constitution’s equal protection of religious groups.” The announcement, like the lawsuit itself, turned to inflammatory and anti-LGBTQ language, warning that states “cannot require Americans to abandon their religious beliefs in the name of woke gender ideology.”
“You don’t even have to scratch the surface of this issue to know these are right-wing talking points that are being used to try to undermine the administration of law and interfere in an election,” Hoylman-Sigal said.
On July 2, the Office of Attorney General Letitia James asked for the case to be thrown out and for Hochul’s name to be dropped as a defendant, the New York Post reported.
Blakeman has a history of opposing LGBTQ rights. After the Supreme Court ruled last month to allow states to ban trans athletes, Blakeman issued a statement welcoming the decision and boasting that he “made history in Nassau County when I signed the nation’s first executive order protecting girls’ sports.” Blakeman was referring to his 2024 executive order barring trans athletes from playing sports at county-run facilities.
Blakeman’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment by deadline on July 9.
