The Justice Department is backing a group of Catholic nuns who say New York’s transgender policies could force them to choose between their religious beliefs and continuing to care for indigent cancer patients in their final days.
“States should take notice that they cannot require Americans to abandon their religious beliefs in the name of woke gender ideology,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a Thursday statement.
“For more than a century, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne have provided free palliative care to indigent cancer patients in their last days,” Dhillon added. “New York’s law would force these religious women to choose between their faith and their license if they wish to continue serving the dying.”
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who operate a home for dying cancer patients in Westchester County, argue New York’s law could subject them to fines, loss of their operating license and other penalties if they refuse to comply with requirements related to gender identity, pronouns, room assignments and access to sex-specific facilities.
If the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne do not comply with the New York transgender mandate, they face fines up to $2,000 per violation — rising to $5,000 — court-ordered forced compliance, loss of licensing and up to one year in prison and fines up to $10,000.
The New York transgender mandate, the “Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, and people living with HIV long-term care facility residents’ bill of rights,” signed into law on Nov. 30, 2023, bans long-term care facilities and staff “from discriminating against any resident on the basis of a resident’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or HIV status,” according to a press release from Hochul’s office.
The sisters say that the New York transgender law would require them to assign rooms by gender identity, not biological sex; allow access to opposite-sex bathrooms; allow expression, relationships and identity practices; use preferred pronouns; require staff training in gender ideology; and post a public notice stating compliance with the law.
In their lawsuit, filed on April 6, the sisters highlighted that during the four-year reporting period from Feb. 1, 2022, through Jan. 31, 2026, the New York State Department of Health had received “zero complaints” from their residents, compared with “more than 55,000 complaints against other nursing homes,” and an average of 23 citations per facility during the same period.
Martin Nussbaum, general counsel for Catholic Benefits Association, who is representing the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, told Fox News Digital that the sisters’ risk of lost licensing applies both to the entity, Rosary Hill Home, and to its staff members who are professionally licensed.
“Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s formal certification of Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne v. Hochul as a case of ‘general public importance’ sends a welcome signal that a state’s policy preference for gender ideology does not trump the protection for religious freedom embedded in our country’s DNA,” Nussbaum said.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said “This is just another sad attempt by the Trump administration to weaponize the justice system to attack political opponents in an election year. New York’s decision to move to a single fiscal intermediary has already saved taxpayers more than a billion dollars while deterring fraud, waste and abuse. As many courts have already held, the transition to a single fiscal intermediary was lawful and appropriate. We are confident the facts are on our side.”
From Fox News
Woke is broke so leave the nuns alone.
Religious Sisters, and others, should be able to place male and female patients in separate rooms and have them use restrooms with those of the same gender. It is asinine and immoral to do otherwise. God bless these Sisters for their loving service to cancer patients in need as they approach their final days here, before they stand before Christ, our Redeemer and merciful Judge.
This is reminiscent of states forcing adoption agencies to place children with same-sex couples or else shut down. That was wrong, and so is this.
LGBTQ ideology is idiotic, and you have to be mentally ill or corrupt in seeking political power to agree with the normalization and promotion of LGBTQ ideology, including same-sex unions.
The irony is that it might be a Muslim political takeover of certain regions in the US that finally puts a stop to LGBTQ nonsense in those places.
Ironic, isn’t it, that these good sisters have been treating dying HIV patients, and terminally ill patients from all walks of life, without a complaint.
Thank you to Indian-born Harmeet Dhillon for providing the cloak of protection for these Sisters.
Yes, a Sikh woman understands what many Catholic politicians don’t.
May God bless these wonderful hospice-care nuns! I am feeling very badly today, as the SF Archdiocese announced that it will pay out nearly $400 million to about 530 poor, suffering clerical sex abuse survivors. Some are very elderly, with terrible sufferings lifelong, from crimes committed on them as children, 70 or more years ago. That’s a very long time of terrible trauma and suffering– and no help from the Catholic Church, only horrific denials, lies, cover-ups, and imnense cruelty. Makes me sick! How about all those poor nuns who were victims of evil Marko “Rapenik?” Any justice for them? The Church should donate the entire Peter’s Pence to all of these poor, suffering clerical sex abuse victims!
This religious order of nuns was founded by Rose Hawthorne, daughter of famous New England author, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Her Cause for Canonization was opened in 2003. In 2024, Pope Francis declared her as “Venerable.” Her religious name was Mother Mary Alphonsa. She had a very interesting life, being born to a notable and wealthy American family, with roots to the first English settlers at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts.