For over 125 years, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, New York, have provided comfort and nursing care to impoverished patients who suffer from incurable cancer for free. Now, they face fines, loss of licensing, and even jail time if they fail to comply with the “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, and People Living with HIV Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights,” a law passed by the New York Legislature in 2023 that enforces gender ideology in long-term care facilities.
According to the Catholic Benefits Association, the nuns’ legal team, the law “requires Rosary Hill Home and other long-term care facilities to house biological men in women’s rooms even over the opposition of a female roommate, to permit residents and their visitors of one sex to access bathrooms set aside for those of the opposite sex, to use false pronouns, to use language and ‘create communities’ affirming patients’ sexual preferences, and to accommodate patients desire for extramarital sexual relations.” Click here to read the full statement.
On March 18, 2024, the sisters received a letter from the New York State Department of Health, listing the state’s demands and requiring them to align patient care with gender ideology and implement a training curriculum. The sisters petitioned for an exception from these mandates “because they infringe upon their Catholic values, burden their exercise of religion, and compromise their free speech rights.” After not receiving a response from the state, the Dominicans filed a lawsuit on April 6, 2026, to protect their religious freedom and their ministry to those in need.
Click here to know more about the case.