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Department of Justice has formally intervened in support of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, a Catholic religious order that operates Rosary Hill Home in Westchester County, New York, arguing that a state transgender mandate threatens the sisters' ability to continue providing free palliative care to indigent cancer patients.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche certified the case — Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne v. Hochul — as one of "general public importance," lending federal weight to a lawsuit the sisters filed on April 6.
The Law at Issue New York's "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, and People Living with HIV Long-Term Care Facility Residents' Bill of Rights," signed into law on November 30, 2023 by Governor Kathy Hochul, prohibits long-term care facilities from discriminating against residents on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or HIV status.
The Dominican Sisters argue the law would compel them to assign rooms by gender identity rather than biological sex, grant access to opposite-sex bathrooms, use residents' preferred pronouns, require staff training in gender ideology, and post public compliance notices — all in conflict with their religious convictions.
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