The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne operate a 42-bed nursing facility in New York state called Rosary Hill Home. It provides free palliative care for poor people with cancer.
Since the so-called "bill of rights" for LGBTQ seniors went into effect in 2024, however, New York law has required such facilities to use the residents' choice of pronouns and bathrooms.
When Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed the "LGBTQ and HIV Long-Term Care Bill of Rights" into law in November 2023, she said it was to protect LGBTQIA+ and HIV-positive older adults from discrimination in long-term care facilities, including nursing homes and adult care facilities.
According to Gov. Hochul, it builds upon existing state human rights laws to explicitly address the vulnerabilities, isolation and discrimination that LGBTQ seniors often face in these settings.
"These Catholic sisters who have traditional Christian values around end-of-life issues and around sexual issues would actually have to train their employees and their nuns in ideas that are entirely at odds with their Catholic faith," explains L. Martin Nussbaum of First & Fourteenth, the values-driven litigation boutique that is representing the Dominican Sisters.
He says, "these are good and holy women that have done this work for a very long time," but when they wrote to ask for a religious exemption, state officials did not even give them the courtesy of a response.
"So, they had no choice but to file the lawsuit," Nussbaum asserts.
They are asking the court to stop New York from enforcing the law against them and to affirm their right to operate according to their religious beliefs without penalty.
The conflict so far is between the sisters and state regulators, not an individual patient or activist bringing a complaint or lawsuit.
Democrats have tried in years past to force other nuns to comply with certain policies. Examples include The Little Sisters of the Poor and government mandates requiring them to include contraceptives in their employee health plans.
The Dominican Sisters' case has gained the attention of the New York Post, Fox News, and The Wall Street Journal editorial board.
