A Westchester County nursing home for dying cancer patients is suing New York over new transgender policies that it says violate the Catholic beliefs of the nuns who run the facility.
The federal case was filed on April 6 by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, an order of nuns that has operated the 42-bed Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne since 1901. The facility provides free hospice care to people with terminal cancer who can’t afford to go elsewhere.
The conflict stems from a law signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2023 that was intended to prevent discrimination against residents of long-term care facilities based on their sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, or HIV status. It took effect in 2024 and included requirements that nursing homes respect the gender identities of residents in deciding room assignments and which restrooms they may use.
Both legislative chambers in Albany overwhelmingly approved the bill in June 2023 with support from both parties. The votes were 142-2 in the Assembly and 55-7 in the Senate.
Why nursing home filed transgender lawsuit in NY
Attorneys argue in the suit that fulfilling the law’s dictates on transgender residents would force Rosary Hill’s Dominican sisters to violate the Catholic Church’s teaching that a person’s gender at birth can’t be changed. They contend the new rules infringe on the sisters’ constitutional rights in multiple ways, including the right to free exercise of their religion.
“The implications are so much greater than whether to utter the words ‘he’ or ‘she,'” the complaint charges. “Indeed, to demand that a Catholic deny another’s sex is to require him or her to affirm another religious worldview.”
The lawsuit was brought in U.S. District Court in White Plains against the state Department of Health, which oversees long-term care facilities and is tasked with enforcing the law. It sent three letters to long-term care facilities in 2024 and 2025 to outline what they must do to comply, including having their staffs undergo “cultural competency” training every two years.
In an emailed response to the USA TODAY Network, Department of Health officials said they don’t comment on pending litigation but are “committed to following state law, which provides nursing home residents certain rights protecting against discrimination including, but not limited to, gender identity or expression.”
Rosary Hill’s attorneys for the case were provided by the Catholic Benefits Association, an organization formed in 2013 to represent Catholic employers in court cases over laws and regulations that they believe violates their religious rights.
Answering questions on behalf of Rosary Hill Home, a spokesman for the Catholic Benefits Association told the USA TODAY Network that the Dominican sisters brought the case out of concern their home could lose its license for failing to comply with the new policy.
“Rosary Hill Home has never had a transgender patient, but if they did, they would accept and care for them as they do all of their patients,” spokesman Dave Uebbing said. “They filed their lawsuit because they are being threatened with revocation of their nursing and facility licenses, fines and possible jail time.”
Rosary Hill and the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne were founded by the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the famous 19th Century author who wrote “The Scarlet Letter.” The daughter, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, was a Catholic convert who became a nun and took the name Mother Mary Alphonsa. (Hawthorne, the Westchester County hamlet where she opened Rosary Hill in 1901, is named after her.)
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA TODAY Network. Reach him at CMcKenna@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Catholic nursing home in Westchester sues NY over transgender policy
Reporting by Chris McKenna, New York State Team / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
