Catholic nuns who have long cared for terminal cancer patients in New York have launched a federal legal challenge against a state law they say compels them to act against their convictions on sex and gender identity.
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who run Rosary Hill Home, a 42-bed facility offering free care to terminally ill cancer patients, filed a complaint on April 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In the filing, the sisters argue that state authorities are threatening to close their ministry unless they “violate their Catholic faith.”
The lawsuit lists Kathy Hochul and officials from the New York State Department of Health as defendants in their official roles. The Catholic Benefits Association, which promotes the “conscience rights” of Catholic workers, is backing the sisters’ legal effort.
According to the complaint, the sisters received three separate “Dear Administrator Letters” — sent in March 2024, October 2024 and January 2025 — from representatives acting on behalf of the state health department.
Those letters informed the sisters that they must comply with New York’s LGBTQ Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights, which requires them to assign shared rooms based on a patient’s stated gender identity rather than biological sex, “even over the opposition of the roommate.”
The policy also obligates staff to use preferred pronouns for patients at all times, including when the patient is not present, and to “‘create communities’ affirming patients’ sexual preferences, to accommodate patients’ desire for extramarital relations, and to post notices affirming compliance with these requirements.”
Additionally, the mandate requires long-term care facilities to ensure staff “undergo ‘cultural competency training indoctrinating them in these practices and in gender ideology,” according to the lawsuit.
The sisters contend that these directives conflict directly with their religious convictions, forcing them to “act against central, unchangeable and architectural teachings of the Catholic faith.”
“It would contradict the teachings of the Bible concerning God’s creative sovereignty, contradict reason and truth, and betray our sacred obligation not to knowingly harm other persons, particularly the most vulnerable,” the complaint continued.
The filing ultimately asks the court to rule that the mandate violates the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and Rosary Hill Home — along with their staff and contractors — and to block enforcement of the policy against them while the case proceeds.
