Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne Sue NY State Over Transgender Law for Nursing Homes
Editor’s Note: This release is from https://catholicbenefitsassociation.org/ny-nuns-sue-state-over-transgender-law-for-nursing-homes/
All photos from the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne
For over 125 years, the Dominican Sisters located in Hawthorne, New York have provided comfort and nursing care for patients who are poor and suffering from incurable cancer. Faced with fines, court orders, the potential loss of licensing and jail time if they do not comply with the State’s new transgender mandate, the sisters filed suit in federal court today to protect their ministry and their patients.
Mother Marie Edward Deutsch, Superior General of the Hawthorne Dominicans, said that the sisters’ first reaction was disappointment. “We Sisters have taken care of patients from all walks of life, ideologies, and faiths. We treat each patient with dignity and Christian charity. We have never had complaints. We cannot implement New York’s mandate without violating our Catholic faith,” she explained.
The New York State Department of Health sent the first in a series of “Dear Administrator” letters to the Hawthorne Dominicans’ 42-bed facility Rosary Hill Home on March 18, 2024. These letters listed the state’s demands and were accompanied by a training curriculum requiring the sisters to align patient care and the training of their sisters and employees with the state’s gender ideology.
The New York gender ideology mandate requires Rosary Hill Home and other long-term care facilities in the state 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. Long-term care facilities are also required to ensure that their staff members are trained in “cultural competency” informed by the state’s gender ideology.
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and Rosary Hill Home are members of the Catholic Benefits Association (CBA). They have, through legal counsel provided to them by the CBA, asked the New York State Department of Health for an exemption from these mandates because they infringe upon their Catholic values, burden their exercise of religion and compromise their free speech rights.
After waiting two weeks and not receiving a response from the state to their exemption request, the Hawthorne Dominicans filed a lawsuit on April 6, 2026 in federal court to protect their religious freedom and their ministry to the terminally ill poor.
Martin Nussbaum of the First & Fourteenth law firm and counsel for the Hawthorne Dominicans, said, “this was especially disappointing because New York’s law provides religious exemption for long-term care facilities affiliated with the Christian Science Church but not for similar Catholic facilities. The Sisters were left with no choice but to file suit in federal court, and the Catholic Benefits Association has helped them do that.”
Sister Stella Mary Morales, O.P., Administrator of Rosary Hill Home, commented, “our foundress, Mother Alphonsa Hawthorne, charged us to serve those who are ‘to pass from one life to another’ and to ‘make them as comfortable and happy as if their own people had kept them and put them into the very best bedroom.’ We intend to continue honoring this sacred obligation but need relief from the Court to do so.”
Case Summary: https://catholicbenefitsassociation.org/hawthorne-dominicans/
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne v. Hochul
Case Summary
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and The Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer dba Rosary Hill Home are members of the Catholic Benefits Association. For over 120 years, the Sisters have cared for the dying poor. Founded in 1900 by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Sisters operate Rosary Hill Home, a 42-bed skilled nursing facility in Hawthorne, New York, that provides palliative care and comfort to impoverished cancer patients in their final days. The Sisters and Rosary Hill Home accept no payment for their services, relying instead on their own labor and charitable donations to fulfill their mission: “We cannot cure our patients, but we can assure the dignity and value of their final days and keep them comfortable and free of pain.”
Now, however, the State of New York threatens to shut down the ministry of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, Rosary Hill Home, and the ministry of similar CBA members unless they violate their Catholic faith. New York’s LGBTQ Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights, codified at New York Public Health Law § 2803-c-2, requires long-term care facilities to assign patients to rooms based on their stated “gender identity” rather than biological sex, use patients’ “preferred pronouns” even when the patient is not present, post notices affirming compliance with these requirements, and ensure all staff receive “cultural competency” training indoctrinating them in gender ideology.
The state health law exempts facilities operated by the Church of Christ, Scientist but provides no exemption for Catholic organizations. If CBA members like the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and Rosary Hill Home do not comply, they face fines, injunctions, a potential loss of licensing and imprisonment.
Visit the Hawthorne Dominicans v. Hochul case page for more details.
Learn more about the Hawthorne Dominicans ministry on their site.
