Nuns caring for cancer patients challenge NY LGBT law forcing them to 'violate' beliefs on sex

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Friday, April 10, 2026

Catholic nuns who have cared for terminally ill patients in New York for over a century have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a state law they say forces them to violate their religious beliefs about sex and gender identity. 

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne operate Rosary Hill Home, a 42-bed facility providing free care to terminally ill cancer patients nearing the end of life. In an April 6 complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the sisters claim that the state is threatening to shut them down unless they “violate their Catholic faith.” 

The lawsuit names Democrat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and officials from the New York State Department of Health as defendants, all in their official capacities. The Catholic Benefits Association, which advocates for the “conscience rights” of Catholic employees, is supporting the sisters in this case.

According to the lawsuit, the sisters received three “Dear Administrator Letters” — the first in March 2024, a second in October 2024 and a third in January 2025 — from officials acting on behalf of the New York Department of Health.

The letters alerted the sisters of their obligation to comply with New York’s LGBTQ Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights, which requires the religious sisters to assign patients rooms based on their chosen gender identity instead of their actual sex, "even over the opposition of the roommate." 

Staff are also required to use a patient's chosen pronouns, even when the patient is not present, to “‘create communities’ affirming patients’ sexual preferences, to accommodate patients’ desire for extramarital relations, and to post notices affirming compliance with these requirements.” 

The law also mandates that long-term care facilities must ensure their staff “undergo ‘cultural competency training indoctrinating them in these practices and in gender ideology,” the complaint adds.

These requirements violate the sisters’ religious beliefs by compelling them to “act against central, unchangeable and architectural teachings of the Catholic faith,” the lawsuit argued. 

“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 implications are so much greater than whether to utter the words ‘he’ or ‘she.’ Indeed, to demand that a Catholic deny another’s sex is to require him or her to affirm another religious worldview.”

In response to an inquiry from The Christian Post, a New York State Department of Health spokesperson said the agency does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation. 

The spokesperson did state, however, that the New York State Department of Health “is committed to following state law, which provides nursing home residents certain rights protecting against discrimination, including, but not limited to, gender identity or expression.”

Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment. 

The complaint also noted that the state statute appears to exempt certain institutions, which it argues shows favoritism to one religious group over another. 

While the mandate “includes no general religious organization exemption,” it does include “a religious exemption narrowly tailored to protect the Church of Christ, Scientist and its affiliates,” the lawsuit noted. 

The mandate exempts facilities operated by the Church of Christ, Scientist, but the exemption does not apply to Catholic or other religious organizations. 

Without an exemption, the Catholic nuns “face imminent fines and license revocation if they continue their current religious practices,” with the complaint noting that the sisters “have not complied and do not intend to comply. Their injury is therefore immediate.”

The legal filing asked the court to declare that the mandate violates the First and 14th Amendment rights of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and Rosary Hill Home and their respective agents, employees and clinical contractors.

The document also included a request that the court prohibit the defendants from enforcing the mandate against the plaintiffs for the duration of the lawsuit.