(RNS) — A community of Catholic sisters who provide skilled nursing care for poor, terminally ill cancer patients is suing New York state health leaders in federal court, seeking a religious exemption from the state’s law protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ long-term care facility residents.
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne argued in the lawsuit, filed Monday (April 6) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, that they and their lay employees could face fines, potential loss of licensing and jail time if they don’t comply with a law mandating that they care for transgender patients according to their gender identities. The New York law also mandates that health care workers refrain from restricting patients from consensual sexual relationships and complete cultural competency training for caring for “patients with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities or expressions,” which the sisters argue go against their religious values.
Since 1901, right after Sister Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, the daughter of “The Scarlet Letter” novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, founded the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the order has operated Rosary Hill Home, a licensed skilled nursing facility, according to its website, in Westchester County. Currently, the palliative care facility has 42 beds, according to the legal complaint.
Mother Marie Edward, general superior of the Hawthorne Dominicans, said in a press release, “We Sisters have taken care of patients from all walks of life, ideologies, and faiths. We …
