For more than a century, a small community of Catholic nuns in New York has quietly carried out a mission of mercy that now finds itself on a collision course with the states aggressive gender-ideology regime.
According to the Gateway Pundit, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, also known as the Dominican Sisters of the Sick Poor, have spent more than 125 years caring for the poor and terminally ill, especially cancer patients who have nowhere else to turn. Their Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne, New York, is a 42-bed licensed hospice and skilled nursing facility that ministers to some of the most vulnerable people in society, yet it operates on a model that stands in stark contrast to modern government-dependent health care: the sisters refuse insurance, government funding, or any payment from patients or their families, and the care is entirely free.
That long-standing mission is now under direct threat from New Yorks Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul and her administration, which are determined to impose a sweeping LGBTQ mandate on all long-term care facilities, including religious ones. At the center of the dispute is the LGBTQ Long-Term Care Facility Residents Bill of Rights, codified in Public Health Law 2803-c-2 and enacted in 2024, a law that effectively elevates state-enforced gender ideology above the religious convictions of those who serve the dying.
The statute applies to nursing homes and long-term care facilities across the state and demands compliance with a detailed set of requirements rooted in contemporary transgender and sexual-identity politics. Facilities are ordered to treat residents according to self-declared gender identity rather than biological sex, to adopt preferred pronouns, and to structure room assignments, bathroom access, and institutional culture around these ideological dictates, regardless of religious doctrine or the privacy concerns of other residents.
New Yorks Department of Health has already begun enforcement efforts, sending Dear Administrator letters to facilities such as Rosary Hill Home that outline alleged or potential violations. These letters warn that practices such as segregating rooms or bathrooms by biological sex, or declining to use preferred pronouns, could place a facility in violation of state law and subject it to escalating penalties.
The consequences for noncompliance are severe and clearly designed to coerce submission rather than accommodate conscience. Fines can reach $2,000 for a first offense, $5,000 for subsequent violations, and up to $10,000 for what the state deems willful violations, with additional threats including license revocation, court injunctions, and even jail time for repeated, willful resistance.
Faced with this pressure campaign, the Dominican Sisters have taken the extraordinary step of suing Governor Hochul and state officials, arguing that the law forces them into an impossible choice between fidelity to their Catholic faith and continuation of their charitable mission. They maintain that the state is effectively demanding that they abandon core religious teachings on sex, marriage, and the human person as the price of caring for the dying poor.
We are consecrated religious Sisters and have one mission, Mother Marie Edward, O.P., told Fox News Digital in a statement. It is to provide comfort and skilled care to persons dying of cancer who cannot afford nursing care. We do not take insurance or government funds or money from our patients or families. The care is totally free. She added that, We are supported by the goodness of our benefactors, and emphasized, We do this without discriminating on the basis of race, religion, or sex. We do it because Jesus taught us that, when the least among us are sick, we should care for them, as if they were Christ himself.
Mother Marie Edward further explained to Fox News Digital that the states demands strike at the heart of their religious identity and their ability to speak truthfully about human nature. She warned that New Yorks gender ideology mandates not only violate our Catholic values, they threaten our existence with fines, injunctions, license revocation, and even jail time. This is why we were forced to go to court to seek protection of our religious exercise and freedom of speech so that we can continue our ministry to the poor.
The Catholic Benefits Association (CBA), which is assisting the sisters in seeking relief in federal court, has laid out the stakes in stark terms. It noted that 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. But if they do not comply with the States transgender mandate, the sisters face fines, court orders, potential loss of licensing, and jail time.
The first formal warning arrived on March 18, 2024, when the New York State Department of Health sent Rosary Hill Home the initial Dear Administrator letter. That correspondence not only listed the states demands but also included a training curriculum requiring the sisters to align both patient care and staff formation with the states gender ideology, effectively compelling them to teach and practice principles that contradict Catholic doctrine.
Mother Marie Edward, General Superior of the Hawthorne Dominicans, said the sisters initial reaction was one of sorrow and disbelief at the states hostility toward their work. 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 Yorks mandate without violating our Catholic faith, she explained.
Under the mandate, Rosary Hill Home and similar facilities would be required to house biological men in womens rooms even over the objections of female roommates, and to allow residents and visitors of one sex to use bathrooms designated for the opposite sex. The law also obliges staff to use false pronouns, to adopt language and create communities that affirm patients sexual preferences, and to accommodate requests for extramarital sexual relations, while mandating staff training in cultural competency as defined by the states gender ideology.
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and Rosary Hill Home, as members of the Catholic Benefits Association, sought a peaceful resolution before turning to the courts. Through legal counsel provided by the CBA, they formally requested an exemption from the Department of Health, arguing that the mandates infringe on their Catholic values, burden their religious exercise, and violate their free-speech rights by compelling them to endorse concepts they believe to be false.
When two weeks passed without any response from the state to their exemption request, the sisters concluded that New York had no intention of respecting their conscience rights. On April 6, 2026, the Hawthorne Dominicans filed a federal lawsuit seeking protection for their religious freedom and the continuation of their ministry to the sick poor, a move that underscores how far the state is willing to go to enforce ideological conformity.
Their attorney, Martin Nussbaum of the First & Fourteenth law firm, underscored the discriminatory nature of the laws limited religious carve-outs. He noted that this was especially disappointing because New Yorks 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.
For the sisters, the fight is not about politics but about fidelity to the charge handed down by their foundress, Mother Alphonsa Hawthorne, and the Gospel they profess. Sister Stella Mary, 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.
Their case now stands as a test of whether New York will recognize that genuine pluralism requires room for religious institutions to live out their beliefs, especially when they serve the most vulnerable at no cost to the public. For conservatives and defenders of religious liberty, the sisters stand highlights a broader concern: that an ever-expanding progressive agenda is willing to sacrifice both charity and common sense on the altar of ideological uniformity.
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