For 125 years, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne have cared for the dying poor – free of charge, no insurance, no government money.
Now Kathy Hochul's government is threatening to put them in jail.
What they're being threatened with will make your blood boil.
Catholic Nuns Face Fines and Jail Time Over New York Transgender Mandate
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne run Rosary Hill Home in Westchester County – a 42-bed skilled nursing facility serving poor patients dying of cancer.
They accept no insurance, no government money, and no payment of any kind from patients or families.
The care is entirely free, funded by charitable donations.
In four years of state oversight, Rosary Hill Home accumulated zero complaints from residents – compared to an average of 23 citations per facility and more than 55,000 complaints lodged against other New York nursing homes during the same period.
None of that mattered to New York Governor Kathy Hochul's Department of Health.
Starting in March 2024, state officials sent a series of "Dear Administrator" letters to Rosary Hill Home demanding compliance with the gender identity section of the Long-Term Care Facility Residents' Bill of Rights – a 2023 law Hochul signed with almost no public debate.
The law requires nursing homes to assign rooms based on a resident's self-identified gender, not biological sex – even over a roommate's objection.
Staff must use preferred pronouns for every resident – even when that resident isn't in the room.
The law also forces facilities to permit sexual relationships among residents, with no exceptions for religious or moral objections, and requires all staff to complete "cultural competency training" in gender ideology every two years.
Failure to comply triggers fines up to $2,000 for a first offense, $5,000 for repeat violations, and up to $10,000 or one year in prison for willful violations.
The Dominican Sisters asked for a religious exemption on March 5, 2026.
After two weeks with no response from the state, they filed suit in federal court on April 6.
New York Gave Christian Scientists a Religious Exemption and Denied It to Catholics
The same law that threatens nuns with jail time contains a religious exemption – but only for facilities affiliated with the Church of Christ, Scientist.
Not Catholics.
Not any other Christian denomination.
Just Christian Scientists – who, by their theology, don't even believe in conventional medical care.
The Sisters' attorney, Martin Nussbaum of the First & Fourteenth law firm, called it out: "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."
Mother Marie Edward, General Superior of the Hawthorne Dominicans, was blunt in her own statement: "New York's gender ideology mandates not only violate our Catholic values, they threaten our existence with fines, injunctions, license revocation, and even jail time."
Democrats Targeted the Little Sisters of the Poor for a Decade and Now They Are Coming for These Nuns
This is not the first time the Left has aimed its regulatory machinery at Catholic religious sisters caring for the poor and dying.
The Little Sisters of the Poor spent more than a decade in federal court after the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act required their health plans to cover abortion-inducing drugs – or face ruinous fines.
The Little Sisters won at the Supreme Court twice – in 2016 and again in 2020 – yet Democrat-controlled states continued pursuing them in lower courts.
Democrats have run this play before: find a religious order that serves everyone without discrimination, target them with a mandate their faith prohibits, deny the religious exemption, and drag them into court.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 2025's Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin that states cannot strip religious exemptions simply because a ministry serves people of all faiths.
New York courts previously ignored a similar Supreme Court instruction after Fulton v. City of Philadelphia in 2021, declaring it inapplicable.
Hochul signed the nursing home gender mandate with near-unanimous Democrat votes – 144 to 2 in the Assembly, 55 to 7 in the Senate – with no public hearings and no discussion of religious liberty implications.
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne have no intention of complying.
Their lawsuit states plainly they "have not complied and do not intend to comply."
Whatever a federal judge decides, Hochul has already revealed what her administration believes: a century of free care for the dying means nothing when radical gender ideology demands submission.
Sources:
- Martin Nussbaum / Catholic Benefits Association, "New York Requires Nuns Serving Dying Cancer Patients to Use Gender Ideology," Catholic Benefits Association Press Release, April 6, 2026.
- Tyler O'Neil, "Catholic nuns serving dying patients fight New York transgender mandate on pronouns, rooming," The Washington Times, April 7, 2026.
- Derek VanBuskirk, "Catholic Nuns Again Forced To Defend Themselves In Court From Godless Liberals," The Daily Caller, April 8, 2026.
- "Nuns Sue New York, Say Its 'Transgender Rights' Law Violates the First Amendment," PJ Media, April 8, 2026.
- "Catholic nuns sue New York over trans nursing home law, face jail time," Fox News, April 12, 2026.
- "Supreme Court instructs New York to uphold religious liberty," The Christian Index, June 17, 2025.
