NEW YORK (LifeSiteNews) — Dominican Sisters who for over 120 years have provided nursing care for poor patients dying from incurable cancer have been forced to go to court to fight against New York state’s recent transgender mandate requiring them to use “preferred” pronouns and assign rooms based on patients’ chosen “gender identity.”

The mandate, which stems from New York’s so-called “Bill of Rights for Long-Term Care Facility Residents who are LGBTQ or Living with HIV,” demands that the sisters violate their Catholic faith in order to avoid fines, court orders, potential loss of licensing, and jail time.

The sisters filed a lawsuit on Monday – The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne v. Hochul – asserting that New York state is violating their rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The shocking mandate demands that the Sisters who run the 42-bed Rosary Hill Home house biological men in women’s rooms even over the opposition of a female roommate, permit residents and their visitors of one sex to access bathrooms set aside for those of the opposite sex, use false pronouns, use language and “create communities” affirming patients’ sexual preferences, and accommodate patients’ desire for extramarital sexual relations.

The mandate further requires the sisters to 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 Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and Rosary Hill Home are directly regulated by the Mandate and have suffered, and will continue to suffer, concrete harm from Defendants’ enforcement of the Mandate,” says their lawsuit against the state. 

“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,” said Mother Marie Edward, General Superior of the Hawthorne Dominicans. 

“We cannot implement New York’s mandate without violating our Catholic faith,” she added. 

The Sisters and Rosary Hill Home accept no payment for their palliative care services, relying instead on their own labor and charitable donations to fulfill their mission, explaining, “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.”

The New York State Department of Health sent the first in a series of “Dear Administrator” letters on March 18, 2024. Through legal counsel provided to them by the Catholic Benefits Association (CBA), the sisters asked the NYS Department of Health for an exemption from the mandates “because they infringe upon their Catholic values, burden their exercise of religion, and compromise their free speech rights,” according to a press statement . 

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 sick poor.

Christian Science facilities exempted, but not the Catholic Church

“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,” noted Martin Nussbaum of the First & Fourteenth law firm, providing legal counsel for the Sisters. 

“The Sisters were left with no choice but to file suit in federal court, and the Catholic Benefits Association has helped them do that,” said Nussbaum.

“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,’” recounted Sister Stella Mary, O.P., Administrator of Rosary Hill.  “We intend to continue honoring this sacred obligation but need relief from the Court to do so.”

“The Catholic Church teaches that all people are created in the image and likeness of God and are thus imbued with human dignity. All persons are therefore to be loved and respected in their human freedom, even if they reject the Church’s teaching on matters of sexual identity and sexual morality,” notes the Sisters’ legal challenge. “The Church consistently affirms the inherent dignity of each and every human person and advocates for the wellbeing of all people, particularly the most vulnerable. People who struggle with their gender identity deserve compassion, sensitivity, and respect.”

LifeSiteNews has reached out to the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne for further comment.