Benedictine sisters join challenge to New York gender-identity rules for care facilities
Caroline MolloyThe Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict and St. Joseph’s Home for the Aged have joined litigation challenging New York requirements for long-term care facilities concerning gender identity and sexual orientation.
The sisters operate a Catholic assisted-living facility in Huntington, New York. They say provisions governing room assignments, restroom access, pronouns and staff training conflict with Catholic teaching and burden their religious exercise.
The broader challenge was initially brought by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who operate Rosary Hill Home, a skilled nursing facility that provides palliative care to low-income patients with incurable cancer.
New York’s long-term-care law includes protections for residents based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Among the challenged requirements are provisions involving room assignments and restroom access based on gender identity, the use of requested names and pronouns, and cultural-competency training.
The plaintiffs argue that the state provides some accommodations based on secular professional judgments while not providing comparable protection for their religious objections. New York officials are defending the law.
The U.S. Department of Justice notified the federal court in June that it intended to intervene in the Dominican Sisters’ case, saying the dispute raised equal-protection issues of general public importance.
