The state of New York has adopted some religious beliefs that are not shared by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne: that men can become women by saying they think they are women.

That belief, debunked by science, is part of the pro-transgender agenda adopted by officials in the state, who are in a position of power and have been trying to force their beliefs on the religious order.

But now the federal government has announced it is joining the Sisters in their lawsuit against the state.

A report at Lifesitenews explains the Department of Justice has told a federal court it will intervene in the Dominican Sisters’ lawsuit against the state.

The religious order contends that the New York law violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection of religious groups.

It’s the state that has claimed the force of law behind its “Bill of Rights for Long-Term Care Facility Residents who are LGBTQ or Living with HIV.”

Under that agenda, state officials are demanding that the sisters used “preferred” pronouns and assign men who say they are women to share rooms with women, all in violation of their Catholic faith.

The alternative presented by the state for the Sisters is fines, court orders, loss of licensing and jail.

It’s all over the practices the Catholics use at Rosary Hill Home, a 42-bed facility, where the state demands men be placed in rooms with women.

“States should take notice that they cannot require Americans to abandon their religious beliefs in the name of woke gender ideology,” charged Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general.

“For more than a century, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne have provided free palliative care to indigent cancer patients in their last days. New York’s law would force these religious women to choose between their faith and their license if they wish to continue serving the dying,” said Dhillon.

The DOJ’s entrance to the case explains, “Catholic teaching holds that biological sex is God-given and cannot be morally changed, and that identifying a person by another sex is religiously prohibited lying. Consistent with that teaching, Rosary Hill houses patients in single-sex rooms based on patients’ biological sex, refers to patients by pronouns reflecting their biological sex, and performs ‘very personal acts of care such as painting women’s fingernails, combing their hair, changing them into fresh nightgowns, and arranging flowers in their rooms.'”

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.