Exclusive | Blakeman accuses Hochul of anti-Catholic bigotry over LBGTQ law that would force hospice nuns to violate their beliefs

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman is accusing Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul of religious bigotry for enforcing a transgender rights law she approved that is forcing Catholic nuns who run a hospice program to choose between their beliefs or caring for indigent, terminally ill patients.The controversy concerns the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne in Westchester County who run Rosary Hill Home — a Catholic hospice for the poor.The order filed a federal lawsuit accusing the state of violating their constitutional rights with a 2024 law that requires the facility to affirm patients’ gender identity in regard to pronouns, room assignments and restroom usage.The law bars nursing or long-term care facilities from discriminating against any resident based on the resident’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or HIV status.But the Trump Justice Department recently intervened in the case on behalf of the Dominican Sisters, claiming New York is engaged in religious discrimination at the 42-bed hospice care facility.“What Kathy Hochul is doing to the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne is an absolute disgrace.For over 120 years, these incredible women have done God’s work, providing unconditional love, comfort, and dignity to people in their final days,” Blakeman told The Post.“They are saints walking among us, and they represent the absolute best of New York.

Yet, Kathy Hochul is actually willing to shut them down, strip away their license, and throw terminal cancer patients out on the street—all to enforce her woke garbage.”Blakeman said Hochul, who is Catholic, “would rather leave dying people without care than allow Catholic nuns to practice their faith.”“Forcing these sisters to destroy the privacy of dying women by putting biological men in their rooms is sick, un-American, and a total war on common sense.I am drawing a line in the sand right now: this radical gender nonsense ends the second I become...