DOJ Backs Catholic Nuns Fighting New York Law Requiring Biological Men to Be Housed with Women in Hospice Care

The Trump Justice Department has stepped into a major religious liberty battle, backing an order of Catholic nuns challenging a New York law that would force them to house biological men with female patients in their residential hospice facility.

As The Gateway Pundit reported in April 2026, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, a 125-year-old order of Catholic nuns, were forced to sue radical New York Governor Kathy Hochul and her administration after the state threatened them with fines, license revocation, and even jail time for refusing to house biological men identifying as women in rooms with terminally ill female cancer patients at their free Rosary Hill Home hospice.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Governor Kathy Hochul and the state Department of Health.

The law, the LGBTQ Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights, requires nursing homes to assign patient rooms based on gender identity even over a roommate’s objection, use preferred pronouns including when the patient is not present, allow restroom access based on gender identity, and post public notices of compliance.

The Sisters argue that the state’s transgender accommodation mandate violates their constitutional rights and threatens their ability to continue their century-old mission of caring for the dying poor.

The state sent the sisters three “Dear Administrator Letters” in March 2024, October 2024, and January 2025, notifying them of their obligation to comply. The sisters stated they have not complied, and do not intend to.

The law applies to all licensed nursing homes in New York State, with the trigger being the state license to operate rather than the receipt of state funding. Courts have generally allowed the government to attach conditions to public funding, but applying mandates to private religious organizations that take no public funds is a significantly harder legal argument for the state, and more likely to be seen as direct infringement on religious freedom and free speech. New York granted an exemption to facilities run by the Church of Christ, Scientist, but not to Catholic institutions.

On Thursday, the Department of Justice notified a federal court that it intends to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne against the State of New York.

“States should take notice that they cannot require Americans to abandon their religious beliefs in the name of woke gender ideology,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division declared.

“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.”

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NYC Democrat Socialist Candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier Wants to ABOLISH Prisons and OPEN America’s Borders — Deletes Thousands of Radical Tweets Before Tuesday’s Primary

The far-left challenger backed by NYC’s Communist Mayor Zohran Mamdani tried to scrub her record, but the receipts are devastating.

New York’s 13th Congressional District heads to the polls tomorrow in a Democratic primary that could hand a radical open-borders, abolish-prisons extremist a major platform in Congress.

Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old democratic socialist and Justice Democrats-backed organizer, is challenging longtime Rep. Adriano Espaillat.

She’s been endorsed by far-left NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and has positioned herself as the future of the Democrat Party in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx.

But newly uncovered deleted tweets from her old account (@darializabonet) — over 3,600 posts and reposts from 2018 to 2022 — reveal exactly who she really is.

In September 2021, she reposted this gem:

“A world without borders—just like a world without prisons or police—is possible, necessary, and the only moral way forward.”

She also amplified calls to “literally, abolish the border” and declared that “all deportation is wrong.”

She pushed for zero deportations and full open borders while the rest of the country was already suffering under Biden-era chaos.

During the 2020 riots, she doubled down on abolishing police entirely:

“F**k you. We’re gonna defund and abolish. You don’t get to water down our movements.”

And:

“No. It means ending policing full stop. Period. No more police at all ever.”

Other deleted posts praised seizing private property from landlords, nationalizing industries, and openly flirted with communism.

When confronted, Chevalier claimed the posts “did not reflect who she is today.” Too late. The mask is off.

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Drag Queen School Board Member Arrested For Child Sex Crimes Was Guest Speaker at Pennsylvania Democrat Caucus in 2024

The perfect Democrat.

New York State Police arrested a drag queen school board member on Thursday for child sex crimes.

46-year-old Travis Longo, who goes by the stage name “Anita Buffem,” was arrested and charged with four counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

According to police, Longo engaged in sexually explicit communications with a child under the age of 12.

Longo was elected vice president of the Board of Education for the Cazenovia Central School District in 2024 – and is STILL a member.

“Anita Buffem” was previously a guest speaker at the Pennsylvania Democrat Caucus in 2024.

Of course he was.

“The arrest was the result of a joint investigation conducted by members of the Troop D Bureau of Criminal Investigation (Oneida), the State Police Computer Crime Unit (Troop D), the New York State Police Special Investigations Unit, and the Madison County Child Advocacy Center,” New York State Police said in a press release.

“Investigators determined that Longo engaged in a pattern of sexually explicit communications with a child under the age of 12,” police said.

Police said there may be more victims and encouraged them to contact authorities.

“Investigators believe there may be additional victims who were contacted by Longo and ask anyone with information to contact the New York State Police at Troop D Headquarters at (315) 366-6000 and reference case number NY2600762245,” Police said.

Longo bragged about his speaking gig at the 2024 Pennsylvania Democrat Caucus.

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NY Pride Group Disbands After Drag Queen Founder – A School Board Member – Arrested On Child Sexting Charges

A New York LGBTQ+ advocacy group has canceled a scheduled pride parade and disbanded after its founder was arrested on child-sexting charges

Travis J. Longo, 46, of Cazenovia – a drag queen and a member of the Cazenovia School District Board of Education (of course), was arrested on Thursday and charged with four counts of endangering the welfare of a child after allegedly sending sexually explicit communications to a child under the age of 12. 

In a now-deleted Facebook post, the group Longo founded, Cazenova Pride Inc., announced that it is “canceling this year’s Pride Festival and all associated events, and we are dissolving as an organization.” 

“This decision follows serious criminal charges against Travis Longo, the founder of Cazenovia Pride Fest and a longtime figure in our organization,” the post continues. “Travis Longo has no further affiliation with Cazenovia Pride Inc.”

Longo, who reportedly performed as a drag queen under the name “Anita Buffem,” was listed as a “hostess” at the first Pride festival in Cazenovia in 2021, which was organized by Pride Cazenovia, The Blaze reports.

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Illegal Alien Who Raped the Body of a Dead Man for 30 Minutes on NYC Subway Learns His Fate

A convicted illegal immigrant who sexually violated the corpse of a dead man on a New York City subway train for more than 30 minutes has been sentenced to five years in prison.

The disgusting case shocked New Yorkers and much of the country when details were first reported last year.

Now, Mexican national Felix Rojas, 44, knows his punishment.

According to the New York Post, a Manhattan judge sentenced Rojas on Wednesday to five years in prison for raping and robbing the body of Jorge Gonzalez, 37, aboard a train in April 2025.

Rojas reportedly sat silently during the sentencing hearing and made no comments.

The facts of the case are difficult to read. Prosecutors said Gonzalez boarded the train and later lost consciousness.

He died on a subway bench nearly three hours before Rojas arrived.

Instead of calling an ambulance or asking for help, Rojas chose a darker path.

According to prosecutors, he first noticed Gonzalez was motionless and then began touching and searching the dead man’s body.

He eventually pulled down Gonzalez’s pants and raped his corpse.

Court records cited by the Post said Rojas searched Gonzalez’s pockets and belongings throughout the assault.

According to the district attorney’s office, Rojas periodically stopped his deviant activities whenever the train approached stations or when other passengers entered the car.

When people boarded, he would sit down and pretend nothing was happening.

Prosecutors said the assault continued, and at one point, Rojas moved his victim onto the floor.

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Trucking Group Asks Federal Court To Strip New York, California Of CDL Authority

The Small Business in Transportation Coalition (SBTC) has filed a court petition seeking to force federal regulators to decertify the commercial driver’s license programs of New York and California.

The petition, filed June 10, asks the court to review actions by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation and order the agencies to revoke the authority of New York and California to issue CDLs, escalating a dispute over immigration-related licensing policies and English-language proficiency requirements for commercial drivers.

SBTC argues that FMCSA has already determined both states were in “substantial noncompliance” with federal CDL regulations and therefore must be decertified under federal law. The organization contends that federal statutes require the transportation secretary to prohibit a state from issuing CDLs once such a determination is made.

The filing, made in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, specifically challenges FMCSA’s April 16 final determination regarding New York and also seeks relief related to a Jan. 7 determination involving California.

SBTC alleges the agency improperly failed to act on a petition it submitted in May 2025 requesting decertification orders against several states, including New York and California.

Virginia crash cited in petition

The lawsuit comes less than two weeks after a fatal bus crash on Interstate 95 in Virginia that killed five people and injured dozens more.

According to the court filing, SBTC points to the May 29 crash as evidence that stronger enforcement of federal licensing standards is needed. The organization alleges the bus driver involved held a New York-issued CDL despite concerns about English-language proficiency.

The crash involved a bus operated by E&P Travel Inc. Federal investigators are examining the company’s connections to a broader network of bus operators in the Northeast, according to CBS News. The driver, identified by CBS News as Jing S. Dong of Staten Island, New York, faces five felony involuntary manslaughter charges.

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Serial killer Rex Heuermann sentenced to life in prison for murdering 8 women in Gilgo Beach killings

After pleading guilty to discreetly murdering eight women over 17 years in Long Island, Rex Heuermann has been sentenced to life in prison, marking the end of one of the largest serial homicide cases in New York history.

The lengthy investigation first began in 2010 during the search for Shannan Gilbert, who vanished from her home in Oak Beach. During the search, authorities discovered the remains of four other women along Ocean Parkway. In 2011, remains from more women were found, expanding the investigation into the closely watched and long-awaited criminal case.

The serial murders, which became the subject of numerous true-crime documentaries, books and podcasts, captivated public attention for years before the 62-year-old confessed in April to carrying out the nearly two-decade killing spree.

“Eight young women were aimlessly and brutually murdered,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said before the sentences were given. “The defendant has earned a maximum sentence in this case.”

After years of dead ends and investigative setbacks, the case remained unsolved until July 2023, when Heuermann was arrested in Manhattan and charged in the killings of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello. Prosecutors later broadened the case to include additional victims, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Sandra Costilla.

“There are no words I can say, but I am responsible for what was said in this room today,” Heuermann said on Wednesday, adding that, “The words I would say have no meaning and I’m going to leave it there at this time.”

Heuermann pleaded guilty in April to charges that he murdered seven women.

Under a plea deal, he also admitted responsibility for the killing of Karen Vergata in 1996, though he was not formally charged with her murder and did not receive a sentence for it.

After decades of waiting for justice, relatives of the women murdered by Heuermann faced the killer on Wednesday, berating him for his horrific crimes.

“You fill me with so much repugnance, I can’t stand it,” Jasmine Robinson, a cousin of Taylor’s, told Heuermann. “A million years isn’t enough. Nothing will ever make this right.”

JoAnn Mack, the mother of victim Valerie Mack told the killer, “Justice has been done, but it can’t replace what has been taken. She had dreams, and you took them all away from her.”

Heuermann had previously pleaded not guilty to all charges. However, extensive DNA evidence, cell phone records and other forensic findings led investigators to link him to all the victims.

Judge Timothy Mazzei did not attempt to conceal his disgust as he faced the killer in court.

“Mr. Hueurmann, as Mr. Tierney said, I know that you’re sorry that you got caught,” he said, referencing a comment from Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A Tierney. “I assume that you’re sorry for what you’ve done to your wife and children. Are you a little bit sorry for what you did to these poor innocent women? Eight women that you strangled to death, at least that we know of — are you at least a little bit sorry for that? Yes?”

When Hueurmann answered in the affirmative, Mazzei continued, “You’ve been described as a very big man, but you’re a disgusting and despicable small man, if you’re a man at all. And you’re a coward!”

After delivering multiple life sentences, Mazzei told court officers to “get him out of here.”

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The Wish List Of The New York City Council For The City Budget

The deadline for the New York City deadline for the first budget negotiation cycle is looming for June 30, 2026. The elephant in the china shop is how to close the city’s budget gap projected to reach into the multi-billions of dollars. Thanks to Albany’s bailout which mitigated the impending financial disaster, Mayor Zhoran Mamdani was able to avoid raising property taxes. Nonetheless, the City Council giddily advocates significant NEW spending initiatives. Taxpayers from New York State have facilitated Mamdani’s proposing a $124.7 billion dollar executive budget.

Will the Big Apple expand its Rental Voucher program? Currently the 2023 eligibility rules are in force, although some council members desire an expansion. The mayor already campaigned on expansion but dropped that promise when he realized the prohibitive costs. Any expansion would necessarily exceed the current almost $1.8 billion budget. This contentious issue promises to be a potential sticking point in budget negotiations.

Low income public transportation riders already enjoy a 50% discount, but some council members are proposing up to $135 Million dollar more to make those fares free. Were this initiative to be passed the standing $96 Million dollar would double. However, the IBO (Independent Budget Office) underscores that a Fair Fare expansion would still be cheaper than “Fast and Free” buses.

In what seems to many as counterintuitive, the council, charged with living within budget constraints, still envisions staff increases rather than staff reductions which would add $32 Million over the next three years.

In a point of contention, Mayor Mamdani had initially proposed to cut 100 positions for Parks Enforcement Patrol officers. The council, on the other hand, desires to employ 200 new officers which would raise the budget allocation by about $40 Million.

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Radical Woke Mount Sinai Hospital Exposed: DEI, Child Sex Changes & Epstein Ties Prioritized Over Patients

Consumer protection organization Consumers’ Research began a campaign Monday highlighting New York City-based nonprofit Mount Sinai Hospital‘s prioritization of what Consumers’ calls the hospital’s woke and political ideology as well as having what it says are questionable partnerships such as ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Executive director of Consumers’ Research Will Hild told The Center Square that “Mount Sinai is another example of a nonprofit hospital that has seemingly abandoned its core mission of patient care in favor of a radical political agenda.”

“The hospital has a history of prioritizing radical causes like DEI, child sex-change procedures, and climate activism, and has maintained a deeply troubling and disturbing relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, accepting donations and giving him special access to doctors and hospital resources,” Hild said.

“This behavior by nonprofit health systems like Mount Sinai should be investigated for supporting these political agendas at taxpayers’ expense,” Hild said.

Hild told The Center Square that “Consumers’ Research is exposing nonprofit hospitals for using taxpayer dollars and federal revenue streams and benefits to put politics over patients.”

Taxpayers and elected officials need to be aware that health systems are misusing their resources and these practices need to be examined by lawmakers,” Hild said.

Mount Sinai media relations has not yet responded to The Center Square’s request for comment.

Included in Consumers’ Research’s campaign are a mobile billboard circling the Mount Sinai campus, a website, and “targeted digital around Capitol Hill.”

The mobile billboard displays statements such as Mount Sinai “performed over 130 sex change procedures on kids,” “provides transgender resources for 8-year-olds,” and has ties to Epstein.

Consumers’ Research’s website campaign goes further in depth, showcasing the hospital’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, transgender ideology promotion, climate activism and “questionable partnerships.”

According to the campaign, Mount Sinai operates an Office for Health Data, Outcomes, and Engagement Strategy “to promote health equity cultural awareness.”

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Gonorrhea Rates Are Soaring In NYC: Mamdani Rushes Free Chocolate Condoms To Citizens Of Big Apple!

So what’s the priority of New York City’s Mamdani administration these days?

FrontPage Magazine reported:

Gonorrhea rates in New York City have more than doubled in a decade and syphilis is ‘surging’ statewide. Mamdani’s Department of Health has responded to this crisis by rushing a free supply of lubricant and chocolate flavored condoms.

Beam me up, Scotty.

FPM quoted NYC Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Helen Arteaga as stating,

“Providing high-quality sexual and reproductive healthcare services is a priority for the Mamdani Administration. Making safer sex products more accessible to the most affected and vulnerable communities is a critical public health need.”

Well, it’s good to have priorities. But are chocolate-flavored condoms safer than regular old garden-variety ones? I’m guessing not, but I couldn’t tell you from experience.

FPM again:

Councilwoman Pierina Sanchez, a Mamdani ally, explained that the free chocolate flavored condoms were necessary because “inequities persist among women, low-income households, and Black and Latino New Yorkers.

Women, low-income households, and black and Latino New Yorkers are adversely and disproportionately affected by a relative dearth of chocolate-flavored condoms? Is New York a den of iniquity inequity?

Unfortunately for virtue-signaling do-gooders, the free chocolaty condoms are coming from Karex, a Malaysian company that is apparently the largest manufacturer of condoms on Earth.

Why is this unfortunate?

According to The Telegraph, some Karex workers said they are put up in cramped and undignified conditions, with as many as a dozen housed in damp and unhygienic dormitories.

Workers at one site are allegedly granted just half of a steel bunkbed, with no mattress — and only have access to a filthy, broken toilet. And for these “amenities,” about 12 dollars a month is deducted from their wages. The Telegraph reported that one Karex employee said “sometimes poisonous snakes come in” to the dorms.

Not sure if that’s a blessing or a curse.

“Forget the crime! Forget the fact that the city is broke! Chocolate condoms for everybody!” does not seem like a winning slogan for Mamdani … but what do I know?

Ask not what you can do for the city, ask what Mayor Mamdani can do to — I mean for — you!”

I’m sure someone in the Mamdani administration will tout the mayor’s actions thusly: “These delectable prophylactics will be generously distributed, free of cost, to all genders with a penis … and to all those that love them! Mayor Mamdani is hard at work to make your lives better!”

Considering the shape the city is in, this may be the biggest cover up in the history of the Big Apple.

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