With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, another transgender person has sued a Catholic hospital, accusing it of discrimination because it refused to perform a radical hysterectomy on a woman who wanted to transition from female to male.
This trend of suing religious organizations, which are merely acting in accordance to their beliefs, is a demonstration of how far the transgender lobby, with the help of the ACLU, will go to accuse another organization of discrimination — when it’s actually the one discriminating.
Oliver Knight went to St. Joseph Hospital in California to get a hysterectomy, according to the Los Angeles Times. Knight had already begun the process of transitioning. Knight claims at the last minute, hospital doctors refused to perform the surgery for religious reasons. Then the ACLU filed a lawsuit claiming St. Joseph discriminated against Knight.
The doctor allegedly told Knight that staff at St. Joseph could not perform the surgery because of the hospital’s religious affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church. In the complaint, the hospital said that a hysterectomy for a biological female wanting to transition to male did “not meet [its] parameters for a sterilization.” St. Joseph follows the policies created by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which state that “direct sterilization” is “intrinsically evil.”
In a blog post on the ACLU’s web site, Knight describes the process:
Knight is seeking an unspecified amount in damages for the alleged violation of his rights and the emotional distress he had to endure.
It’s worth noting Knight originally went to St. Joseph claiming that location was best, but there are several other hospitals in that area that offer the same surgeries. In fact, Knight ended up getting the hysterectomy at a hospital just north of St. Joseph.
It’s hard to see why Knight is complaining, let alone filing a lawsuit against St. Joseph, especially since Knight did receive the surgery elsewhere. While it does seem perplexing that hospital staff would have waited until Knight was in a surgical gown before telling their patient the surgery was impossible to perform, per their religious beliefs, it’s unclear if that’s actually what happened.
Furthermore, it’s disingenuous for Knight to claim victim status and pursue monetary damages after demanding a religious hospital and medical personnel aid in the blatant denial of biology and surgeries for nonmedical reasons. It’s simply another form of discrimination. Knight is not a victim because this institution stood up for its beliefs and refused to succumb to demands. The hospital is being attacked for adhering to common Catholic beliefs and treating patients with dignity.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
