Calif. appeals court says Catholic hospital can be sued for refusing to sterilize transgender male
A California Court of Appeal has struck down a trial court ruling in favor of a Catholic hospital sued for not performing a sterilization procedure on a transgender individual for religious reasons.
In 2017, a transgender male named Evan Minton filed a complaint against Dignity Health, whose hospital Mercy San Juan Medical Center refused on religious grounds to perform an elective hysterectomy as part of a gender reassignment.
Presiding Justice Stuart Pollak of the Court of Appeals of California, First District, Division Four authored the opinion, which was released last week and reversed an earlier trial court decision and remanded the case for further proceedings.
Justice Pollak agreed with the plaintiff that Dignity Health’s refusal to perform the surgery likely violated California’s civil rights law, known as the Unruh Act....