TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – A transgender man sued a Roman Catholic hospital Thursday, saying it cited religion in refusing to allow his surgeon to perform a hysterectomy as part of his sex transition.
Jionni Conforti’s sex and gender discrimination lawsuit comes as new regulations hailed as groundbreaking anti-discrimination protections for transgender individuals are under legal attack from religious groups.
Conforti, 33, of Totowa, had scheduled the surgery at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson in 2015. But he alleges in the federal lawsuit that a hospital administrator then told him the procedure to remove his uterus couldn’t be done because it was a “Catholic hospital.”
“I felt completely disrespected,” said Conforti, whose transition began in 2004. “That’s not how any hospital should treat any person regardless of who they are. A hospital is a place where you should feel safe and taken care of. Instead, I felt like I was rejected and humiliated.”
A spokesman for the hospital said he hadn’t yet seen the lawsuit and wasn’t able to comment.