A transgender man has filed a federal
lawsuit against a New Jersey hospital over its refusal to perform a
routine hysterectomy procedure.
Jionni Conforti, 33, filed the lawsuit
against St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson on Thursday.
Conforti had scheduled the surgery in
2015 but claims in his suit that he was told by a hospital
administrator that the procedure could not be done because it was a
“Catholic hospital.”
“I felt completely disrespected as a
person,” he
said. “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.”
Conforti is represented by Lambda
Legal.
“No hospital should be allowed to
decide who their patients are, particularly when they receive
government funds. Denying care to someone at their time of need
because of their sex or gender identity is not only dangerous and
humiliating, it’s against the law,” said
Lambda Legal Staff Attorney Omar Gonzalez-Pagan. “In the United
States, one in six hospital beds are in Catholic hospitals. These
health care providers must comply with federal and state
anti-discrimination laws so that the health of LGBT people who walk
through their doors is not endangered.”
Conforti was forced to undergo the
procedure at a different hospital.