A transgender woman who claims a hospital refused to allow her breast enlargement surgery because it wasn't "God's will" is suing a Catholic hospital, according to a report.
Charlene Hastings, 57, who has already had one major surgery to become a woman claims Seton Medical Center denied her request because she had a sex-change operation. Hastings says the hospital wouldn't allow her plastic surgeon to operate on a transgender person at that facility.
Seton Medical Center says the requested surgery violates Catholic teaching and it is following hospital policy in refusing Hastings' surgery.
Hastings filed a discrimination suit Dec. 21 in San Francisco Superior Court.
Click here to read the report in The Oakland Tribune.
The hospital cites police in refusing the surgery, according to a spokeswoman for Daughters of Charity Health System, which operates the hospital.
Christopher Dolan, Hastings' attorney, told the Oakland Tribune that "this is a civil rights story."
"It is about transgender people being able to use businesses and other facilities on an equal basis as other people," Dolan said. "If you took out 'transgender' in the lawsuit and replaced it with 'African-American,' this would be a no-brainer."
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