“Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, a leading figure in the field of transgender procedures for minors, is facing a landmark lawsuit filed by a female detransitioner who says she has been permanently harmed by treatment given to her before she even became a teenager,” reports the Washington Examiner.
The patient bringing the lawsuit is Clementine Breen, a 20-year-old biological woman from California who was given a double mastectomy at age 14 after being placed on puberty blockers at age 12. She describes experiencing irreversible harm as a result of rushed medical treatments pursuant to Olson-Kennedy’s advice.
“She was a vulnerable child suffering from untreated PTSD from traumatic events in her childhood,” says her court complaint filed in Los Angeles. “Consequently, she detransitioned and no longer identifies as a male. But the damage has been done, and it is profound.”
As The Examiner notes,
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, raises questions about the ethics of transitioning minors without comprehensive psychological evaluations and could have significant implications for medical practitioners in this field. It also comes on the heels of Supreme Court arguments on Wednesday in United States v. Skrmetti, in which the Biden administration sought to preempt Tennessee from barring minors from undergoing cross-sex hormone and puberty-blocking treatments, as well as surgeries.
Breen alleges that Olson-Kennedy fast-tracked her into medical transition at the age of 12, despite a lack of clarity about her identity. After a brief school counseling session in which Breen expressed confusion about her gender and sexuality, her parents were referred to Olson-Kennedy at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Within three months, Breen was placed on puberty blockers. By 13, she was prescribed testosterone, and at 14, she underwent a double mastectomy.
The lawsuit furthers that Olson-Kennedy pressured Breen’s parents into consenting by warning them that Breen might die by suicide without these interventions. Breen disputes this, stating she had never expressed suicidal ideation.
One of America’s most prominent gender doctors, Dr. Olson-Kennedy has “disclosed how she speaks with parents of gender dysphoric patients: ‘We often ask parents, “Would you rather have a dead son than a live daughter?”’”
That’s deceptive of her, to falsely claim that transitioning children is needed to prevent them from committing suicide. Even a leading advocate of child sex-changes recently admitted to the Supreme Court that claim is not true. That advocate conceded to the Supreme Court that “completed suicide is thankfully and admittedly rare” among transgender youth, even those not given puberty blockers or other “gender-affirming” treatment, and that “there is no evidence…that this treatment reduces completed suicide.”
Yet the parents of transgender teens are routinely — and falsely — told by “gender-affirming” doctors that they need to put their kid on puberty blockers and on the road to sex-change surgery, because otherwise, their teen will commit suicide. The most famous transgender teen, Jazz Jennings, had a penis surgically removed at age 17, after being put on puberty blockers at age 11. By 2023, Jazz was miserable, and said “I don’t feel like me, ever.” Healthcare providers falsely suggested that a sex change would make Jazz happy, and falsely told Jazz’s mother that Jazz was at risk for suicide if she didn’t allow Jazz to transition. “Do you want a live daughter or a dead son?,” they said.
At least 225 hospitals have provided irreversible transgender procedures to kids, and at least 6,000 kids have had transgender surgeries, according to insurance-claims data unearthed by the medical non-profit Do No Harm.
Parents should not be pressured into getting their kids a sex change based on false claims that the kid will commit suicide if they don’t get a sex change. Sex-change procedures come with serious side effects than can leave transgender people with lifelong pain and discomfort, as a transgender activist conceded in a New York Times op-ed, “My New Vagina Won’t Make Me Happy.” That’s because of the physical pain and discomfort that result from a sex change, and the artificial, subpar nature of the sex organ that doctors create in sex-change surgery. As Andrea Long Chu wrote in that op-ed:
Next Thursday, I will get a vagina. The procedure will last around six hours, and I will be in recovery for at least three months. Until the day I die, my body will regard the vagina as a wound; as a result, it will require regular, painful attention to maintain. This is what I want, but there is no guarantee it will make me happier. In fact, I don’t expect it to.
A gender transition can result in a lifetime of pain, discomfort, and medications, such as hormone therapy. As Britain’s National Health Service explains, hormones “need to be taken for the rest of your life, even if you have gender surgery.” The FDA notes that puberty blockers can cause brain swelling and vision loss, and an FDA official who supported giving minors puberty blockers conceded that they actually increase suicidality. Indeed, the “FDA knew ‘gender affirming’ puberty blockers increase ‘suicidality’ in 2017,” reported Just the News.
95% of young transgender people on testosterone develop pelvic floor dysfunction; most have bowel issues and sexual dysfunction. As the Telegraph reported, “Around 87 per cent…had urinary symptoms such as incontinence, frequent toilet visits and bed-wetting, while 74 per cent had bowel issues including constipation or being unable to hold stools or wind in. Some 53 per cent suffered from sexual dysfunction…Almost half had an ‘orgasm disorder’, while a quarter suffered from pain during sexual intercourse.”
