Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth, for the Colson Center. I'm John Stone Street. When she was only 16 years old, the healthy breasts of Fox Varian were removed by a surgeon by recommendation of a psychologist. On Friday, a jury found these two medical professionals guilty of malpractice. and awarded Fox a settlement of $2 million, $1.6 million for past and future suffering, and an additional $400,000 for future medical expenses.
Like the majority of young people who are confused in their bodies during adolescence, Fox has now embraced her female body and her identity as a woman. She's one of a growing number of detransitioners, a group of people that we were assured just a few years ago did not exist.
Now, to be clear, the jury did not rule against the therapies, medications, and surgeries that are used in so-called transgender medicine. Rather, they ruled that these doctors failed Fox in this circumstance. Even so, the verdict will encourage and enable many other cases like it to proceed. According to the New York Post, there are 28 detransitioner lawsuits already in process across the United States. Also, the size of the financial penalty in this case should push even more medical professionals and institutions away from experimenting on the bodies of children.
In fact, there are three features of Fox's case that make it typical of so many others. First, Fox had serious and obvious mental health comorbidities as a teenager that were ignored and left untreated. Here's how Benjamin Ryan described it in the Free Press. Quote, Fox Varian had a turbulent childhood. Her parents split when she was seven, triggering a three-year custody battle that ultimately saw her estranged from her father.
She suffered from a constellation of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and social phobia. She was diagnosed with autism, bounced around various schools. Her first period sent her into a meltdown, and she battled disordered eating and body image issues. By mid-adolescence, she was completely lost. End quote.
And yet, her doctors allowed Varian to self-diagnose, encouraged her to question her gender and change her name and appearance. The second aspect of Fox's situation that is common to so many other stories, such as that of Chloe Cole, is just how quickly she was fast-tracked into these therapies and surgery that left her with permanent physical harm. According to Varian's lawyers, It was Kenneth Einhorn, the psychologist who, quote, drove the train and put the idea in her head that she needed to change her gender with surgery. What is now clear, especially from leaked emails from WPATH doctors, the self-appointed so-called experts in what was wrongly called gender-affirming care, is just how proven these treatments were known to be. Essentially, there were doctors and medical personnel who wanted to experiment on children and effectively convinced many other medical professionals that the so-called science behind these innovative so-called treatments were so-called settled.
But even worse is how they convinced parents. More accurately, and this is the third aspect of this particular trial that seems to be so common to almost every other case involving a minor. Is how parents were emotionally blackmailed, frightened to give consent. During the trial, as the New York Post reported, quote, Varian's mother, Claire Deacon, testified that she was against the surgery, but consented to it out of fear that her daughter would commit suicide. Horrifically, there are thousands of parents who have been manipulated this way, asked questions like, would you rather have a living son or a dead daughter?
Either implying or outright stating that any parent who did not affirm their child's new identity would somehow be responsible for their inevitable suicide. Even with this ruling, it would be premature to think that the days of being force-fed gender ideology from nearly every arena of culture are over. After all, 19 states and the District of Columbia have sued the Department of Health and Human Services over the Trump-era policy to restrict harmful and experimental gender treatment on minors. Still, verdicts like this one and New York of all places should embolden healthcare professionals and parents alike to reject gender ideology wholecloth. especially when it comes to protecting children.
Every single doctor, hospital, psychologist, and therapist who rushed a child to permanent damage, ignoring obvious and important comorbidities, and threatening parents with the suicide myth. should be found, charged, fined and jailed. And then teachers, administrators, school boards and school counselors should also be scrutinized and exposed for leading children down this destructive and harmful path. Thankfully, there's a law firm that's committed to take on such cases. If you're someone who has detransitioned or if your child was manipulated and harmed in the name of so-called gender-affirming care, contact Campbell, Miller, and Payne.
That's Campbell, Miller, and Payne. To learn about your legal options. The rest of us, especially pastors and ministry leaders, should provide as much support, love, and encouragement as we possibly can. To these children and their families. For the Colson Center on John Stone Street with Breakpoint.
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