One of the libertarian facets of my conservatarianism is that I don’t much give a damn what adults do to themselves or each other (consensually). I have reasonable doubts about some of the behaviors. I don’t think humans are equipped to manage any number of drugs were they to be made legal (or not illegal) because the impact of such use and likely addiction is not limited to themselves. When other lives are unaffected, I’m too busy to worry about what you’re up to.
Children, on the other hand, should be left the hell alone. Protected from adults who would do them harm. The kids are not capable of making a wide range of decisions, including whether to transition. One side of the political aisle has chosen this as a hill to die on based on a pile of lies that continue to unravel rapidly across the globe. But there’s a fortune being made, which leads to cartels who back politicians to keep their revenue streams open – at the expense of children.
Ending the practice of transitioning minors has increasingly lost favor all over the planet and in dozens of US states, and while lawsuits can take years, their effect can be more immediate.
Johanna Olson-Kennedy is a celebrated child mutilation advocate doing business as one of Mother Earth’s premier young gender medicine clinicians. The patients are young, her – not so much. Olson-Kennedy is part of what has become a transition mill—the rapid mental health assessment (if one even happens) to drugs and surgery pipeline.
But one of her “patients” is suing her for rushing things along, claiming her case was not properly assessed.
Dr Olson-Kennedy is being sued by a former patient, Clementine Breen, who believes that she was harmed precisely by a lack of gatekeeping. And many of Ms Breen’s claims appear to be backed up by Dr Olson-Kennedy’s own patient notes, which Ms Breen and her legal team have shared with The Economist. The medical-negligence lawsuit was filed on December 5th in California.
Ms Breen is a 20-year-old drama student at UCLA whose treatment at Dr Olson-Kennedy’s clinic included puberty blockers at age 12, hormones at 13 and a double mastectomy at 14. She stopped taking testosterone for good about a year ago and then began detransitioning in March. The lawsuit’s defendants are Dr Olson-Kennedy, the gender therapist to whom Dr Olson-Kennedy referred her, the surgeon who performed the double mastectomy and 20 as-yet-unnamed “Doe Individuals” who were agents, servants, and employees of their co-defendants.” Ms Breen’s attorneys accuse them of medical negligence on a number of grounds, including an alleged lack of psychological assessment, poor management of Ms Breen’s mental health and a lack of concern about the effects of puberty blockers on Ms Breen’s bone health.
Why sue? One answer is that Ms Breen is seeking monetary damages. But she also cites “personal closure reasons” in an interview, as well as a desire to rebut the notion that rushed youth gender transitions are rare in America, a claim commonly made by some LGBT activists. “People are just brushing exactly what happened to me off as something that doesn’t happen,” she says.
Clementine’s journey began with a visit to a school counselor and some confused feelings about her sexuality. She was 12 years old. Within two years, the mill – as noted above – had fast-tracked her to surgery.
We’ve reported extensively on the issue, including how dangerous the drugs are, which includes the risks of cancer, stroke, or death; ironically, the thing the transition industrial complex insists their expensive work is meant to prevent. However, numerous studies have emerged, including admissions of the hiding of these studies from the public, that nothing about the process reduces the risk of suicidal ideation or death among minors.
This, combined with what is likely a lack of “truly” informed consent (you may be permanently damaged for no good clinical reason), could result in more lawsuits suits and successful ones. If states can no longer allow therapists, clinicians, and surgeons to profit from the drugging and mutilating of minors, the practice will become impractical, if not impossible, regardless of how the US Supreme Court rules in United States v. Skrmetti.
Those states that insist they are sanctuaries for people who want to lie to parents and neuter children will find themselves in court. A lot. I hope. If the lawsuit costs begin to exceed the revenue stream, these sick bastards will have to find some other gift. And they will. And we’ll have to keep our eyes open to see where they land.
