In recent years, a number of young people who identified as transgender have filed dozens of lawsuits, but have yet to win a favorable judgment.
They are known as “detransitioners” – individuals who regret changing their gender identity, often making the reversal decision after irreversible changes to their bodies through medications and surgeries, recommended by medical professionals.
This year, some cases that were previously dismissed or arbitrated are being litigated in courts across the country.
These cases face various obstacles, including statutes of limitations, limits on medical malpractice compensation, and the enormous litigation costs that may continue for years.
A case in New York is set to go to trial this week, involving a 16-year-old girl who believed she was male and underwent bilateral mastectomy surgery in December 2019. She has since reclaimed her female identity.
The case, titled “Fox Varian vs. Kenneth Einhorn et. al”, was filed in 2023 in Westchester County, New York, and includes the teenager’s therapist, doctor, and related medical institutions as defendants.
The importance of this lawsuit is evident to the attorneys from Fiedler Deutsch, a New York-based law firm specializing in representing transgender individuals in medical malpractice claims.
According to court documents, healthcare providers involved in the case are accused of negligence, causing the plaintiff (formerly known as Isabella Basile) “permanent” pain, torment, and mental trauma.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants failed to inform the teenager of the “risks, harms, and alternatives” involved in the medical procedures she underwent.
The defendants deny any wrongdoing and state in court documents that during the surgery, “the plaintiff still identified as male, was happy without breasts, and did not regret her decision.”
Neither the defendants nor the attorneys for the plaintiff provided comments when contacted by The Epoch Times.
Nick Whitney, now a partner at the Childers law firm in Florida, has experience in winning significant medical malpractice cases.
He represented a family in a case involving “medical kidnapping” at the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, which gained attention after the release of the documentary “Take Care of Maya” on Netflix in 2023. This led to initially compensating the defendants with 261 million dollars, the largest payout in the state’s history.
Whitney told The Epoch Times via email that a successful outcome in the New York transgender surgery case would shake the medical community.
“If any of these courageous plaintiffs prevail, hospitals and doctors will scramble like ants in a sugar bowl,” Whitney predicted.
He said that a victory could potentially change how the United States addresses gender dysphoria in children.
“The more direct, substantive impact will be a forced reckoning – doctors and hospitals will have to reassess their risk assessments and determine if their legal risks are still sufficient to defend them on charges of harming children and adolescents,” Whitney said.
Jonathan Hullihan, General Counsel at the Remnant law firm in The Woodlands, Texas, previously defended doctors dealing with medical standard issues arising from the prescription of ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic. He stated that a favorable ruling in the New York case could have transformative effects on states with more lenient statutes of limitations.
He mentioned that despite the sharp increase in the number of minors undergoing transgender surgeries and procedures, detransition surgery lawsuits still face significant barriers.
For instance, the Themis Resource Fund lists 23 detransition cases, with most of them occurring between 2022 and 2024. However, many cases have been dismissed, settled, or are still under litigation.
Hullihan stated that tort reform, such as damage compensation caps and statutes of limitations, are major obstacles. Hiring medical experts to assess whether medical services deviated from the standard can cost over $50,000.
“These existing reform measures often hinder reasonable claims and absolve healthcare service providers of responsibility, particularly years later when people regret irreversible surgeries,” Hullihan told The Epoch Times.
Apart from the New York case, two other detransition cases are expected to go to trial this year.
One involves Chloe Cole suing Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, doctors, therapists, and others in a high-profile California lawsuit.
Cole is a candid detransitioner who criticizes medical gender transition surgeries for children with gender dysphoria. At the age of 15, surgeons removed her breasts, leading her to sue Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and other related institutions.
Her case, brought by the Dhillon law firm, LiMandri & Jonna LLP, and the Center for American Liberty, will proceed to trial after the California Third Appellate District ruled that the case did not require arbitration.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants “engaged in fraud, oppression, and malicious conduct” by providing Cole with inaccurate/false information about suicide risk and reinforcing her erroneous belief that gender transition services could solve her mental health issues.
Cole, in a recent interview with The Epoch Times, stated that doctors intervened medically but did not address her mental health problems and similar symptoms to autism beforehand.
She started identifying as a boy during adolescence and sought to change her body to align with a male gender identity. At the age of 13, she was put on puberty blockers and testosterone. Eventually, surgeons performed a bilateral mastectomy on her.
Cole expressed anticipation for a trial date this year or next.
“I also look forward to showcasing everything Kaiser did, not just to me but to millions of children in California and the U.S.,” she said.
“My primary concern is for my case to set a precedent, showing other children and families that they too can seek justice.”
Kaiser Permanente denied any wrongdoing and requested a dismissal of the lawsuit. The foundation did not respond to requests for comments.
Another upcoming case is the Luka Hein case in Nebraska, involving the University of Nebraska Medical Center, doctors, therapists, and other parties as defendants.
The case, brought in 2023 by the Thomas More Society, the Center for American Liberty, and Nebraska medical malpractice attorney Jeff Downing, is set for trial in August this year. The case must first withstand a motion for summary judgment at a hearing on February 4.
According to the lawsuit, Hein underwent bilateral mastectomy surgery in 2018 (when she was 16) as the first step in the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s “gender-affirming care” provided to her.
The lawsuit accuses her doctor and medical center of negligence, violating Nebraska’s Consumer Protection Act – charges the defendants deny.
“At that time, I was going through the darkest, most chaotic period of my life, and instead of giving me the help I needed, these doctors exacerbated my confusion,” Hein said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed.
“They persuaded me to undergo medical interventions that I couldn’t fully understand the long-term implications and consequences of.”
Hein had visited a “gender care clinic” operated by faculty at the medical center. The lawsuit alleges that clinic staff did not question Hein’s self-diagnosis as transgender.
The lawsuit stated, “The defendants immediately affirmed Luka’s identity, thereby creating a tunnel vision towards transgenderism, neglecting other factors that could have caused Luka’s gender dysphoria.”
The lawsuit claims that medical staff at the medical center used a “gender-affirming” model. They “affirmed” the gender patients chose, then approved medical procedures based on the Dutch protocol, which includes the use of puberty blockers, gender-related hormones, and surgeries.
The complaint states that the model is based on weak evidence that transgender patients benefit from medical interventions.
In the spring of this year, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a 409-page report reviewing medical procedures for treating gender dysphoria in children. The report advocates for psychotherapy as a “non-invasive alternative to endocrine therapy and surgery” as the benefits of hormone therapy or surgery have not been confirmed.
Similarly, since the 2024 release of the Cass report in the UK, European countries have gradually moved away from medical interventions, leading to a shift in the “gender affirming” model for children.
The Hein lawsuit states that doctors have a duty to rule out other potential causes of patient distress before performing irreversible surgeries, such as bilateral mastectomy or hysterectomy.
The lawsuit claims that the defendants characterized their services using terms like “masculinizing hormone therapy” to describe medical interventions for gender dysphoria.
The complaint states that the procedures marketed by the defendants with these seemingly harmless descriptions were deceptive because they were not therapeutic.
“In fact, quite the opposite. These surgeries not only do not cure but rather cause harm, leading to physical and brain dysfunction and deformity in adolescents,” the statement reads.
Attorneys for the defendants have not responded to requests for comment.