A woman who had her breasts removed at age 14 as part of medical gender transitioning sued the California doctor and others involved in the transition.
Kaya Clementine Breen, who is now 20, sued Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy last week for medical negligence for putting her on puberty blockers, male hormones, and having a surgeon perform a double mastectomy. Breen has since “detransitioned and no longer identifies as a male.”
Olson-Kennedy (pictured above) is the medical director at the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, the nation’s largest pediatric gender clinic. She is considered the country’s top doctor for transgender youth.
The 29-page complaint was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Breen sued the medical facilities involved, a therapist, and the surgeon. It asserted that Breen was the victim of sexual abuse before the medical transition and suffered from mental health problems. Yet the sexual abuse “was never explored, addressed, or discussed by Defendants in the course of their purported treatment,” the complaint said.
“Around the age of 11 or 12, likely due at least in part to the sexual abuse she experienced as a young child, Clementine began struggling with the thought of developing into a woman and began to believe that life would be easier if she were a boy,” the complaint said.
The lawsuit listed numerous problems the girl suffered related to mental health before seeking gender transitioning: “anxiety, depression, autism, undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), potential bipolarism, as has been suggested by one of her psychiatrists, ongoing confusion regarding her gender, and eventually psychosis (including audio and visual hallucinations), panic attacks, and paranoia.” Additionally, “[h]er family also has a lengthy history of mental health issues.”
The lawsuit said that after setting up an appointment with Olson-Kennedy, the doctor diagnosed Breen with gender dysphoria in “mere minutes.”
“Dr. Olson-Kennedy performed no mental health assessment. She did not ask about things like past trauma, abuse, or mental health struggles or diagnoses. She involved no other providers or health care professionals in this purported gender dysphoria diagnosis and recommendation for puberty blockers,” the lawsuit said.
Breen was placed on puberty blockers at age 12, cross-sex hormones (testosterone) at 13, and had the “gender-affirming” double mastectomy at 14. She was encouraged to get a “gender-affirming” hysterectomy at 17.
As a result, the complaint contends that “her mental health progressively declined, as she proceeded into depression, anxiety, psychosis, hallucinations, self-harm, and suicidal ideation and even attempted suicide, none of which she had experienced prior to her gender medicalization.”
Additionally, Breen has permanent physical damage from the medical treatment, including a lack of development of a female body, an Adam’s apple, and the inability to breastfeed.
The lawsuit said the defendants “failed to get informed consent.” They “concealed important information” and “made numerous material misrepresentations in order to convince Clementine’s parents to agree,” such as telling Breen that the puberty blockers were “completely reversible.” Olson-Kennedy allegedly told Breen’s parents that she would kill herself if she did not transition, but the complaint said Breen was not suicidal.
When Breen stopped taking testosterone, her mental health improved, the complaint said.
The complaint went over the financial incentives for a medical facility to diagnose a child with gender dysphoria as soon as possible, labeling them “a lifelong revenue stream.”
The complaint noted that the desistance rate, or the rate at which transgender children decide to revert back to their birth gender, is 80 to 90 percent.
Olson-Kennedy admitted to The New York Times last month that she refused to publish the results of a $10 million study paid for by taxpayers she conducted, which found that puberty blockers did not improve mental health in children. According to The Times, “She said she was concerned the study’s results could be used in court to argue that ‘we shouldn’t use blockers because it doesn’t impact them,’ referring to transgender adolescents.”
The lawsuit stands a chance of winning in California despite the state’s permissive laws allowing the gender transitioning of minors. The American Tort Reform Association regularly ranks the state among the top few areas in the country labeled “judicial hellholes” due to the success of “novel theories of liability.” The state came in at first for 2021 and third for 2022 and 2023.
According to the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC), this is because the California Legislature won’t pass laws restricting lawsuits. Kyla Christoffersen Powell, president and CEO of CJAC, said in a press release about the rankings, “Unfortunately, the California Legislature has been a graveyard for even the narrowest and most reasonable reforms proposed to protect businesses from abusive litigation.”
If Breen prevails, it could affect other doctors in the state and around the country. Due to liability concerns, they will be less eager to offer medical transitions for children.
A new Supreme Court case could also impact the lawsuit. The court heard oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti on December 4, a challenge to Tennessee’s law banning transitioning medical treatment for minors. While the court is not expected to go so far as to rule that the practice is illegal, many believe the majority conservative court will decide that states like Tennessee can pass laws banning the practice. Heavily Democratic California is not likely to pass a law like Tennessee’s, but it will embolden other states to pass similar laws and will provide more weight for similar lawsuits to Breen’s regardless of the location.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Johanna Olson-Kennedy” by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
