A landmark trial – in which an autistic detransitioner was awarded $2 million – that set a precedent for suing doctors who push and perform life-altering transgender surgery on minors was widely ignored by media.
On Friday, 22-year-old Fox Varian was awarded $2 million in damages when a jury found Psychologist Kenneth Einhorn and Surgeon Simon Chin guilty of ignoring standards of care and procedural protections by pressuring Varian to undergo permanent surgery when she was a 16-year-old minor.
Varian was awarded $1.6 million for past and future pain and suffering, and another $400,000 for future medical expenses, in the malpractice case, setting a precedent opening the door for a flood of similar lawsuits. Varian’s case did not, however, rule on the legality of performing life-altering transgender surgery on minors, but only on the process that must be followed by doctors in order to perform such surgery.
Instead, malpractice cases are based on tort law, not criminal law. With tort law, a form of civil law, the plaintiff must simply show that the defendant caused harm, either through wrongful acts or negligence.
While the trial, held in the New York Supreme Court in Westchester County, had sweeping implications, reportedly, only one journalist attended the entire trial and only one other attended it occasionally.
Independent Journalist Benjamin Ryan, who covered each day of the trial, appears to be virtually the sole source of news of the groundbreaking proceedings.
“My sources suggest that tort law might permanently destroy this field,” Ryan reported on X.com following the decision, before going on to report on Varian’s autism and troubled childhood:
“A Legal First That Could Change Gender Medicine At 16, Fox Varian got a mastectomy while undergoing a gender transition. She sued her psychologist and plastic surgeon for leaving her ‘disfigured for life.’”
….
“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 and bounced around various schools.”
Three years after undergoing the double-mastectomy (called “top surgery” by advocates), Varian – now a 21-year-old adult – realized that she was not a male and began the process of detransitioning. The next year, she filed her malpractice lawsuit.
Claire Deacon, Varian’s mother, had been adamantly opposed to allowing her daughter, a minor, to have the transgender surgery, but was pressured to do so by the doctors’ warnings that Varian would commit surgery if not allowed to have the procedure.
“I was scared out of my wits by the things that Dr. Einhorn was so confident in repeatedly telling me and my daughter,” Deacon testified, explaining that she would never have approved the surgery “Without Dr. Einhorn, repeatedly, emphatically, consistently pushing me.”
Einhorn and Chin were negligent in their haste to inflict the transgender surgery on the 16-year-old girl, the jury found, as National Review explains:
“The jury found that in many respects the surgeon and psychologist had skipped important steps when evaluating whether she should go forward with the surgery and had not adequately communicated with each other. These missteps were a ‘departure from the standard of care,’ they decided.”
Additionally, Varian’s lawyers argued the two health care providers failed to adequately take into account her other mental and psychological conditions, such as autism, depression, and ADHD, before deciding to recommend transgender surgery, according to The National Review.
While Varian v. Einhorn is the first detransitioner medical malpractice case to be heard and decided by a jury, there are currently 28 more lawsuits that have been filed. In all, Varian’s victory appears to be just the latest sign that the tide is turning against performing transgender surgery on minors who, axiomatically, are not mature to make irreversible, life-altering decisions. As The Christian Post explains:
“More than two dozen states have enacted policies banning the provision of body-mutilating sex-change surgeries and hormone drugs to minors. In recent years, European medical bodies, such as those in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Norway, have reevaluated their approaches to treating children with gender dysphoria.
“In 2024, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service instructed gender clinics to pause first appointments for kids under 18 following the formal review led by Dr. Hilary Cass, the retired former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Cass’s report found there is ‘no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.’”
Ryan reports that, while he has seen them, the court records of the New York trial he covered have since been sealed, leaving him with what “may be the only comprehensive record of the event.”
Independent Journalist Benjamin Ryan discusses his exclusive coverage of the case in an interview on Megyn Kelly’s podcast below.
