Court Ruling Exposes the Lack of Evidence in ‘Gender’ Interventions

Commentary

A woman who was confused about her sex as a teen just won $2 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit. This case, which involved the first “detransitioner” (a person who thought they could change their “gender” and then reversed course) to win a malpractice suit, should send the quacks pushing children to undergo surgeries for gender dysphoria scrambling for cover. They have neither public opinion nor research on their side.

Fox Varian, age 22, struggled to accept her sex as a teen, according to reports. Now a young adult, Varian accused a doctor and psychologist of “ignoring standards of care and procedural guardrails,” essentially bullying her and her mother into agreeing to irreversible surgery when Varian was 16.

The case reveals a key factor that often goes unexplored in standards of care for children who say they feel as though they were born in the wrong body: Are there underlying mental health issues causing the confusion?

Now that a court has recognized—and issued a financial award—after a doctor and psychologist were accused of not taking the “appropriate steps” to deal with a child’s mental health before removing Varian’s breasts, doctors should be on notice.

In my book, “The Polarization Myth: America’s Surprising Consensus on Race, Schools, and Sex,” I found strong survey evidence that Americans disagree with the idea that you can change your gender. Gallup surveys from 2023 and 2024 found that more than 50 percent of respondents said it is morally wrong to change one’s gender. Sixty-five percent of respondents in a Public Religion Research Institute survey said there are only two genders.

Adding to this survey evidence, I conducted a nationally representative poll that found 61 percent of respondents do not want children in grades K–3 to be taught the definition of “gender identity,” the biologically incorrect idea that you can decide whether you are a boy, girl, or something else. In fact, a majority of respondents (56 percent) did not want elementary school children taught this idea, while a plurality of respondents (41 percent) did not want middle school students taught this.

A plurality of respondents favored high-school lessons on the topic, but a strong majority (69 percent) did not believe elementary or high school libraries should carry books with graphic depictions of sexual activity.

Research has found that, in 80 percent to 95 percent of cases of children confused about their sex, this confusion resolves naturally, without interventions, as the children complete puberty and enter adulthood. In 2024, a report from the UK found that the evidence on the benefits or harms from so-called gender treatments was “remarkably weak.” The medical community simply does not know enough about the effects of gender-related medical treatments to recommend such interventions.

More research from 2025 found that hormone treatments meant to change a person’s chemistry and even surgeries such as breast removal in young women do not treat underlying mental health issues and may even worsen such conditions.

Shortly after the court ruled in Varian’s case, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons released a statement opposing the use of gender-related surgeries on individuals younger than 19 years of age. Good for them.

According to the New York Post, there are 28 other lawsuits similar to Varian’s pending nationwide. The Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) reported that some 1,000 mastectomies are performed annually on young children confused about their sexuality. The SEGM noted that the Society of Plastic Surgeons admitted in their statement that there may not be any health benefit to patients’ attempts to change their gender using surgical procedures.

To protect parents and children in the United States, state lawmakers should require that teachers address a student by a name and pronoun consistent with the child’s birth certificate, absent specific instructions from parents. Policymakers in at least nine states have adopted such proposals.

Lawmakers should also prohibit teaching children in K–12 about supposed gender identities. These lessons are biologically false and serve to confuse young people.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons is just the latest medical association to distance itself from “gender” surgeries for minors after Varian’s lawsuit. They will not be the last.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.