A detransitioner has won the first medical malpractice suit of its kind against the doctors who approved her “gender-affirming” care. Fox Varian was just 16 years old when she had an elective double mastectomy to remove perfectly healthy breasts to align more with her male gender identity. Yet, by 22, Varian no longer identified as male and felt betrayed by the medical professionals who opened the doors to make her mastectomy possible. As a teenager, Varian battled numerous mental health issues: anxiety, depression, anorexia, social phobia, and body-image issues. She also had a diagnosis of autism.

At 15, she began seeing psychologist Kenneth Einhorn. Within a few months, she began to question her identity as a female, cut her hair, and began wearing breast binders. However, Varian still had doubts as to whether or not identifying as a boy was the correct identity. According to reports, Varian began to feel “pressure to decide on a male identity versus a female identity by family, peers, and culture.” Less than 12 months after social transitioning, Varian received the double mastectomy. Surgeon Simon Chin performed the surgery, having only met with Varian for a total of one hour prior to the surgery. Einhorn did not share information about Varian’s struggles with her gender identity and neither Einhorn nor Chin addressed the possible aftermath that the surgery would not help certain psychological issues.

Varian’s mother stated that she was against the surgery but felt pressured into it by the implication that Varian was at the risk of suicide if she did not receive it. Varian’s lawyer, Adam Deutsch, portrayed Chin and Einhorn as irresponsible and negligent. “They had every opportunity to slow this down, to do the work, to follow the standards, to say ‘Not yet,’ to ask questions, to explore,” he said. “And instead, they did nothing. They abandoned all of the guardrails and then tried to sell to you that no guardrails exist. And a vulnerable child paid the price.” Varian testified that she was “really mentally ill” and unable to make the decision wisely. After the surgery, Varian continued to struggle with mental health issues and even began cutting.

A New York jury awarded Varian $2 million against Chin and Einhorn, $1.6 million for pain and suffering and $400,000 for future medical expenses. It’s the first time in America that a detransitioner’s malpractice case has received a financial judgment from a jury. Supporters celebrated the ruling, with many hoping it would be the first of many. “To every psychologist, physician, surgeon, and medical board that has pushed for transgenderism in children, the kids you’ve mutilated will see you in court,” wrote Chloe Cole, a detransitioner who has publicly spoken out against gender-affirming care. “After Fox Varian’s successful suit, the next generation of detransitioners can rest assured that justice will be theirs.”

Journalist Benjamin Ryan, who attended Varian’s entire trial, wrote that there are 28 pending detransitioner cases. Harry Potter author JK Rowling, an outspoken critic of gender transition, celebrated the ruling as well. “As the floodgates open, and more and more detransitioners sue the clinicians who subjected them to an unregulated medical experiment, gender identity activists will almost certainly continue to ignore any evidence that fails to support their preferred narrative,” she wrote. “They’ll keep insisting that hardly any transitioned people regret their irreversible procedures, that gender clinicians know exactly what they’re doing, that surgeries, cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers are of proven benefit and that minors who’re denied these treatments will to kill themselves. All of this is a lie.”