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LAWSPLAINING: Detransitioner Wins $2 Million Judgment Against Psychologist and Surgeon

Aaron Walker
Aaron Walker  |  8:15 AM on January 31, 2026

This seems like good news:

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The cut off text:

I was the only reporter to attend the entire 3-week, historic trial. Subscribe to my Substack to receive an alert about the feature article I have coming out next week in a major publication out about the trial: [link omitted]. I cover pediatric gender medicine as a specialty on my Substack. 

Sorry to just give just a teaser for now about the case! But I wanted to get the word out about the verdict promptly, the slower pace of feature-article publishing notwithstanding.

The entire case file was put under seal when the trial started (although I obtained all those documents before they was sealed), and all the transcripts from the trial are also under seal. The riveting trial was sparsely attended and there was only one other reporter at the trial; and he only attended for part of it and, as I observed, took few notes. So my own hundreds of pages of notes from the trial will likely remain the only way for the public to learn about the all finer details of what transpired, possibly ever (or until an appeal, should that happen). 

In addition to my article coming out in the media outlet soon, I intend to write a lot about what I observed and learned on my Substack over the coming weeks. Stay tuned…

Now a lot of this sounds pretty good, but as we will note, the news could be better. Why do we say this? Well, the Epoch Times covered it as well, and this person links to a non-paywalled version of the article, here:

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Before we get into the article, let’s share the text of the post that was cut off:

Stop drugging them to push them to the point they ask for it. Stop telling them they are trans in therapy services. Stop profiting in any way from them. There is no such thing as a trans child. 

You watching @wesstreeting ? It starts with puberty blockers and it ends very, very badly.

FYI, Wes Streeting is a British politician. But we don’t even speak their language, so who cares?

(Don’t @ me. That’s a joke.)

Anyway, the Epoch Times article says this:

Jurors on Jan. 30 found a psychologist and surgeon liable for malpractice after they supported and performed breast removal surgery on a 16-year-old girl who at the time identified as transgender.

Jurors awarded Fox Varian, now 22 and no longer identifying as transgender, $2 million in damages, with $1.6 million for past and future pain and suffering, and another $400,000 for future medical expenses.

The jurors found that in many respects the surgeon and psychologist had skipped important steps when evaluating if 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.

During closing arguments, Varian’s attorney Adam Deutsch had asked the jury for $8 million in damages.

…

The six-member jury was not asked whether gender-related surgical procedures are appropriate for minors. The question was whether the therapist and doctor took the appropriate steps before the surgery was performed.

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So, there are two flies in this ointment. First off, the verdict is less than what her lawyer asked for and it doesn’t really feel like the jury was throwing the book at the defendants like we think they deserve. Two million dollars is nothing to sneeze at, but after we talked about Seattle getting hit with about $25 million yesterday, this seems low for our taste. 

But here’s the more basic problem. The courts should be finding that this kind of surgery is inherently illegal. Naturally parents should be able to consent to even sterilizing surgery when it is based on medical (not psychological) necessity. So, for instance, if a thirteen-year-old girl has ovarian cancer and sterilizing surgery is the best way to remove the cancer… it would be heartbreaking, but her parents should be able to consent to that. But essentially cosmetic surgery because she subjectively believes she is a boy should not be allowed.

(We would be fine with allowing for parents to consent to cosmetic surgery to fix something broken. So, a breast implant for a minor girl who lost a breast to cancer to approximate how she looked before the disease ravaged her should be allowed. But breast implants just because she wants to be more attractive should not.)

But for some reason, this wasn’t the basis of the decision. We don’t know if Ms. Varian asked for the court to rule on that topic and what, if anything, the court might have said on the subject. But we would prefer for the court to view gender transition for minors to be inherently illegal and that any consent by the parents to be seen as ineffective.

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Instead, the case proceeded on the premise that sometimes transitions are justified, but the doctors screwed it up in this case, mistakenly identifying her as transgender and in need of so-called ‘gender affirming’ surgery. It still took $2 million out of their hide, but that only sends the message of ‘be more careful when you transition children’ rather than ‘don’t transition children at all, ya freaks!’

So, yes, this is good news, but not the best news possible on this front. And naturally, the better solution isn’t to sue this practice out of existence, but to stop it before any more children are sterilized, possibly by using the criminal law.

Some reactions:

The strong preference in the law is for trials to be open. The judge is only supposed to seal the case if there is a compelling interest in doing so. We are not privy to the reasoning, but we are very skeptical that any such interest exists.

The statute of limitations should extend at least as far as it did for E. Jean Carroll.

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Anti-tobacco lawyers have had a field day for decades.

The cut off text:

We are in the strange position where insurers require membership of these organisations, but that membership actually increases risk. 

Don’t be surprised if your premiums go up soon.

Finally:

Absent special legislation, that doesn't seem possible. But, if we are lucky, we might get to the point that malpractice insurance companies might decide that transitioning children is too much of a risk and declare professionals who carry them out uninsurable. That would stop the practice pretty fast.

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