Four women who sought to transition to males when they were younger are now suing the doctors involved in their treatments with the help of a new law firm established this year to pursue such cases.
Dallas-based Campbell Miller Payne, which represents “individuals in the detransitioner community pursuing claims for health care related injuries,” filed two suits in July and two in October.
The firm says it was founded “out of a heart for individuals who were misled and abused — many as children — into psychological and physical harm through a false promise of ‘gender-affirming care.’”
The four suits were filed after more than 20 states passed laws banning transgender treatments over the past two years. These laws, which call for penalties on people who assist the transition process, were promoted by the Family Policy Alliance, the public policy partner of Focus on the Family, which founded FPA as part of Focus in the 1980s.
The number of cases where a person transitions from one gender to another and later seeks to reverse that transition are small, but highlighting them is key to the conservative agenda to discredit transgender identity overall. The new strategy is to demonstrate medical harm to individuals, even in rare cases.
The law firm’s website page listing active cases shows the four cases it is currently representing:
- Mosely v. Emerson, et al. (filed July 17, 2023, in North Carolina);
- Aldaco v. Perry, et al. (filed July 21, 2023, in Texas);
- Ulery v. Rafferty, et al. (filed October 20, 2023, in Rhode Island);
- Ayala v. American Academy of Pediatrics (filed October 23 in Rhode Island).
Another website page solicits additional people who are interested in filing similar lawsuits with the headline, “START MY PATH TO JUSTICE.”
The lawsuits charge doctors and medical groups involved in gender transition treatments with civil conspiracy, fraud, medical malpractice and gross negligence.
For example, the lawyers claim plaintiff Isabelle M. Ayala “is an unfortunate victim of a collection of actors who prioritized politics and ideology over children’s safety, health and well-being” by subjecting her to “a then-new and experimental model of treating transgender and gender diverse children and adolescents.”
The Ayala case is unique as it sues not only the doctors who provided her treatment but also doctors who advised the American Academy of Pediatrics, which in 2018 issued a “Gender-Affirmative Care” policy statement.
“Isabelle is but one of an unknown but apparently growing number of children and adolescents who have been unknowing victims of a conspiracy.”
“Isabelle is but one of an unknown but apparently growing number of children and adolescents who have been unknowing victims of a conspiracy entered into and perpetuated to the present day by certain ideologically captured individuals in positions of power at the American Academy of Pediatrics,” the suit claims.
The Ayala case was first reported by Ben Shapiro’s conservative news site Daily Wire and later by Focus on the Family’s Daily Citizen. The three other suits also have found positive coverage in conservative media.
Daily Wire has featured detransitioners in its film, “What is a Woman?” by Matt Walsh, a Catholic who opposes transgender care and calls himself a “theocratic fascist” in his Twitter biography. The film’s college tour took it to college campuses.
Walsh has campaigned against medical centers that offer transgender care, including Boston Children’s Hospital and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Walsh also has campaigned against Michelle Forcier, a leading transgender specialist who worked on the AAP guidelines and is also named in the Ayala suit.
The Ayala case argues that doctors providing transgender care knew what they were doing was harmful and bogus but continued abusing children for “prestige” and “profits:”
“These gender ideologues are culpable for foisting transgender treatments on multitudes of children,” said Focus’s Daily Citizen. “Hopefully, jurors will hold them accountable. Maybe then we will see hospitals and health professionals back away from these experimental, irreparable medical interventions.”
Contrary to the modern medical consensus, Focus on the Family claims:
- “There is no such thing as a ‘trans kid.’”
- “There is no such thing as ‘anti-LGBTQ’ legislation.”
- “There’s no such thing as a transgender athlete.”
- “There is no such thing as the ‘LGBT community.’”
- “There is no such thing as an ‘LGBTQ+ community.’”
- “There is no such thing as a nonbinary or genderless person.”
- “There is no such thing as ‘cis woman,’ ‘trans men,’ or ‘non-binary people’ in nature. No one should use those words as if they actually refer to something real. They do not.”
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