{"id":18003,"date":"2026-02-06T23:30:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=18003"},"modified":"2026-02-06T23:30:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:30:32","slug":"a-2-million-verdict-for-victim-of-gender-affirming-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=18003","title":{"rendered":"A $2 million verdict for victim of ‘gender affirming care’"},"content":{"rendered":"


By John Stonestreet<\/span><\/span>, Op-ed contributor Wednesday, February 04, 2026<\/span>iStock\/AndreyPopov<\/span><\/p>\n

When she was only 16 years old, a surgeon removed the healthy breast of Fox Varian with the support and recommendation of a psychologist. On Friday, a jury found these medical professionals guilty of malpractice and awarded Varian a settlement of $2 million ($1.6 million for past and future suffering and an additional $400K for future medical expenses).<\/p>\n

Like the majority of young people who are confused about their bodies during adolescence, Varian has embraced her female body and identity as she has matured. At age 22, she is one of a growing number of \u201cdetransitioners,\u201d a group of people who we were assured of just a few years ago did not exist.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

To be clear, the jury did not rule against the therapies, medications and surgeries that are used in so-called trans \u201cmedicine.\u201d Rather, they ruled that the doctors failed Varian in this particular case.<\/p>\n

Even so, this verdict will encourage and enable other cases like it to proceed. According to the New York Post,28 \u201cdetransitioner\u00a0lawsuits\u201d are already in process across the United States. Also, the size of the financial penalty in\u00a0Varian\u2019s case should push even more medical professionals and institutions away from experimenting on the bodies of children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, three features of\u00a0Varian\u2019s case make it typical of so many others. First,\u00a0she\u00a0had serious and obvious mental health comorbidities as a teenager that were ignored and left untreated.\u00a0As Benjamin Ryan described in\u00a0The Free Press:\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fox Varian had a turbulent childhood.\u00a0Her parents split when she was 7, triggering a three-year custody battle that\u00a0ultimately saw\u00a0her estranged from her father.\u00a0She suffered from a constellation of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and social phobia.\u00a0She was diagnosed with autism and bounced around various schools.\u00a0Her first period sent\u00a0her into\u00a0a meltdown, and she battled disordered eating and body-image issues. By mid-adolescence, she was completely lost.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

And yet, her doctors allowed\u00a0Varian\u00a0to self-diagnose, encouraged her to question her \u201cgender,\u201d\u00a0and to\u00a0change her name and appearance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The second aspect of\u00a0Varian\u2019s situation that is common to\u00a0so many other stories, such as that of\u00a0Chloe Cole,\u00a0is how quickly she was \u201cfast-tracked\u201d into therapies and surgery that left her with permanent physical harm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Varian\u2019s lawyers, it was Kenneth Einhorn, the psychologist, who \u201cdrove the train\u201d and \u201cput the idea in Fox\u2019s head\u201d that she needed to change her gender with surgery. What has become clear in the last several years,\u00a0especially from leaked emails from WPATH doctors, the self-appointed \u201cexperts\u201d in what was wrongly called \u201cgender affirming care,\u201d is how unproven these \u201ctreatments\u201d were known to be.\u00a0Essentially, doctors\u00a0and medical personnel who wanted to experiment on children\u00a0convinced many others that the science behind the experimentation was \u201csettled.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even worse is that they convinced\u00a0parents. More accurately, and this\u00a0is\u00a0the third aspect of this trial that\u00a0seems to be\u00a0quite common to\u00a0almost every\u00a0other case involving a minor, is that parents were emotionally blackmailed and frightened into giving consent.<\/p>\n

During the trial, as\u00a0the New York Post reported, \u201cVarian\u2019s mother, Claire Deacon, testified that she was against the surgery, but consented to it out of fear her daughter would commit suicide…\u201d Horrifically, thousands of parents have been asked manipulatively, \u201cWould you rather have a living son or a dead daughter,\u201d either implying or outright stating that parents who did not affirm their child\u2019s new identity would be responsible for their suicide.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It would be premature to think that the days of being force-fed\u00a0gender ideology from every area of culture are over. After all,\u00a019 states and the District of Columbia have sued the Department of Health and Human Services over its policies to restrict harmful and experimental gender \u201ctreatments\u201d on minors. However, verdicts like this one, in New York of all places, should embolden healthcare professionals and parents alike to reject gender ideology, especially when it comes to children.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every single doctor, hospital, psychologist and therapist who rushed a child to permanent damage, ignored obvious and important comorbidities, and threatened parents with the \u201csuicide myth\u201d should be found, charged, fined and jailed. Teachers, administrators, school boards and school counselors must also be scrutinized and exposed for leading children down this destructive and harmful path.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there is a law firm committed to\u00a0taking\u00a0on such cases. If you are someone who has\u00a0detransitioned, or if your child was manipulated and harmed in the name of \u201cgender affirming care,\u201d contact\u00a0Campbell, Miller, Payne to learn about your legal options. The rest of us, especially pastors and ministry leaders, should provide as much support, love and encouragement as we\u00a0possibly can\u00a0to these children and their families.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Originally published at BreakPoint.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

John Stonestreet serves as president of the Colson Center, equipping Christians to live with clarity, confidence, and courage in today’s cultural moment. A sought-after speaker and author on faith, culture, theology, worldview, education, and apologetics, he has co-authored five books, including A Practical Guide to Culture, A Student\u2019s Guide to Culture, and Restoring All Things. John hosts Breakpoint, the nationally syndicated commentary founded by Chuck Colson, and The Point, a daily one-minute feature on worldview and cultural issues. Previously, he held leadership roles at Summit Ministries and taught biblical studies at Bryan College (TN). He lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his wife, Sarah, and their four children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Stonestreet, Op-ed contributor Wednesday, February 04, 2026iStock\/AndreyPopov When she was only 16 years old, a surgeon removed the healthy breast of Fox Varian with the support and recommendation of a psychologist. On Friday, a jury found these medical professionals guilty of malpractice and awarded Varian a settlement of $2 million ($1.6 million for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5797,146,225,208,1490,2853],"class_list":["post-18003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-affirming","tag-care","tag-gender","tag-million","tag-verdict","tag-victim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}