LGBT

‘Detransitioner’ Wins Settlement Against Therapists Who Referred Her for Double Mastectomy

Camille Kiefel, a woman who once believed she was “non-binary,” won a settlement against two therapists who referred her for a double mastectomy as a “gender affirming” medical procedure. 

She’s the second young woman to receive compensation after undergoing disfiguring “transgender” medical interventions, as a New York jury recently awarded Fox Varian $2 million dollars in a malpractice lawsuit against medical professionals who attempted to “transition” her to look like the opposite sex. 

Investigative journalist Benjamin Ryan was the first to report the confidential settlement, saying it was reached “just days before the trial was slated to begin.” Kiefel had asked for $3.5 million in her malpractice lawsuit. 

The Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF), a self-described “radical feminist group” which opposes transgender ideology, supported Kiefel in her legal battle as her financial sponsor. The initial malpractice complaint, filed in December 2022, targeted Licensed Clinical Social Worker Amy Ruff and Licensed Professional Counselor Mara Burmeister, along with the two Oregon health care clinics that employed them. 

The lawsuit described some of the difficulties Kiefel struggled with, saying she “experienced severe childhood traumatic events leading to her feeling discomfort and dissociation with her body.” 

In addition, Kiefel “had a history of mental health diagnosis,” including attention deficithyperactivity disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. These conditions “proved treatment-resistant despite nearly two decades of psychotherapy and prescribed medications for ADHD, depression, and anxiety with a variety of therapists over many years.” 

Kiefel began “identifying” as “non-binary” in 2016, underwent breast removal surgery in 2020 at age 30. In 2022, Kiefel accepted that she was a woman. 

But the damage was done. 

In a Newsweek article, Kiefel described the ridiculous ideology that supports surgery to become “non-binary”: 

And the weird thing, too, about being non-binary, is what do you even transition to? There’s no non-binary sex to transition to.

The suit alleged that “Ruff held one Zoom session with [Kiefel], lasting approximately an hour,” before writing a referral for her to have “chest reduction to relieve gender dysphoria.” The suit said Ruff’s letter had statements she “knew were factually false and/or misleading,” and she did not exercise “reasonable care” in her assessment or even review Kiefel’s medical or mental health records before recommending surgery, the complaint added. 

Kiefel learned “a second assessment letter was required in order for Medicaid to pay for breast removal surgery.” Her lawsuit said, “Burmeister failed to conduct an individualized, comprehensive mental health assessment prior to recommending that Plaintiff undergo double mastectomy surgery.” 

Ruff and Burmeister, according to an amended lawsuit, did not discuss with Kiefel the risks involved with the proposed surgery, including: 

  • Surgery might not alleviate her social, health and mental health problems, and it might even exacerbate them.
  • Surgery could not mute her feminine features to more closely resemble a ‘non-binary’ gender identity.
  • Reproductive dysfunction, through lack of sexual function, and inability to breastfeed.
  • Reclaiming her female identity after surgery might lead to greater anxiety, distress and shame.

Camille Kiefel’s struggles with trauma and mental health issues are typical of adolescents and young adults who embrace transgender ideology. 

Although many will go on to desist from believing they can become the opposite sex – or someother “gender” altogether, this may only occur after they have been irreparably damaged by transgender medical interventions like drugs, hormones and surgeries. 

True compassion means protecting young men and women and helping them embrace biological reality. 

Legal victories can’t undo the irreversible damage caused by these medical interventions, but they may cause mental health and medical professionals to think twice before engaging in such barbarous practices. 

For those struggling with transgenderism, and their families, Focus on the Family’s Counseling Department offers help from licensed counselors. To request a conversation with Focus on the Family’s Counseling Department, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Mountain Time), or complete our Counseling Consultation Request Form. Please be prepared to leave your contact information for a counselor to return a call to you as soon as possible. The consultation is available at no cost to you due to generous donor support.

Related articles and resources: 

DOJ Targets Those Mutilating Children with ‘Transgender’ Drugs and Surgeries

Expert in ‘Transitioning’ Children Admits ‘We Were Wrong’ About Puberty Blockers

Focus on the Family: Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Focus on the Family: Transgender Resources

Four Brave Young Women File Lawsuits Alleging Harm from ‘Transgender’ Interventions

Jury Awards $2 Million to Young Woman Who Underwent ‘Transgender’ Surgery at 16

More Hospitals Stop Mutilation of Sexually Confused Children

New Video Equips Parents and Counselors to Help ‘Gender Dysphoric’ Children

ReFOCUS with Jim Daly: Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

ReFOCUS with Jim Daly: Chloe Cole: Gender Reassignment Surgery Regret

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does Research Really Show?

Gov. Bill Lee Signs Resolution Declaring June ‘Nuclear Family Month’ in Tennessee

This June, Tennessee is saying goodbye to LGBT pride month and hello to “Nuclear Family Month.”

On April 9, Gov. Bill Lee signed a joint resolution enacted by the Tennessee Legislature designating June 2026 “Nuclear Family Month” – a counter to pride month when individuals, companies, governments and celebrities often proclaim themselves “allies” of LGBT pride and family redefinition.

The resolution defines the nuclear family as consisting of “one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children” that is “God’s design for familial structure and has been the bedrock of society since the creation of the world.”

The Tennessee House passed House Joint Resolution 182 in a 72-18 vote; the state Senate approved the resolution in a 26-4 vote. While the resolution was originally intended for June 2025, the state Senate did not pass the bill until this year. An amendment changed the resolution to take effect for June 2026.

The resolution highlights the harms that result when the nuclear family is ruptured:

  • Fatherless families are four times more likely to live in poverty than married-couple families.
  • Children without fathers are 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances.
  • Children from fatherless homes are more likely to have mental health and behavioral issues.
  • Sixty percent of youth suicides are from fatherless homes.
  • Seventy-one percent of high school dropouts are from fatherless homes.
  • Fatherless youths are 20 times more likely to be incarcerated.
  • Eighty-five percent of youths in prison come from fatherless homes.
  • Eighty-two percent of school shooters are raised in unstable family environments or without both biological parents together.

The resolution rejects the “humanistic, globalist ideologies of the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and like-minded organizations that fight for population control through the means of promoting sterilization and abortion practices.”

“The nuclear family is God’s perfect design for humanity and is aligned with the long-held traditional values of Tennessee,” the resolution continues. “The nuclear family is under attack in our beloved State and nation, and it is our responsibility to uplift, protect, and support values that help Tennessee prosper.”

While the resolution doesn’t have any substantial legal effect, it does express the will and mind of the Tennessee Legislature on a very crucial matter.

Tennessee’s courageous and bold effort to replace pride month with “Nuclear Family Month” rightfully draws attention to the institution responsible for building societies: the nuclear family – married men and women and the children they create. Every other state in the union should follow Tennessee’s lead.

This June, pride month may still garner more attention with cultural elites, large corporations, the media, influencers and celebrities in their attempt to be “inclusive” and appease LGBT activists. Christians know that the God-ordained institution of the nuclear family is what deserves positive praise and attention.

Related articles and resources:

Defending the Rights of Children

Some Companies Back Away From LGBT Pride – Parents Should Still Be Watchful

Five Things for Christians to Remember During ‘LGBT Pride Month’

BLM Coloring Book Teaches Elementary Students the Nuclear Family is Racist

Navigating ‘LGBT Pride Month’ – How Should Parents Respond?

Photo from Getty Images.

Rosaria Butterfield Drops Essential Truth Bomb on LGBT Lies

Rosaria Butterfield, a favorite Focus on the Family radio guest, dropped a bold truth bomb at a recent women’s conference at the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky. The conference, “Anchored: Pursuing Biblical Sexuality in a Turbulent World,” tackled deceptions we face around what it means to be human in today’s culture.

Few Christian speakers address the cultural confusion around sexuality and gender with the essential balance of truth and grace as Rosaria Butterfield does. She understands that genuine love sometimes requires strong words. But doing so is not easy. She began her comments at the conference’s Answers for Women panel by confessing, “I have to ask the Holy Spirit to help me be courageous.”

She further prefaced her comments by observing, “It’s a sin to tell a lie, but it’s also a sin to believe a lie.” We have a responsibility to know, speak and believe the truth.

Butterfield then articulated one of the most important truths that our current culture, in and outside of the church, needs to grasp and speak: 

And so, there is no such thing as a gay man or a lesbian woman or a transgender woman, and then you can fill in all of the different categories that come under the umbrella “LGBTQ.”

She said this because none of these designations are real human identities. Nor are they physiological or medical realities. They are not actual things. They are feelings — temptations — backed by carefully-crafted ideological and political support in today’s world. Butterfield explains:

And the reason is because, in Genesis, where we have to start, we are given our identity. Our identity is in the image of God, bearing it as a man or as a woman. There are two kinds of people in the world — a man or a woman.

That is what it means to be human, to be male or female. And in Genesis, the first time we read the words “male” and “female,” we read them in the context of how humans are created in the image and likeness of God. Our maleness and femaleness as humans have a divine nature to them. 

This is precisely what Genesis 1:26-27 is telling us: Human persons — embodied as male and female — are the only parts of creation that actually reflect the image and likeness of God. It is self-evident that they are made for, and to, complement and complete one another. This is what Genesis 2:19 and 23 are speaking of. It is not good that man should be without woman and vice versa. This is not a Christian ideal, or a Western ideal or a conservative/traditional ideal. It is a common grace God has given all of humanity, across all cultures, across all times. Our time is no different.

This is evidenced by the fact that the bodily, emotional and soulful distinctions of male and female create a purposeful and essential human unity without which humanity cannot exist.Aristotle even recognized this three centuries before Jesus appeared on earth, explaining it on the first page of his Politics. It is part of the original human design.

That is what it means to be human, and it is true of people wherever you find them in the world and throughout history. 

These new rainbow/alphabet soup of identities that are bombarding our culture (and our children) — which even leading sex activists are admitting is incoherent — is artificially constructed, which is precisely why it must be ideologically forced upon us with constant pressure.

Butterfield explains that this all has a very important spiritual dynamic, “A man who says he’s a gay man is a man with a sin pattern that Jesus came to help set him free from if he will mortify it, repent, believe, go to war.” 

She properly adds,

It’s very hard to do that. I’m not suggesting it’s easy, but that is our job, and you know what? It’s not just somebody whose indwelling sin is homosexuality who happens to have that call. It’s everyone, because we are all born in the sin of Adam. And it is because of the sin of Adam that we have sin in our nature.

This is the great equalizer of humankind. All of us have boundaries on our sexual desires. That is what civilization itself requires. Butterfield concluded, “We need to have strong Christians,” who understand and help their family and neighbors grasp that, “Homosexuality is found in the flesh, it is forbidden in the law, it’s overcome by the Savior.”

Christians need to stop believing the lie that same-sex sexual attraction and “trans” identities are somehow naturally rooted in human physiology or simply ways some people “just are.” They are not. They are sinful deceptions. They are very complex psychological and ideological deceptions, but deceptions all the same.

We thrive when we live in God’s very good and loving design for us.

Additional Articles and Resources:

Rosaria Butterfield on Focus on the Family: Accepting My True Identity in Christ

Rosaria Butterfield on Focus on the Family: Loving People Through the Truth

Why the ‘LGBT Person’ and ‘LGBT Community’ Don’t Really Exist

Focus on the Family Lecture: Why The “LGBT” Person Doesn’t Exist

Strike Against Deception: A Focus on the Family Interview with Joe Dallas

Sexual Orientation Is Not What You Think It Is

Gender Ideology is Wrong: There Are Only Two Sexes

Why Christians Can’t Avoid the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

Medicalizing Gender Confusion Makes Things Worse, New Research Confirms

New research from Finland further demonstrates that the supposed “settled science” that gender medicine helps youth and young adults live healthier lives is not so settled after all. In fact, the research shows medicalizing gender confusion makes it worse.

It started with the suicide lie. Medical professionals told parents that if they did not wholly support, and pay for(!), their child’s gender transition, they might tragically take their own life. “Would you rather have a living son or a dead daughter?” parents were manipulatively warned by their child’s medical or psychiatric professionals. 

We now know that turned out to be false. The highly reliable Cass Review, conducted in the U.K. and published in 2024, reports, “In summary, the evidence does not adequately support the claim that gender affirming treatment reduces suicide risk” [see 15.43]. The Review also notes, “Tragically deaths by suicide in trans people of all ages continue to be above the national average, but there is no evidence that gender-affirmative treatments reduce this” [see 16.22].

Dr. Kenneth Zucker, a longtime leading expert in the field of youth gender, told Gender Clinic News, “It is now time to bury the ‘trans kid or dead kid’ trope.” He said this based on a 2024 Finnish study – “a very important study,” Zucker noted – which shows that suicide death rates are not alarmingly high for gender confused kids. In fact, they are no higher than rates for peers with any psychiatric treatment history and “medical gender reassignment does not have an impact on suicide risk.”

The four authors of this Finnish study have just published a very large nationally representative study spanning 3-decades which shows severe psychiatric problems are dramatically higher in adolescents and young adults who have sought out medical services for gender identity issues compared with other psychiatric patients of the same age.

This study followed young people 22 years of age and below from 1996 through 2019 who contacted that nation’s Specialized Gender Identity Services and compared them with a similar control group of psychiatric patients. Its findings strongly challenge the claims of trans activists.

The researchers explain that adolescents seeking gender change procedures “showed significantly higher psychiatric morbidity than controls” prior to seeking such services. Specifically, 46% of teens and young adults with gender confusion reported some form of serious psychiatric problem compared with just 15% of the general population that age seeking any psychiatric services.

Yet these rates of serious psychological problems increased significantly after two years undergoing gender medical services, 62% compared to the 46% at the start of the medical interventions.

Another astounding, but not surprising, data fact is that those youth referred after 2010 “had greater psychiatric needs than earlier cohorts, both before (47.9% vs. 15.3%) and ≥ 2 years after (61.3% vs. 14.2%) referral.” This means the trans craze that exploded over the last 10-plus years has had a measurably negative effect.

These scholars add,

Among adolescents who underwent medical gender reassignment, psychiatric morbidity increased markedly during follow-up – rising from 9.8% to 60.7% in feminizing gender reassignment and from 21.6% to 54.5% in masculinizing gender reassignment. After adjusting for prior psychiatric treatment, all gender-referred adolescents had similarly elevated risks of psychiatric morbidity, with hazard ratios approximately three times higher than female controls and five times higher than male controls.

In short, “The need for specialist-level psychiatric treatment increased considerably in follow-up among those who underwent medical GR [gender reassignment].”

These Finnish researchers conclude, “This does not support the suggested improvement in mental health after medical gender reassignment initiated during developmental years.”

It is continued revelations from careful research like this that are leading medical professionals to increasingly back away from their previous support for the trans agenda. The truth will continue to come out as good, honest research comes to press.

Additional Resources:

A Singularly Christian View of the Transgender Problem

Why Christians Can’t Avoid the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue

Yes, Transgenderism is a False Belief System

New Research Shows ‘Transgender’ Identity Dramatically Driven by Immaturity

‘The New York Times’ and 20 State AGs Expose Medical Groups’ Trans Agenda

The APA’s 5 Failed Critiques of HHS Report Discrediting Sex-Rejecting Procedures for Kids

Florida Sues Medical Groups for Promoting ‘Transgender’ Mutilation of Children

What Does it Mean to Be Trans, Anyway?

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

Do Not Fall for the ‘Affirm Them or They Will Die’ Lie

American College of Pediatricians: No Benefits From ‘Gender-Affirming’ Interventions

Jaden Ivey: ‘All I’m preaching about is Jesus Christ and they waived me.’

The NBA’s Jaden Ivey was waived by the Chicago Bulls on Monday for “conduct detrimental to the team” — shorthand for politically incorrect comments he’s made ranging from criticism of “Pride Month” to his bold, outspoken and sometimes unconventional sharing of his Christian faith.

Initially drafted by the Detroit Pistons with the number five pick in the first round in 2022, Ivey credits his conversion to Christianity with helping him overcome a strong sexual addiction and otherwise reckless life. 

“Before I came to the Lord Jesus Christ, the NBA was everything to me,” Ivey acknowledged. “I didn’t know God. I didn’t know Jesus when I came to the NBA. I was a fornicator, I was a pornography addict and I used to get drunk. That’s all I knew. And after a win, and after all those points, I felt good… I felt like I had everything set out for me.”

But Ivey found those highs to be temporary and artificial. After hitting a game-winning shot one night, he decided there had to be a better way. Comparing his life before turning his addictions over to Jesus, Ivey said:

“I’m not the J.I. I used to be. The old J.I. is dead. I’m alive in Christ no matter what the basketball setting is.”

In recent weeks, the 6-foot-three-inch guard has released via livestream on Instagram a series of commentaries expressing his frustration with the NBA culture. In a message last week, Ivey declared:

The world proclaims LGBTQ, right? They proclaim, “Pride Month” and the NBA does, too. They show it to the world. They say, “Come join us for ‘Pride Month’ to celebrate unrighteousness.” They proclaim it on the billboards. They proclaim it on the streets. Unrighteousness. So, how is it that one can’t speak righteousness? Who are they to say that this man is crazy?”

After the Bulls cut ties on Monday, Ivey responded to the decision on social media.

“They’re liars, bro. This is lying,” Ivey said. “They’re lying saying my conduct is detrimental to the team. That’s a lie. Ask any one of them coaches in there, ‘Was I a good teammate?’ All I’m preaching about is Jesus Christ and they waived me. They say I’m crazy, right? I’m psycho.” 

Professional sports teams regularly make decisions regarding personnel, a calculus that Bulls head coach Billy Donovan alluded to when asked about Chicago’s decision to cut ties with Ivey.

“There’s a certain level of expectations and standards that are here,” Donovan said. “Everybody comes with their own personal experiences, right? But we have to all be professional, there has to be a high level of respect for one another, and we’ve got to help each other and be accountable to those standards.”

Ivey’s outspoken and unconventional methods and means of evangelism have included him calling out current and former players, including Steph Curry, LeBron James and Michael Jordan. “All them rings LeBron got, all them rings Michael Jordan got, all them people in the Hall of Fame who don’t know Jesus Christ. It’s not gonna matter on Judgment Day if you don’t know Jesus and your name is not written in the book of life.”

Jaden Ivey also took issue with the Bulls’ vagueness and lack of cited specifics surrounding his release, though when it comes to matters of hiring and firing, it’s not uncommon for those details to be left unsaid out of fear of instigating a lawsuit. Ivey, though, doesn’t have that same filter or concern.

“Jesus is not going to say on Judgment Day, ‘How many points did you score today?’ … He’s gonna say, ‘What did you do for My kingdom?'”

Given the NBA’s long fuse for other types of disruptive and detrimental player behavior ranging from domestic abuse to kneeling for the Star-Spangled Banner, Jaden Ivey’s separation from the league is understandably raising eyebrows and generating charges of ideological hypocrisy and religious bias. The now former NBA player appears unphased and even somewhat energized by the controversy.

“How is it when the gospel is preached that people hate it? That people don’t want to hear it?” he recently asked. “Jesus gives you power over the devil … please turn to Jesus Christ… it’s not His will that these players perish in the NBA.”