transgender

‘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 in recent months to receive compensation after undergoing disfiguring “transgender” medical interventions. In February, a New York jury 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?

Florida Threatens to Sue Miss America for False Advertising Over Definition of ‘Female’

Florida could sue the Miss America organization for false advertising if it continues allowing castrated boys to compete in its pageants, state Attorney General James Uthmeier advised the company in a letter Friday.

“These organizations cannot operate under the false and misleading title of ‘Miss’ if indeed they are open to male participants,” the letter reads, continuing:

By promoting their competitions as female-only and then surreptitiously allowing certain men to compete, Miss America and Miss Florida are engaging in a wrongful bait-and-switch advertising scheme targeting young women.

On their respective websites, Miss America and Miss Florida require participants to be “female.” No additional language or imagery suggests “female” might refer to anything other than biological sex.

So thought Kayleigh Bush when she competed in — and won — the Miss North Florida pageant in late 2024. But when she leafed through her participation contract for the next stage of competition, the Miss Florida pageant, she found the agreement defined “female” to include castrated boys.

The exact language, per Liberty Counsel, reads:

“Female” means a born female or an individual who has fully completed sex reassignment surgery via vaginoplasty (from male to female) with supporting medical documentation and records.

Bush, with Liberty Counsel’s help, tried to negotiate, arguing the contract’s definition of “female” violated her religious belief that sex is binary and immutable.

When Miss America refused to budge, Bush chose to abdicate her privileges as Miss North Florida 2025 and forfeit her right to compete in Miss Florida rather than agree to compete against boys and promote sex rejecting surgeries.

Attorney General Uthmeier believes the Miss America organization deceived Kayleigh and the general public.

“Despite advertising that Miss America and Miss Florida are beauty competitions open only to female competitors, your organizations misled Kayleigh and the public by allowing certain men to compete as well,” he alleged in Friday’s letter, noting false advertising can include “a representation or omission that is likely to deceive a consumer acting reasonably in the same circumstances.”

Bush would not have competed in the pageant had she known she would have to compete against men.

To Uthmeier’s other point, the Miss America organization clearly did not want their participation policies in the spotlight. The company threatened to sue Bush after she alluded to them in a February interview with TMZ.

“It’s disappointing, because Miss America has been honoring women for over a hundred years and, now, they can’t even define what a woman is,” she told the outlet.

Uthmeier gave Miss America until May 1 to publicly specify who can participate in their competitions. If he had his way, boys wouldn’t be allowed to participate at all.

“By misleading Kayleigh and other Florida women, Miss America and Miss Florida undermine the value they claim to advance — female well-being,” the attorney general concludes.

“Both organizations should disallow men from competing in their pageants.”

Additional Articles and Resources

Miss America Allows Castrated Boys to Compete in pageant, Former Contestant Reveals

US Supreme Court Upholds Tennessee Law Protecting Kids From Transgender Mutilation

HHS Finalizes Report Finding Sex-Rejecting Procedures Harm Minors

HHS Releases Report on Harms of ‘Transgender’ Medical Interventions for Minors

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

The Supreme Court’s ‘Conversion Therapy’ Ruling: Four Truths You Should Know

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Colorado’s law banning so-called “conversion therapy” is likely unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment’s free speech clause.

In the 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court held the state’s “Prohibit Conversion Therapy for A Minor” law (HB19-1129), enacted in 2019, engages in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination since it prohibited therapists from voicing certain perspectives that Colorado disfavors.

Because of its speech restrictions, the law must satisfy strict scrutiny – the highest standard of judicial review, the Supreme Court said. The lower courts had erroneously applied rational-basis review – a much lower standard – in upholding the law.

The law prohibited licensed counselors from helping minor clients struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction or sexual identity confusion. The Orwellian speech code mandated counselors speak in a specific, state-mandated way when counseling minor clients.

Counselors could only help clients embrace homosexuality or a “transgender” identity. The law prohibited counselors from helping clients, through simple talk therapy, turn away from homosexual thoughts, behaviors and identities, or resolve feelings of gender dysphoria and embrace their biological sex.

“Under our precedents, viewpoint restrictions like that are not subject to mere rational-basis review or intermediate scrutiny,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the Court’s majority. “Rather, they represent ‘an egregious form of content discrimination’ where First Amendment concerns are at their most ‘blatant.’”

The case stems from Christian Colorado counselor Kaley Chiles’ lawsuit seeking to prevent enforcement of HB19-1129 and protect her First Amendment right to speak freely in counseling conversations with minors.

“While the First Amendment protects many and varied forms of expression, the spoken word is perhaps the quintessential form of protected speech,” Gorsuch added, “And that is exactly the kind of expression in which Ms. Chiles seeks to engage.”

Justice Gorsuch continued,

The First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.

The Court’s decision is a clear win for all Americans’ free speech rights and for minors who want to find help and hope of healing from homosexuality and transgenderism.

However, you’d never know that from reading the mainstream media’s biased coverage of the Court’s ruling.

The Associated Press claimed the decision is “the latest in a line of recent cases in which the justices have [taken] a skeptical view of LGBTQ+ rights,” opining that “conversion therapy” is a “discredited practice.”

The New York Times said Colorado’s law prohibits counselors from “trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of L.G.B.T.Q. minors.”

NBC News called the decision “a blow to LGBTQ rights” in the opening sentence of its article on the ruling. The outlet called “conversion therapy” “widely discredited” and “ineffective,” deeming it “harmful, increasing a risk of suicide among people subjected to it.”

USA Today said “conversion therapy” is “ineffective and harmful.”

For all the smoke and mirrors proffered by other outlets, here are four truthful things you should know about the Court’s ruling.

“Conversion Therapy” Doesn’t Exist

There is no “harmful” or “discredited” practice known as “conversion therapy.” As the Daily Citizen has previously noted, “No counselor or therapist ever put out a sign saying, ‘I offer conversion therapy’ or ‘I’ll convert you from gay to straight!’ There is no such clinical practice.”

“The term was invented by activists who oppose the truth that some people with same-sex attractions or gender identity confusion who don’t want to embrace those thoughts, feelings, identities or behaviors.”

The Truth: Some individuals who experience unwanted same-sex attraction or sexual identity confusion seek counselors’ help to reach their own goals and find freedom from homosexuality and transgenderism; many individuals do find lasting freedom from these struggles.

Talk Therapy is Not Harmful

As the Court recounted in its opinion, Chiles (and other Christian counselors) does not “prescribe any medicines, perform any physical treatments, or engage in any coercive or aversive practices. All Ms. Chiles offers is talk therapy.”

A 2022 study conducted by Rev. D. Paul Sullins, Ph.D., a research professor of sociology with the Catholic University of America, found that “sexual orientation change efforts” are not associated with causing behavioral harms – unlike what the media claims.

The Truth: Talk therapy can be helpful for individuals who want to explore their past experiences, feelings, relationships, identities and behaviors and who want to live out a biblical sexual ethic.

The Court Upheld All Americans’ Free Speech Rights

The media inexplicably and incorrectly portrayed the ruling as a “blow to LGBT rights.” But the Court did not remove any “LGBT right.” Nor did it mandate any homosexual- or transgender-identified individuals receive talk therapy.

The Court merely said minor clients who want to leave homosexuality or transgenderism can receive a counselor’s help in doing so.

The Truth: The Court upheld Americans’ right to speak freely and receive counseling as they wish.

LGBT Activists Promote Conversion Therapy

LGBT activists who oppose counselors helping clients leave transgenderism, who want to trap individuals into a lifetime of confusion over their sexual identity, are the real advocates of “conversion therapy.”

These radical activists would prefer minors receive harmful, damaging and irreversible puberty blocking drugs, opposite-sex hormones and surgeries, rather than explore their feelings and identities with a licensed counselor.

This is a misguided attempt to “convert” children into looking and acting like the opposite sex, rather than helping them embrace biological reality. Most children with sexual identity confusion will desist, but transgender ideology tries to convince them – and their families – that they need to somehow “become” the opposite sex.

As commentator Allie Beth Stuckey wrote, “True, damaging ‘conversion therapy’ is the kind that convinces kids that they’re the opposite gender.”

The Truth: LGBT activists are the real proponents of harmful “conversion therapy” for children with sexual identity confusion.

Thankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Kaley Chiles’ favor, upholding her free speech rights and the right of all licensed counselors to help minors receive the therapy they seek.

The case now goes back down to the lower court, where Colorado’s law will likely fail to meet a strict scrutiny analysis and be found unconstitutional.

The case is Chiles v. Salazar.

Related articles and resources:

Supreme Court Smacks Down Colorado’s ‘Conversion Therapy’ Ban in 8-1 Decision

Counseling for Sexual Identity Concerns: A Measured, Careful, and Compassionate approach.

What Is ‘Conversion Therapy’?

Four Things You Should Know About Michigan’s Ban on Therapy for Unwanted Homosexuality or Transgenderism

Elizabeth Woning Left Lesbianism for a Relationship with Christ – She Wants Others to Have that Same Freedom

New Study: Even Failed Efforts to Leave Homosexuality Are Not Harmful

New Study Shows Therapy to Leave Homosexuality Can Be Effective and Helpful

Photo from Getty Images.

‘Protect Kids Colorado’ Qualifies Three Child Safety Ballot Measures for November

Protect Kids Colorado announced that all three of its state ballot measures to safeguard children qualified for the November ballot. 

In an entirely grassroots effort, the child safety and parental rights advocacy group gathered more than 500,000 total signatures for the initiatives.

The first measure, Initiative 108, would give predators convicted of trafficking children a life sentence; Initiative 109 would prevent males from participating in girls sports; while Initiative 110 would prohibit irreversible “transgender” surgeries for minors.

Protect Kids Colorado Executive Director Erin Lee announced the victory in a post on X, acknowledging the enormous effort from supporters: 

All 3 @ProtectKidsCO measures are officially ON THE BALLOT! 

# 108: The Children Are Not For Sale Act 

# 109: The Protect Girls’ Sports Act 

# 110: The Protect Kids from Irreversible Sex-Rejecting Surgeries Act 

People from every walk of life stepped up, sacrificed, and continue to fight for what matters. And because of ALL of you, the people will have a voice. 

In an email, Lee thanked volunteers who spent six months collecting signatures at hundreds of churches, grocery stores, ministries, colleges and signing events around the state: 

This is more than a milestone – it’s a historic, grassroots achievement powered by people across Colorado. What many said was impossible, you made a reality.
More than 3,300 petition carriers, 1,900+ notaries, hundreds of churches, and so many supporters stepped up – getting signatures, giving, sharing and showing up day after day. Every conversation, signature, and hour mattered.

Some volunteers faced anger and vitriol from transgender activists and their allies as they explained the ballot measures to registered voters. 

Collecting more than 165,000 signatures for each measure on a shoestring budget really was an extraordinary achievement. The Rocky Mountain Voice reported that Protect Kids Colorado raised $220,000 to fund the drive to place all three measures on the ballot.

By way of comparison, Let’s Go Washington spent almost $4.4 million to place two citizen-initiated measures, protecting girls sports and parental rights in education, on the November ballot. 

The notoriously radical Colorado Legislature considered three bills that would have done exactly what the ballot measures do – but each piece of legislation was voted down along party lines in House committees. 

The Children are Not for Sale Act, which would have given life sentences to those who traffic children, was defeated in the Judiciary Committee in a 4-7 vote. The Protect Female Sports Act was killed in the State, Civic, Military & Veterans Affairs Committee with a 3-8 vote. And a measure to Safeguard Minors from Sex-Altering Interventions failed to move forward, losing a 5-7 vote in the Health & Human Services Committee. 

So now, it’s up to Colorado voters to do what the Legislature would not: Give those convicted of trafficking minors a life sentence without parole; protect girls sports – and their privacy and safety – from male athletes; and protect minors from irreversible, body damaging transgender surgeries. 

Related articles and resources: 

‘Art Club’ Documentary — One Family’s Escape from Gender Ideology, and the Bigger Trend Sweeping the Nation

Athletes Rally at Supreme Court to Keep Boys Out of Girls Sports

Colorado Committee Kills ‘Children Are Not for Sale Bill’

Exclusive Interview: Colorado Parents Expose ‘Gender Cult’ at Public School in New Documentary

One Mom’s Journey Advocating for Children and Parental Rights

Protect Kids Colorado

Sign These Three Ballot Petitions to Protect Kids and Parental Rights in Colorado

Supreme Court to Hear Title IX Girls Sports Case

Protect Kids Colorado

Top 5 Moments From Supreme Court Arguments Over Girls Sports

Washington State Citizens Fight for Parents’ Rights, Girls Sports