1/ New from me in @TheEconomist Johanna Olson-Kennedy is the most famous youth gender doctor in the U.S. She has long been skeptical of comprehensive assessments, viewing them as unnecessary gatekeeping. Now, she’s being sued by a former patient who argues she didn't get *enough* gatekeeping.
2/ Clementine Breen is a 20-year-old UCLA student. She got puberty blockers at 12, testosterone at 13, and a double mastectomy at 14. She regrets it all and her lawsuit argues that Olson-Kennedy, her therapist, and her surgeon all provided her with lackluster care. Olson-Kennedy’s own notes, ...
3/ ...which Breen’s legal team acquired and shared with me, substantiate many of her claims. For example, Olson-Kennedy referred Breen for puberty blockers at her first visit. In her notes from that visit, Olson-Kennedy explicitly states Breen hasn’t seen a therapist yet and had come out as trans...
4/ ...three months earlier. It’s clear she didn’t meet the DSM criteria for GD (which require at least six months of feeling that way), and yet Olson-Kennedy diagnosed her with it. Breen claims that when her parents were skeptical of medical intervention, Olson-Kennedy spoke to them separately...
5/ ... and told them Breen was suicidal and could kill herself unless they acquiesced. Breen wasn’t suicidal and accuses Olson-Kennedy of lying in the lawsuit.
6/ In the letter of support for the double-mastectomy that Olson-Kennedy wrote for Breen, she claimed that Breen had “endorsed a male gender identity since childhood,” which is plainly false and contradicted by her own notes. 
9/ There are many details I wasn't able to fit into the piece. I'll write more for my newsletter soon, so sign up if you want access. That bonus material will be based on primary docs and an interview with Clementine.
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