The lawyer for a young, detransitioned woman who is suing several medical professionals over her transition speaks up in an exclusive interview and accuses doctors of unnecessarily performing life-changing surgeries on impressionable teenagers.
Speaking to on Sunday, Charles LiMandri called the recent spate of sex reassignment surgeries since 2015 an “indoctrination” – one that gripped his 18-year-old client Kayla Lovdahl and several others before and after.
Lovdahl was just 12 years old when she began transitioning from a woman to a man in 2017 with the help of four Bay Area medical professionals — a decision she quickly regretted just a few years later.
Such incidents, LiMandri said, have become increasingly common in recent years, fueled by a recent surge in transgender activism.
The four doctors named in the lawsuit all work for the same Oakland-based company, Kaiser Permanente, whose two subsidiaries are also named defendants.
LiMandri — a well-known San Diego attorney who specializes in religious freedom-related cases — said the firm spent just 75 minutes screening his client before hitting him with “off-label puberty blockers” and “strong male hormone drugs”.
Charles LiMandri, the attorney representing a young, detransitioned woman in her case against several Bay Area medical professionals, has spoken out, accusing doctors across the US of “maiming” youths as part of a “calculated and deliberate indoctrination” to have.
Kayla Lovdahl, now 18, is suing the medics responsible for her transition more than five years ago. She claims doctors spent just 75 minutes examining her before embarking on the life-changing ordeal
“It’s barbaric and cruel,” LiMandri told on Sunday of the health experts’ actions, which culminated in his client having a double mastectomy that left her unable to breastfeed for the rest of her life.
“It’s confusing – there’s no way kids can make that decision at 13 or 14 – they have no idea of the consequences.”
He added, “If a child is 7, 8 or 9 years old and for some childish reason wants to imitate the gender of their favorite superhero, they can be given puberty blockers and life-changing surgery.”
“It’s a very serious problem.”
The well-known legal eagle, known to have sued the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to defend a 43-foot tall Latin cross later ruled unconstitutional by the US government, went on to speak about the current cultural climate affecting his In my opinion, be allowed for this controversy.
“It’s not a huge surprise — it takes about five to 10 years for kids to go back into transition.” It all started around 2015 with Caitlyn Jenner. The lasting effects are now becoming known.”
He continued, “It’s the first time in history that we’ve seen something like this.” They tell the kids, “You’re in the wrong body.” That: “You’re special — when you do that, you’re brave ; if you do, you will be happier than ever.”
‘It is shocking.’
LiMandri compared the looming crisis to the thousands of women-to-men surgeries in years past and said young girls are the next demographic to fall victim to diagnoses that leave lasting, lasting effects.
“You only go through puberty once — you can’t just hit a pause button and expect the same progression.”
“It’s something that used to be seen in young boys — now young girls account for 80 percent of detrans cases,” he added, citing recent studies on gender dysphoria.
“For the first time in history, they’re telling them you’re in the wrong body.”
In his view, a more appropriate course of action would be to ‘just leave them alone’ and let them wait until they are at least 16 years old with their feelings of insecurity, as is the case in other countries such as Finland and France.
The fire is fueled by transgender influencers like Dylan Mulvaney, he claimed, saying such figures entice young, confused young girls to transition without properly considering their options.
“Young girls are heavily influenced by these online influencers. You get paid for it.”
He likened the result to a “horrific assembly line situation” – starting with dosing puberty blockers and testosterone and culminating in surgery on either the top end or the bottom end, or both.
“You don’t tell them about the complications that come after top surgery,” he said of the slang term for mastectomies. “Or even further down.” [surgeries.]’
“These girls have never had a sexual relationship – how can they make such decisions?”
He offered parents of teenagers and adolescents who, like his client, expressed a desire to transition, a prospective solution and urged them to wait until they were through puberty.
“Be rational,” he said. ‘Just wait.’
To the hospital systems and states pushing preadolescent surgeries, he urged, “Leave our kids alone.” Stop shoving this under our noses.
“What you do behind closed doors is fine — not forcing children to subscribe to an ideology.”
The lawsuit filed by his client now specifically names physicians Lisa Kristine Taylor, Winnie Mao Yiu Tong, Susanne Watson and Mirna Escalante as defendants — an endocrinologist, a plastic surgeon, a child psychologist and a pediatric endocrinologist.
Instead of warning Lovdahl about the finality of treatment — or advising her to explore her gender issues through psychotherapy — LiMandri said providers automatically and erroneously declared the teen as transgender.
The high-profile lawsuit – which finds itself amid a growing chorus of “chilling” youths expressing regret over their life choices – also names the hospital that removed her breasts and the doctor who oversaw the six-month trial has. Both belong to the corporate umbrella of Kaiser Permanente.
“This case is about a medical team that decided to conduct a harmful, fake sex reassignment experiment [Lovdahl]”, then a 12-year-old, vulnerable girl who was struggling with complex mental comorbidities,” says the 35-page file.
‘[Lovdahl] “They needed care, attention and psychotherapy,” it said of NorCal medical officials’ alleged mishandling of the situation. “No cross-gender hormones and mutilating surgeries.”
The lawsuit goes on to detail how Lovdahl – who goes by the alias Laya Jane – ended the transition last year at the age of 17 before ultimately regretting her decision.
“Defendants assumed that Kayla, a 12-year-old emotionally disturbed girl, knew best what she needed to improve her mental health and figuratively handed her the prescription pad,” the lawsuit reads.
“There is no other area of medicine where physicians surgically remove a perfectly healthy body part and intentionally create a disease state of pituitary dysfunction simply based on the wishes of the young adolescent patient.”
Lovdahl and her lawyers were forced to undergo psychotherapy sessions to undo the psychological damage caused by the procedure. They write that their prognosis is premature – and gave the easily influenced teenager the “mistaken belief” that she was transgender.
To reach that conclusion, the lawsuit alleges that clinical psychologist Watson — who also serves as clinical director of the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals Transgender Clinic at Oakland Medical Center — conducted a single, 75-minute transitional assessment.
During the session, Watson reportedly did not disclose any of the enduring health risks associated with taking “off-label puberty blockers and high doses of strong male hormone drugs” for a young child – after establishing that Lovedahl was transgender.
During that time, the complaint said, “Lovdahl was also coerced by her mother to attend Pride Clinic events, but she refused and said she felt no ‘pride.'”
“She expressed this lack of ‘pride’ towards her providers,” the lawsuit says, before being dismissed.
Taylor and Tong, an endocrinologist and plastic surgeon employed under the Oakland-based hospital system umbrella, both agreed with their colleagues’ assessment and began treating her with puberty blockers and testosterone at age 12.
The double mastectomy came a few months later and left lasting effects on Lovedahl – such as an inability to breastfeed at any time in the future.
The trio, the lawsuit states, “promptly and negligently confirmed.” [Lovdahl’s] self-diagnosed transgenderism without proper psychological assessment” and “no education provided.” [Lovdahl] the significantly increased risk of suicide associated with such treatments.
The lawsuit also states that after Taylor met, the three “forced” Lovdahl and her parents to undergo the treatment — in part by warning the family about their potential: “It’s better to have a living son.” than having a dead daughter”. Suicide.
has reached out to them for comment – as has a fourth Kaiser doctor named in the lawsuit, pediatric endocrinologist Escalante, who referred the family to the trio in the first place.
Escalante was the one who administered puberty blockers to Lovdahl in 2016, which caused the child to have mood swings and hot flashes, the lawsuit says.
A few months later, Taylor began giving the then 12-year-old teenager testosterone.
Within days, “Kayla’s mother, Dr. Watson about mounting anger and frustration and issues surrounding it,” the lawsuit continued.
That said, “Dr. Taylor and Dr. Watson did not assess or treat these mood swings.’
Over the next few months, after visits to four different mental health providers, Kayla’s mood was noticed to improve at times.
However, “her pre-existing complex spectrum of mental health problems” – such as “suicidal thoughts, cuts, anger, depression, [and] Mood swings persisted, according to the suit.
Years after undergoing a double mastectomy at age 13, Lovdahl says the procedure left her with “deep physical and emotional wounds and deep regret.”
The lawsuit says that after the 75-minute meeting with psychologist Taylor Lovdahl, the three “forced” their parents to undergo treatment by telling the family “it was better to have a living son.” have than a dead daughter”.
As a child, Lovdahl suffered from a serious mental illness that she says doctors overlooked when they pushed to become transgender
The lawsuit condemns Kaiser Permanente for allowing the invasive surgery at such a young age and for ignoring some of the warning signs that suggested Lovdahl’s dysphoria was merely a result of the mental health issues she was feeling at the time.
“There is no other area of medicine where physicians surgically remove a perfectly healthy part of the body and intentionally create a disease state of pituitary dysfunction simply because the young adolescent patient so desires,” it said.
After the transition, she began regular psychotherapy sessions to improve her mental health, “this is the care she should have been receiving all along,” the lawsuit says.
“The vast majority of children of opposite sex run the risk of regretting the decision if they receive medical treatment in early adolescence after they are old enough to recognize their losses,” Lovdahl added.
She said the ordeal left her with “deep physical and emotional wounds and deep regret.”
She also claims that the hospital and doctors did not provide her and her parents with proper “informed consent” leading to therapy sessions, which she says was never offered.
In a statement, her lawyers criticized the proceedings as “an insane form of child abuse.”
“We believe cases like this are the best way to stop them, especially in liberal states like California where ruthless ideologues are pushing this radical agenda,” attorney Charles Limandri said.
Kaiser Foundation Hospitals – as well as the regional Permanente Medical Group – have been contacted by for comment.
Parent company Kaiser Permanente currently operates 39 hospitals and more than 700 medical practices in eight different states and employs more than 300,000 people – including more than 87,000 doctors and nurses.
Harmeet Dhillon, CEO of the Center for American Liberty and one of Lovdahl’s other attorneys, accused the firm of “quackery” in a press release sent to on Thursday.
She appeared alongside Lovedahl on Fox News’ Ingraham Report last week to announce her intention to sue Kaiser.
“Kaiser continues the quackery of subjecting innocent children to irreversible sexual mimicry treatment, including drugs and surgery, without informed consent,” Dhillon said.
“The doctors responsible for Layla’s case, along with countless others, have replaced medically accepted standards of care with awakened ideology, including lying and manipulation of vulnerable patients and families.”
“We are committed to holding her accountable for the harm done to Layla, and together we want Kaiser’s factory-made approach that is permanently maiming an unknown number of American children, causing them a lifetime of suffering, regret and medical consequences.” , strongly deter.” .’