$2 million warning shot to gender medicine: Australia must act now to protect children

Family First Party

Family First National Director and NSW Legislative Council candidate Lyle Shelton has welcomed a landmark $2 million verdict in the United States in favour of a young woman permanently harmed by radical LGBTQA+ gender conversion therapy, warning Australian doctors and politicians they are not immune from similar consequences.

A New York jury has found a psychologist and surgeon liable for medical malpractice after pushing a double mastectomy on a 16-year-old girl who was struggling with gender distress. Now 22, the detransitioned woman told the court the irreversible surgery left her physically damaged and deeply unhappy. The jury awarded $1.6 million for pain and suffering and $400,000 for future medical costs.

“While this doesn’t seem adequate compensation for a young woman who has lost her breasts for life, this should be a wake-up call to those promoting gender conversion therapies,” Mr Shelton said. “A young woman has been maimed by ideology dressed up as healthcare. A jury has now said the so-called ‘affirming’ pathway failed even basic standards of care.”

Mr Shelton said the case exposes the reckless practice of fast-tracking vulnerable teenagers onto a medical conveyor belt of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and irreversible surgery—often driven by fear-based claims about suicide rather than careful, long-term assessment.

“Parents are being bullied. Children are being experimented on. And doctors are being told to abandon caution in favour of activism,” he said. “This verdict shows that the law is starting to catch up.”

Family First warns Australian medical practitioners that similar lawsuits are inevitable if they continue prescribing puberty blockers and hormones, or performing surgeries, on minors for gender distress.

“We renew our call on Australian governments—state and federal—to urgently ban the prescription of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender surgeries for children,” Mr Shelton said. “Children deserve protection, not permanent harm.”

Family First believes compassion means evidence-based, non-invasive care that allows children time to mature, not life-altering interventions they can never undo.

[email protected]