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Here’s a headline that should make every conservative pause: The Trump administration’s Department of Justice is actively defending a gender clinic doctor against a lawsuit brought by a detransitioner who claims she was permanently harmed by medical interventions she received as a vulnerable young woman. If you’re wondering why the MAGA base gets frustrated with Washington, this is exhibit A.
Layton Ulery is suing Dr. Jason Rafferty and Thundermist Health Center in Rhode Island, alleging that she was put on testosterone at age 19 after just a single visit, without proper evaluation of her underlying mental health conditions. According to her legal team, Ulery was struggling with severe trauma, dissociation, and depression when she walked into that clinic. What she got was a prescription for hormones and a one-way ticket to permanent physical changes she now deeply regrets. “All of the people that I was surrounded by were essentially people who were dissociated from reality,” Ulery told The Daily Wire, describing the environment that led to her transition. “Which was certainly not helpful in the circumstance that I was in.”
Her lawyer, Josh Payne, isn’t pulling punches about the DOJ’s involvement. “The Trump Administration is not practicing what it preaches in this particular circumstance,” Payne said bluntly. He’s calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to “get a grip on this case” and instruct her staff to negotiate a resolution rather than fighting a vulnerable victim in court. “This is not what federal tax dollars should be spent on to defend,” Payne added. “It’s bad enough tax dollars were used to fund the mistreatment Layton experienced at the federally-funded clinic. The administration should be protecting vulnerable people like Layton, not fighting them.” Does that sound like the America First agenda Trump campaigned on?
The DOJ’s response is technically defensible but morally hollow. A spokesperson told The Daily Wire that the Department is “fundamentally opposed to woke gender ideology” and is “using every legal and law enforcement tool available to protect youth from being mutilated under the guise of ‘care.'” They claim the case is being dismissed on procedural grounds, specifically that Ulery filed outside the statute of limitations and failed to exhaust administrative remedies. But here’s the problem: Ulery’s team argues the statute should be extended because she couldn’t have discovered the harm while she was in a dissociated mental state, misled by medical professionals who told her testosterone would cure her psychological suffering.
Think about what we’re witnessing here. A young woman who was failed by the medical establishment, rushed through a life-altering medical intervention without proper screening, is now being told by her own government that she waited too long to seek justice. Meanwhile, the doctor who allegedly approved her hormones after one visit gets taxpayer-funded legal defense. If the Trump administration is serious about protecting children and young adults from gender ideology’s harms, shouldn’t they start by listening to the victims?
The disconnect between Trump’s rhetoric and his bureaucracy’s actions couldn’t be clearer. On the campaign trail, he promised to stop the “mutilation” of children and protect vulnerable youth from medical experimentation. Yet here we are, with his DOJ using procedural technicalities to shield a gender clinic from accountability while a detransitioner fights alone. Actions speak louder than press releases, and right now, the action is all on the side of the medical establishment that ruined this young woman’s body. When will the administration realize that protecting victims matters more than protecting government lawyers from admitting fault?
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