Chloe Cole urges Disney to cover healthcare for detransitioners, warns 'lawsuits are coming'

Detransitioner Chloe Cole has warned Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger that the “lawsuits are coming” after presenting a proposal during the corporation's annual shareholders meeting that noted its medical benefits support body-mutilating "sex-change" surgeries but not healthcare for employees seeking to detransition. 

Cole presented the proposal earlier this month on behalf of Do No Harm, an organization comprised of medical professionals who oppose adding a “political agenda” to the healthcare industry. According to the proposal, those who desire to detransition are protected under Equal Employment Opportunity Commission categories; however, the Walt Disney Company only provides such medical benefits to those seeking cosmetic procedures to alter their bodies to look more like the opposite sex. 

In an April 3 post on X, Cole shared a video of her comments during a recent shareholders meeting which she delivered over the phone. The young activist also opened up about her struggles to undo the damage done to her body after she tried to change her sex as a teen. 

“Disney pays for gender transition interventions, but not detransitioning care. Therefore, the company discriminates based on gender identity, under EEOC regulations,” Cole said during the annual shareholder meeting. 

In a lawsuit Cole filed last year against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, the Permanente Medical Group and affiliated healthcare professionals, she accused the medical groups of performing a "mutilating, mimicry sex change experiment" on her when she was only a teenager. Cole said she was suffering from various mental health issues around the time she started expressing a desire to identify as the opposite sex. 

Before she eventually decided to detransition, Cole had been prescribed puberty blockers, the highest doses of testosterone — which she previously said made her extremely angry and led to physical injuries — and underwent a double mastectomy, which she now regrets.

The lawsuit accused the medical professionals Cole sought help from of "experimenting" on her for financial gain, emphasizing that she now suffers from "deep physical and emotional wounds, severe regrets, and distrust of the medical system."

“My body has been irreversibly damaged, and years later, my chest is still in bandages. My doctors have abandoned me. New Doctors look and shrug. As a result, I am suing those professionals who steered me into taking these destructive steps that have permanently scarred me,” Cole said during the shareholders meeting. 

According to The Huffington Post, Disney rejected the proposal advocating for the corporation to cover medical procedures requested by detransitioners. 

In her remarks, Cole addressed the company’s accusation that she is only trying to “generate attention” for a “limited agenda,” stating that it is Disney’s CEO who is “pushing the ‘limited agenda’ of gender ideology.” She likened the corporation to the villain Ursula from Disney’s "The Little Mermaid," accusing the entertainment company of “stealing the voices of thousands of little Ariels across the world” by telling them they can change their sex. 

“The lawsuits are coming, sir. It’s only a matter of time before current or past employees, whose bodies and lives have been irreversibly harmed, will show up at your door looking for justice and restitution,” Cole told Iger as she pleaded with him to vote in favor of the proposal. 

Cole’s remarks during the shareholders meeting reflect an ongoing discussion about the side effects of “gender-affirming care,” especially when it comes to minors. 

The “Cass Report,” released earlier this month, laid out recommendations from the National Health Services England Policy Working Group regarding practices medical professionals should follow when assisting youth exhibiting gender dysphoria. 

The report, chaired by Dr. Hilary Cass, the retired former president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, was commissioned following the exponential increase in the number of youth seeking treatment for gender dysphoria. 

According to the report, studies claiming puberty blockers help improve the well-being of children suffering from gender dysphoria are of “poor” quality. The review also recommended "extreme caution" for prescribing irreversible cross-sex hormones to minors. 

The report suggested a new, multi-layered approach to treating children who experience discomfort with their sex, one that includes the creation of local specialist services designed to meet the "wider needs" of youth experiencing gender dysphoria. These centers would provide "a wide range of services, helping young people to overcome the psychological and social needs and challenges they might face.” 

"The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress," Cass wrote in the report’s introduction.