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The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has ordered a B.C. family doctor to pay $28,100 in compensation for refusing to administer a puberty-blocking drug to a transgender-identifying teen over his religious beliefs.
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According to the ruling, Dr. Henry Ajaero discriminated against the transgender youth by denying medical services based on gender identity.
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“I am not persuaded that this was justified by (Ajaero’s) religious beliefs or lack of medical expertise,” tribunal vice-chair Devyn Cousineau wrote in finding Ajaero violated protected grounds under B.C.’s Human Rights Code.
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The case involves a visit by “Child Q” to Ajaero at age 14. The ruling describes Child Q as a “brave, sensitive, kind transgender girl” who, in late 2020, “had come out as transgender and was struggling with puberty.”
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At the mother’s request, Ajaero referred Child Q to a gender clinic at B.C. Children’s Hospital, where an endocrinologist prescribed Lupron. Regular injections of Lupron act on the brain to block the release of testosterone and estrogen and stop the body changes that come with puberty, such as breasts, broadening hips and menstrual periods in a child born female, and voice deepening, body and facial hair, muscle mass, and other changes in a child born male.
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Puberty blockers have come under increasing scrutiny, including in the U.K, where a major review led to their ban for use in trans-identifying youth.
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Lupron was meant to “pause” puberty and buy Child Q time to decide next steps, Cousineau wrote. “Child Q describes the day she started Lupron as ‘one of the best days of my life.’”
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The drug is taken as an injection every three to four weeks. Child Q had the option of learning how to administer the injection herself, but preferred to have it done by a doctor, according to the tribunal decision.
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An appointment was booked with Ajaero at his Delta clinic for March 5, 2021. That day, while mother and child waited to see him, Ajaero learned what the injection was for. According to the ruling, he told the mother privately that he would not administer it for “religious and cultural reasons” and said no one else at the clinic could do it. “Mother Q and Child Q were forced to leave without receiving the injection.”
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In asking for Child Q’s complaint against him to be dismissed, Ajaero argued that providing any care related to “gender reassignment” is inconsistent with his religious beliefs and that administering Lupron was outside his scope of practice and expertise.
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The case was also the subject of an investigation by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C., which issued a formal reprimand against Ajaero in 2023 for refusing to provide care related to gender transition on the basis of conscientious objection without offering to help refer the patient to a willing provider.