PERSON: Johanna Olson-Kennedy

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Physician

Johanna Olson-Kennedy is an American physician who specializes in the care of children and teenagers with gender dysphoria and youth with HIV and chronic pain. She is board-certified in pediatrics and adolescent medicine and is the medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Olson-Kennedy has co-authored multiple studies on transgender youth. She also has been interviewed for multiple news pieces.

In a 2016 Reuters article, Olson-Kennedy said “I support a social transition for a kid who is in distress and needs to live in a different way.” She said that out of approximately 1,000 patients that she had seen, only one reverted to their sex assigned at birth. She opposes mandatory psychological assessments for transgender children seeking treatment, saying in a 2018 Atlantic magazine article: “I don’t send someone to a therapist when I’m going to start them on insulin.”

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