David Reimer

Their parents were Janet and Ron Reimer, a couple of Mennonite descent who had married in December 1964.

At the age of six months, after concern was raised about how both of them urinated, the boys were diagnosed with phimosis.

They were referred for circumcision at the age of seven months.

General practitioner Jean-Marie Huot performed the operation using the unconventional method of electrocauterization, but the procedure burned David's penis beyond surgical repair.

The doctors chose not to operate on Brian, whose phimosis soon cleared without surgical intervention.

David Reimer (born Bruce Peter Reimer; 22 August 1965 – 4 May 2004) was a Canadian man raised as a girl following medical advice and intervention after his penis was severely injured during a botched circumcision in infancy.

The psychologist John Money oversaw the case and reported the reassignment as successful and as evidence that gender identity is primarily learned.

The academic sexologist Milton Diamond later reported that Reimer's realization that he was not a girl occurred between the ages of 9 and 11 years and that he was living as a male by the age of 15.

Well known in medical circles for years anonymously as the "John/Joan" case, Reimer later went public with his story to help discourage similar medical practices.

He killed himself at age 38.

David Reimer was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on 22 August 1965, the elder of identical twin boys.

He was originally named Bruce, and his identical twin was named Brian.

The parents, concerned about their son's prospects for future happiness and sexual function without a penis, took him to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in early 1967 to see John Money, a psychologist who was developing a reputation as a pioneer in the field of sexual development and gender identity, based on his work with intersex patients.

Money was a prominent proponent of the "theory of gender neutrality"—that gender identity developed primarily as a result of social learning from early childhood and that it could be changed with the appropriate behavioural interventions.

The Reimers had seen Money being interviewed in February 1967 on the Canadian news program This Hour Has Seven Days, during which he discussed his theories about gender.

Reimer was raised under the "optimum gender rearing model", which was the common model for sex and gender socialization/medicalization for intersex youth.

The model has been heavily criticized as sexist.

At that time, surgical construction of the vagina was more advanced than construction of the penis, and Money believed that Reimer would be happiest in adulthood living as a woman with functioning genitalia.

Additionally, for Money, a case where identical twin boys were involved where one could be raised as a girl provided a perfect test of his theories.

Money and the Hopkins family team persuaded the baby's parents that sex reassignment surgery would be in Reimer's best interest.

At the age of 22 months, David underwent a bilateral orchidectomy, in which his testes were surgically removed and a rudimentary vulva was constructed by genital plastic surgery.

David was reassigned to be raised as female and given the name Brenda (similar to his birth name, "Bruce").

Psychological support for the reassignment and surgery was provided by John Money, who continued to see Reimer annually for consultations and to assess the outcome.

This reassignment was considered an especially important test case of the social learning concept of gender identity for two reasons: first, Reimer's identical twin brother, Brian, made an ideal control because the brothers shared genes, family environments, and the intrauterine environment; second, this was reputed to be the first reassignment and reconstruction performed on a male infant who had no abnormality of prenatal or early postnatal sexual differentiation.

Money reported on Reimer's progress as the "John/Joan case", describing apparently successful female gender development, even after David informed his father at age 14 that he had always felt that he was a boy, bringing the experiment to an end.

According to John Colapinto, who published a biography of Reimer in 2001, the sessions with Money included what Money called "childhood sexual rehearsal play".

Money theorized that reproductive behaviour formed the foundation of gender, and that "play at thrusting movements and copulation" was a key aspect of gender development in all primates.

Starting at age six, according to Brian, the twins were forced to act out sexual acts, with David playing the female role—Money made David get down on all fours, and Brian was forced to "come up behind [him] and place his crotch against [his] buttocks".

Money also forced David, in another sexual position, to have his "legs spread" with Brian on top.

On "at least one occasion" Money took a photograph of the two children doing these activities.

When either child resisted these activities, Money would get angry.

Both David and Brian recall that Money was mild-mannered around their parents, but ill-tempered when alone with them.

When they resisted inspecting each other's genitals, Money got very aggressive.

David says, "He told me to take my clothes off, and I just did not do it. I just stood there. And he screamed, 'Now!' Louder than that. I thought he was going to give me a whupping. So I took my clothes off and stood there shaking."

Money's rationale for these various treatments was his belief that "childhood 'sexual rehearsal play was important for a "healthy adult gender identity".

Both David and Brian were traumatized with Brian speaking about it "only with the greatest emotional turmoil", and David unwilling to speak about the details publicly, although his wife, Jane Fontane, stated that David had privately told her the same story.

Brian was found dead of a drug overdose at 36, and David died by suicide at age 38.

Their parents state that Money's forced, inappropriate "therapy" was responsible for both deaths.

Estrogen was given to David during adolescence, therefore inducing breast development.

For several years, Money reported on Reimer's progress as the "John/Joan case".