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"Born as Bruce Reimer, one of twin boys to Janet and Ron Reimer, Bruce's penis was destroyed in a circumcision accident when he was 8 months old. His parents consulted Dr. John Money at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, who advised Bruce's parents to also have his testes removed and raise him as a girl. He was renamed Brenda and treated as female by his family from then on. Dr. Money theorizied that gender identity is largely the result of social learning, and believed that if Brenda never knew the truth of her birth, she would successfully transition to a female. However, Brenda's childhood and adolescence was difficult. She and her twin brother Brian were extensively studied by Dr. Money; both twins later alleged they were sexually abused by Money during some of the treatments. By the age of 14, Brenda was suicidially depressed and begged her parents to discontinue her treatment with Dr. Money. The Reimers ceased her treatment and finally told the twins the truth of Brenda's birth. Brenda then decided to live as a male, and changed her name to David. In the next few years David underwent further surgeries to reverse his sex reassignment, and later married a woman and became a stepfather to her children. Dr. Money, however, continued to describe David's original sex reassignment (from male to female) as a success, which lead David to speak out in 1997 to make his side of the story known, and to try to dissuade other physicians from treating other infants as he had been treated. Brian, David's twin, began having mental problems after learning the truth about his sibling, and eventually committed suicide in 2002. In 2004, David, depressed over his failing marriage and continued psychological problems, also took his own life. The story of Bruce/Brenda/David Reimer was the subject of the book "As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl" and the BBC documentary "Dr. Money and the Boy With No Penis." Dr. Money died in 2006."

Sounds like a Springer story, but too tragic to make light of. A simply astonishingly sad story.

Comments

  1. Holly and MarkSeptember 26, 2009 at 12:02 PM

    He looks just like the kid on the Free Credit Report dot com commercials!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 3, 2009 at 1:17 PM

    What a terrible story I think It is ridiculous to believe sexual orientation is a result of your environment or society. Gay people aren't brought up to be gay in many cases just the opposite they are pressured to be normal or what there family believes is normal they fight it for years before coming as they say out of the closet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 8, 2010 at 5:31 PM

    Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

    ReplyDelete

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