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Visible Man

Jamison Green offers a man's POV on life in the trans lane. Opinion, advice and information from an internationally respected leader of the FTM community. His new book, "Becoming a Visible Man," will be published by Vanderbilt University Press in May.

Requiem for David Reimer

First documented as "the John/Joan case," Reimer's story both shocked and intrigued the world as the quintessential gender experiment, complete with a twin "control" against which to compare data. Professor John Money of Johns Hopkins University was the scientist in charge, and he took only what he needed from his time with David to promote his theory (popular in the 1960s) that gender was primarily a social construction that could be manipulated by social mirroring and reinforcement.

In the 1960s a great deal of social experimentation was going on in many institutions, from schools to manufacturing plants. Medicine was not immune to the lure of "futuristic" thinking. Relevant to gender theory, Money, J. G. Hampson and J. L. Hampson published an article in 1957 documenting that, for the 155 intersexed individuals they studied, gender identity was almost always congruent with the assigned sex, regardless of any biological markers (chromosomes, genitals, etc.). Given this data, it did not seem unreasonable to theorize that a boy who had lost his penis could be raised successfully as a girl. I think Money was working with the best knowledge available at the time, and he seemed to be headed toward demonstrating that, even though most people experience their body and gender as the same, there is an inherent disjunction that exists between the physical body and the sense of self that each of us uses that thing called gender to express. The same rationale was used later to support transsexual treatments at Hopkins. Not everything that Money wrote has stood the test of time, but Money published a great deal of work that was instrumental in advancing what we now think of as progressive gender theory.

According to Colapinto, Money didn't seek David out: David's parents came to him wondering what they could do to help their child who had experienced this horrible tragedy when they learned that he was doing biochemical and surgical work to "help" intersexed children. At the time, the idea of a man without a penis was implausible, and apparently Dr. Money advised that David's best chance at a sexually satisfying life lay in conversion to a female body. Now David's mother, Janet, and many people in the trans community are expressing anger and resentment toward John Money for convincing the parents to go through with the social experiment. No one at that time had the insights we have now with respect to gender identity and body issues, and we still don't have all the answers.

It wasn't the gender study by itself that led to the emotional hardship that David suffered. What about the responsibility that rests with the doctors, nurses and technicians who were present when David's penis was irreparably burned away with a cauterizing tool? I've made the point before, and I'll make it again, that David's story is less parallel to the intersex and MTF transsexual stories to which it is compared than it is to the experience of FTMs who are told they can't be men because they have no penis, and for whom surgical solutions are not sufficiently advanced to permit the kind of social/sexual functioning that most nontrans men (and many nontrans women) believe is necessary for healthy male self-actualization. But nothing that any ordinary transsexual child experiences compares to the damage inflicted on his body and soul brought by that particular original trauma.

What Money should be held accountable for is not recognizing and not making public the failure of his experiment when he discovered that failure years later, and further for not assisting David in reintegrating himself as a man once he reclaimed his identity. He just washed his hands of the whole business, as if nothing had happened to a human being.

I know David's life was hard, and he bore up (very possibly) better than most, given the circumstances of the original disaster and then his subsequent treatment by John Money. But is John Money more responsible for David's emotional turmoil than the children at school who were cruel and tormenting because David (then called Brenda) did not seem like a girl to them, or the administrators at the school who did nothing to prevent the harassment and abuse that David endured?

David was devastated by the death of his twin brother, Brian, two years ago. What's more, he had recently lost his job and his wife left him, perhaps because (and I am blatantly conjecturing here) she was not able to connect with him emotionally due to his depression. Who knows? Whatever the exact details, the barest facts inform us that David's view of his life was exceedingly bleak.

According to a story by Katie Chalmers in the Winnipeg Sun News on May 10, Janet said she'll remember her son as "the most generous, loving soul that ever lived. ... He was so generous. He gave all he had."

David's death cannot be avenged by figuratively crucifying John Money. He alone is not responsible for the extreme difficulties of David's life. A fitting legacy for David would be a commemoration of the love that his family had for him and he for them, acknowledgement that he did not harbor bitterness toward his parents, who did the best they could to help him all his life, and recognition of the gentle soul that was so impaired by tragedy yet so courageously tried to be himself and to give of himself as much as he could.

The profound mourning of those who loved him should be honored with respect for the gift of David's soul. He need not be enshrined as a martyr for the cause of transgender or transsexual or intersex issues or people, but if he is to come to symbolize anything, let it be innocence. He will forever stand as a reminder of the callousness of some medical practitioners and theorists, such as that exhibited by some of those who treated David throughout his foreshortened life. The memory of David Reimer should inspire us to hold accountable those people whose work impacts the lives of all children. May he rest in peace.