Known as the "John/Joan" case, Money publicly reported the reassignment as a success, using it to justify thousands of similar surgeries on infants with atypical genitalia.
David Reimer (1965–2004) was a Canadian man whose life became a pivotal and tragic case study in psychology and medical ethics regarding gender identity.
Behind the scenes, David never identified as female. Throughout his childhood, he resisted feminine roles and suffered from severe gender dysphoria and depression.
Born as Bruce Reimer, a botched circumcision at eight months old destroyed his penis. On the advice of psychologist John Money, who believed gender identity was socially constructed (the "nurture" theory), David’s parents had him undergo sex reassignment surgery and raised him as a girl named "Brenda". The Case Study and Reality
At age 14, after learning the truth about his birth, he immediately chose to live as a male and took the name David. He later underwent surgeries to reverse the reassignment and married in 1990. Legacy and Death
