Remembering Reimer: How one man’s tragic suicide proved that boys shouldn’t be raised as girls
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, May 7, 2014 – Ten years ago David Reimer , 38, parked his truck at a local shopping center, put a sawed-off shotgun to his head, and pulled the trigger. His tragic death emphasized the total failure of one of the most famous gender alteration cases in modern medicine. Bruce's name was changed to 'Brenda' and he was raised as a girl. David Reimer was originally named Bruce after he was born a boy along with his identical twin brother Brian in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1965. A botched circumcision at about eight months burned off the boy’s penis, leaving his young parents bewildered about how they should raise their son. Parents thought they had found an answer when they learned through a television program about Dr. John Money of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, a psychologist renowned for his theories about gender. Money believed identifying as male or female was a learned trait, but wanted to prove his theory with an ideal test subjec...