Subject of the John/Joan Case Dies:

“After a botched circumcision operation when he was a toddler, David Reimer became the subject of a study that became known as the John/Joan case in the 60’s and 70’s. His mother said she was still angry with the Baltimore doctor who persuaded her and her husband, Ron, to give female hormones to their son and raise him as a daughter.

As he grew up as Brenda in Winnipeg, he faced cruelty from the other children. ‘They wouldn’t let him use the boys’ washroom or the girls’,’ Ms. Reimer recalled. ‘He had to go in the back alley.’

His sexual reassignment was then widely reported as a success and proof that children are not by nature feminine or masculine but through nurture are socialized to become girls or boys. David’s identical twin brother, Brian, offered researchers a matched control subject.

But when, as a teenager, he discovered the truth about his past , he resumed his male identity, eventually marrying and becoming a stepfather to three children.” Reimer, despondent about the loss of a job, the breakdown of his marriage, and still grieving the death of his twin brother two years ago, reportedly ended his own life. — New York Times