In 1965 two twin boys, Bruce and Bryan, were born to Janet Reimer in Winnipeg, Canada. When the twins were seven months old, they went in for a routine circumcision operation, and baby Bruce's penis was burnt off in an electrical malfunction. The parents were dismayed, and had no idea how Bruce would function without such a key male member.
However, their story did fall upon the happy ears of Doctor John Money. Dr. Money was the leading expert in the field of sex change operations and gender identity research. Money's theory was that a child's gender, regardless of their born sex, was ambiguous for the first two years of their life. The child's gender identity simply comes from their upbringing; if a child was raised to believe he was a specific gender, he would act accordingly. The Reimer twins were the perfect chance to test the theory, because of the missing penis on baby Bruce. Dr. Money quickly got in touch with the family and explained his theory. Mr and Mrs. Reimer agreed to let Dr. Money research their children and agreed to raise Bruce as a girl, who they would now call Brenda.
For the first few years of her life, Brenda had a very feminine gender expression. Her mother made her fancy dresses and gave her dolls and cookware to play with. Brenda had no reason to question her gender, because she saw that she was the same as all the other little girls she knew. Brenda and Bryan went in for yearly meetings with Dr. Money who questioned them to see how his theory was holding up. After a meeting with the twins when they were about five, Dr. Money was confident that his theory was a success, so he published his results. The scientific community praised him for his work.
Shortly after the publication of his findings, Brenda began to show signs of a more masculine expression. She played with her brother's trucks, and began to stray from feminine pursuits. She also began to exhibit more masculine body features as well. When Dr. Money heard, he was frantic. He didn't want the world to find out that his theory wasn't true. He brought the twins in for an emergency session to talk some sense into his subject. He tried to explain to Brenda that she must be a girl, because she didn't have a penis. All males have a penis, so anyone without one is a female. Dr. Money even went to such extremes as to make the twins pose next to each other naked, so Brenda could see the difference in genatalia.
Dr. Money began to realize that his theory wasn't true, as Brenda's unconfidence in her gender grew. Her parents realized that it wasn't fair to force Brenda to fit a specific gender role any more, so they told the twins the truth. Brenda was relieved. She began dressing as a boy, and changed her name to David; this was her coming out. David eventually underwent the appropriate operations to receive a penis, and eventually married and raised a family. After many years, the twins decided to make their story public and tell the world the truth about Dr. Money's theory. The pressure from the ordeal began to weigh on the twins and they both unfortunately committed suicide.
Dr. Money's involvement in the twin's life is arguably the cause of their untimely death. Dr. Money tried to force David to assume a gender identity that just wasn't him. A gender identity is not something you can choose for someone, but rather a personal choice. Dr. Money also failed to recognize that you can't change someone's natural sexual orientation. David would have been attracted to females all along, regardless of the gender identity forced upon him. Dr. Money was also wrong about a penis being the defining part in the male gender. Intersex people are a perfect example of this. Intersex persons are born with both sets of genatalia. They choose for themselves which gender they identify with, and may choose to have the appropriate surgeries to add or remove the extra genatalia. Gender is completely up to each individual person to decide. Their gender identity should lie completely in what they feel comfortable with, reguardless of the genatalie they are born with.
Sources Used:
http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/sexuality-definitions.pdf
Images Used (Top to Bottom):
http://www.bilimsokak.com/dehsetle-sonuclanan-david-raimer-vakasi/
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2004/06/gender_gap.html