On March 20, 2024, Milton Diamond, professor of anatomy and reproductive biology, died.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Fri Mar 21, 2025, 01:43 PM - Edit history (4)

I have yet to find an obituary for him.

Milton Diamond


Diamond in 2010

Born: March 6, 1934; New York City, U.S.
Died: March 20, 2024 (aged 90); Honolulu, Hawai'i, U.S.
Alma mater: City College of New York (BS), University of Kansas (PhD)
Known for: Following up the case of David Reimer

Milton Diamond (March 6, 1934 – March 20, 2024) was an American professor of anatomy and reproductive biology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. After a career in the study of human sexuality, Diamond retired from the university in December 2009 but continued with his research and writing until retiring fully in 2018. He died on March 20, 2024, at the age of 90.

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David Reimer

Diamond was best known for following up on the case of David Reimer, a boy raised as a girl under the supervision of John Money after his penis was damaged beyond surgical repair during a botched circumcision, which was performed using an unconventional method of electrocauterization instead of a clamp and scalpel. This case, which Money renamed that of "John/Joan" to protect Reimer's privacy, has become one of the most cited cases in the literature of psychiatry, anthropology, women's studies, child development, and biology of gender. With the cooperation of H. Keith Sigmundson, who had been Reimer's supervising psychiatrist, Diamond tracked down the adult Reimer and found that Money's sex reassignment of Reimer had failed. Diamond was the first to alert physicians that the model, proposed by Reimer's case, of how to treat infants with intersex conditions was faulty.

Diamond recommended that physicians should not perform surgery on intersex infants without their informed consent, should assign such infants to the gender to which they will probably best adjust, and refrain from adding shame, stigma and secrecy to the issue, by assisting intersex people to meet and associate with others of like condition. Diamond similarly encouraged considering the intersex condition as a difference of sex development, not as a disorder.

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David Reimer


David Reimer

Born: Bruce Peter Reimer; 22 August 1965; Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Died: 4 May 2004 (aged 38); Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Cause of death: Suicide by gunshot
Resting place: St. Vital Cemetery, Winnipeg
Other names: Brenda Reimer
Spouse: Jane Fontane ​{m. 1990}

David Reimer (born Bruce Peter Reimer; 22 August 1965 – 4 May 2004) was a Canadian man raised as a girl following medical advice and intervention after his penis was severely injured during a botched circumcision in infancy.

The psychologist John Money oversaw the case and reported the reassignment as successful and as evidence that gender identity is primarily learned. The academic sexologist Milton Diamond later reported that Reimer's realization that he was not a girl occurred between the ages of 9 and 11 years and that he was living as a male by the age of 15. Well known in medical circles for years anonymously as the "John/Joan" case, Reimer later went public with his story to help discourage similar medical practices. He killed himself at age 38.

Life

Infancy

David Reimer was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on 22 August 1965, the elder of identical twin boys. He was originally named Bruce, and his identical twin was named Brian. Their parents were Janet and Ron Reimer, a couple of Mennonite descent who had married in December 1964. At the age of six months, after concern was raised about how both of them urinated, the boys were diagnosed with phimosis. They were referred for circumcision at the age of seven months. General practitioner Jean-Marie Huot performed the operation using the unconventional method of electrocauterization, but the procedure burned David's penis beyond surgical repair. The doctors chose not to operate on Brian, whose phimosis soon cleared without surgical intervention.

The parents, concerned about their son's prospects for future happiness and sexual function without a penis, took him to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in early 1967 to see John Money, a psychologist who was developing a reputation as a pioneer in the field of sexual development and gender identity, based on his work with intersex patients. Money was a prominent proponent of the "theory of gender neutrality"—that gender identity developed primarily as a result of social learning from early childhood and that it could be changed with the appropriate behavioural interventions. The Reimers had seen Money being interviewed in February 1967 on the Canadian news program This Hour Has Seven Days, during which he discussed his theories about gender.

At that time, surgical construction of the vagina was more advanced than construction of the penis, and Money believed that Reimer would be happiest in adulthood living as a woman with functioning genitalia.

Money and the Hopkins family team persuaded the baby's parents that sex reassignment surgery would be in Reimer's best interest. At the age of 22 months, David underwent a bilateral orchiectomy, in which his testes were surgically removed and a rudimentary vulva was constructed by genital plastic surgery. David was reassigned to be raised as female and given the name Brenda {similar to his birth name, "Bruce"}. Psychological support for the reassignment and surgery was provided by John Money, who continued to see Reimer annually for consultations and to assess the outcome. This reassignment was considered an especially important test case of the social learning concept of gender identity for two reasons: first, Reimer's identical twin brother, Brian, made an ideal control because the brothers shared genes, family environments, and the intrauterine environment; second, this was reputed to be the first reassignment and reconstruction performed on a male infant who had no abnormality of prenatal or early postnatal sexual differentiation.

Forced "sexual rehearsal"

Money reported on Reimer's progress as the "John/Joan case", describing apparently successful female gender development, even after David informed his father at age 14 that he had always felt that he was a boy, bringing the experiment to an end.

According to John Colapinto, who published a biography of Reimer in 2001, the sessions with Money included what Money called "childhood sexual rehearsal play".[24] Money theorized that reproductive behaviour formed the foundation of gender, and that "play at thrusting movements and copulation" was a key aspect of gender development in all primates. Starting at age six, according to Brian, the twins were forced to act out sexual acts, with David playing the female role—Money made David get down on all fours, and Brian was forced to "come up behind [him] and place his crotch against [his] buttocks". Money also forced David, in another sexual position, to have his "legs spread" with Brian on top. On "at least one occasion" Money took a photograph of the two children doing these activities.

When either child resisted these activities, Money would get angry. Both David and Brian recall that Money was mild-mannered around their parents, but ill-tempered when alone with them. When they resisted inspecting each other's genitals, Money got very aggressive. David says, "He told me to take my clothes off, and I just did not do it. I just stood there. And he screamed, 'Now!' Louder than that. I thought he was going to give me a whupping. So I took my clothes off and stood there shaking."

Money's rationale for these various treatments was his belief that "childhood 'sexual rehearsal play'" was important for a "healthy adult gender identity".

Both David and Brian were traumatized with Brian speaking about it "only with the greatest emotional turmoil", and David unwilling to speak about the details publicly, although his wife, Jane Fontane, stated that David had privately told her the same story.

Puberty and adolescence

Estrogen was given to David during adolescence, therefore inducing breast development.

For several years, Money reported on Reimer's progress as the "John/Joan case". Money wrote, "The child's behavior is so clearly that of an active little girl and so different from the boyish ways of her twin brother."

The twins attended Glenwood School in Winnipeg, and from the age of 14, David attended R.B. Russell Vocational High School. He eventually ceased attending the school and was tutored privately.

By the age of 13 years, Reimer was experiencing suicidal depression and he told his parents he would take his own life if they made him see Money again. Finally, on 14 March 1980, Reimer's parents told him the truth about his sex reassignment, following advice from Reimer's endocrinologist and psychiatrist. At the age of 14, having been informed of his past by his father, Reimer decided to assume a male gender identity, calling himself David. He underwent treatment to reverse the reassignment, including testosterone injections, a double mastectomy, and phalloplasty operations.

Adulthood

Reimer worked in a slaughterhouse and then worked doing odd jobs. On 22 September 1990, he married Jane Fontane and would adopt her three children. His hobbies included camping, fishing, antiques and collecting old coins.

His case came to international attention in 1997 when he told his story to Milton Diamond, an academic sexologist who persuaded Reimer to allow him to report the outcome in order to dissuade physicians from treating other infants similarly. Soon after, Reimer went public with his story and John Colapinto published a widely disseminated and influential account in Rolling Stone magazine in December 1997. The article won the National Magazine Award for Reporting.

This was later expanded into The New York Times best-selling biography As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl (2000), in which Colapinto described how—contrary to Money's reports—when living as Brenda, Reimer did not identify as a girl. He was ostracized and bullied by peers (who dubbed him "cavewoman" ), and neither frilly dresses nor female hormones made him feel female.

Death
In addition to his difficult lifelong relationship with his parents, Reimer was unemployed and experienced remorse due to the death of his brother Brian from an overdose of antidepressants on 1 July 2002. On 2 May 2004, his wife Jane told him she wanted to separate. On the morning of 4 May 2004, Reimer drove to a grocery store's parking lot in his hometown of Winnipeg and shot himself in the head with a 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun. He was 38 years old. He and Brian are buried in St. Vital Cemetery in Winnipeg.

Money never commented publicly on Colapinto's book or on Reimer's suicide, although colleagues said he was "mortified" by the case.

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[24] Colapinto, John (2001a). As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-019211-2. OCLC 42080126.

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Sun Mar 24, 2024: On March 20, 2024, Milton Diamond, professor of anatomy and reproductive biology, died.

[rsdsharp]

1. Diamond looks like Steven Spielberg.