James Finn
1 min readNov 24, 2022

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One critical point about Money and his unethical Reimer experiment is that that he was trying to demonstrate something like the opposite of what trans people say about their lives. Money's hypothesis was that gender identity is the result of socialization, and that intentional gender socialization can change gender identity in young children.

David Reimer lost most of his penis as an infant during a botched circumcision. Money then convinced David's parents to have the rest of David's genitals removed and to raise him as a girl while raising his twin brother as a boy.

By Money's thinking, socialization and female hormones during puberty would result in a female gender identity.

That's not what happened.

Even though nobody told David that he had been born as a boy, he found himself unable to identify as the girl he was supposed to be. His innate gender identity was so strong that he struggled against his female socialization and became depressed.

When he found out about the experiment, he began to live his life as a man.

He and his twin each committed suicide later in life.

Money did not end up demonstrating that hormones and socialization form gender identity. He rather dramatically if inadvertently demonstrated pretty much the opposite.

Trans people have been saying the same thing all along.

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James Finn
James Finn

Written by James Finn

James Finn is an LGBTQ columnist, a former Air Force intelligence analyst, an alumnus of Act Up NY, and an agented but unpublished novelist.

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