Remembering David Reimer & the Dark History of “Gender-Affirming Care”
In 1980, a 14-year-old boy was oddly invited to select for himself the third and final name by which he would be known. He chose a most fitting name, “David”—the giant slayer, an icon of youthful, masculine courage.
The Experiment Begins
I learned of David Reimer, or of his medical mythology, during my first year of medical school in 1986 when a psychiatrist lecturing on “Psychosocial Dimensions of Health Care” gave our class an optimistic spin on the macabre case of identical twin boys born in 1965. The boys were anonymous, yet they were also famously serving as a case study in gender-identity development. In 1966 one of the twins, Bruce, had lost his penis to an injury...
is a rural family physician. He and his wife Dale, also a physician, divide their time between primary care in Texas and six months abroad each year with Free Burma Rangers. Bruce has delivered over 3,000 babies and has never once guessed or randomly assigned the sex of a newborn.
Get Salvo in your inbox! This article originally appeared in Salvo, Issue #72, Spring 2025 Copyright © 2025 Salvo | www.salvomag.com https://salvomag.com/article/salvo72/transgender-patient-zero
