As Nature Made Him

John Money is a famous sex researcher with an outsize personality. Within his field, especially in the 1960s and 70s, Money is known as “the front-runner on everything having to do with mixed sex and hermaphrodites and the implications for homosexuality and on and on and on” (39). Brenda/David Reimer’s case is the critical piece of evidence in Money’s dominant theory that gender is determined primarily by nurtured environment rather than biology.

Money connects with Janet and Ron Reimer just months after Bruce’s botched surgery, when Janet sees him on Canadian television. Though Money’s practices with their children, over the years, provoke his outsize temper and place their children in sexualizing, painful positions, Money is able to keep his cool with the Reimer parents. Their trust of him fades only when they see the failure of Brenda’s nurturing on their own.

Though deeply respected in his field, Money is also famous for his anger and stubbornness. Money’s explosive anger at Milton Diamond results in a violent reaction to him at a conference in the 70s; this anger repeats when Money uses his media presence to rebuke a BBC documentary, later articles, and even Colapinto’s article and book. Though Colapinto notes the elderly Money backing away from his core claim about Brenda, Money stays firm and plans to die defending his prognosis in Brenda/David’s case.

Janet Reimer “was a lively and inquisitive girl” who grows up in a strict Winnipeg Mennonite family (6). Though Janet is an active reader, her parents pull her out of school in seventh grade to begin working. Rebellious against their traditional beliefs, Janet eventually flees their home as a teenager. She marries young and gives birth to twin boys, Bruce and Brian, at 19.

After Bruce’s botched surgery, Janet and her husband Ron watch Dr. John Money on television and hear about his work with intersex people. Janet calls Money and pursues surgery for Bruce. Throughout Brenda’s childhood, it is Janet who interacts most with Money, writing him regular letters. It is also Janet who falls into a deep depression, attempting suicide multiple times, as Brenda’s gender identity seems to fall apart. 

Ron Reimer, Janet’s husband, also grows up in a tradition-oriented Winnipeg family. Out of school after the ninth grade, Ron labors hard, especially to care for his young family. He is not yet 21 years old when the twins are born and their journey with Dr. Money begins.

Ron is often the parent to attempt to share news with Brenda: It is he who eventually reveals “the stunning truth of her birth to Brenda” (280). He is a quiet and private man, but Colapinto describes in him a “grief and guilt” mixed with “outraged betrayal, which lay too deep for him to express in words” (256). A hard worker, Ron struggles to provide for his family and, at times, withdraws deeply into himself. He describes David’s transition as easy to understand, though, and his family and business life improve after David’s safety is established.

Brian Reimer is Bruce/Brenda/David’s twin brother. Younger than Brenda, he is often dominated by her more commanding presence. As an adult man, though, he looks much older and more masculine, with his “balding, dark-bearded, bearlike” presence (57). Brian, also traumatized by Brenda’s trouble and visits to Dr. Money, nonetheless supports David’s transition (as he learns the truth about Dr. Money) and helps David achieve friendship and romance as an adult. 

Dr. Sigmundson is the young psychiatrist who takes on Brenda’s case when she is in early puberty. Though familiar with Dr. John Money’s work, he is slightly skeptical about it as he works with Brenda. He connects Brenda to a string of female psychiatrists to help support her, eventually arriving at Dr. Mary McKenty, who helps David recognize himself. Sigmundson eventually works with Dr. Milton Diamond to produce articles disrupting John Money’s hegemonic presence in medical work on intersex children. 

Dr. Mary McKenty is the child psychiatrist who helps Brenda discover her identity as David and come into this identity. Eschewing Freudian techniques, McKenty forms a friendly bond with Brenda. As Brenda grows increasingly honest with her, McKenty returns to Dr. Sigmundson to urge the Reimers to share Brenda’s medical history with her. After the fact, McKenty helps David transition. She does not speak much with the media or with Milton Diamond, though she is deeply fond of David.

Milton Diamond is the leading sex researcher who, across John Money’s career, challenges his ideas about environmental gender development by using science suggesting the role of biology in determining gender and sexuality. Diamond’s rebuke gains medical acceptance after he meets the adult David, through Keith Sigmundson and releases journal articles that garner attention for correcting what he calls the “John/Joan” case. Diamond works to keep his debate scholarly, avoiding personal attacks on Money, who is both influential in the field and easy to anger.

John Colapinto, the author of As Nature Made Him, is a reporter who interviews the doctors, researchers, and family members entangled in David Reimer’s life. Dedicated to testimony but drawn in, too, by medical and public documents, Colapinto works to provide all sides to David Reimer’s story. He also hopes to achieve an ethical balance in his reporting, using the platform to help others struggling with or contemplating sex-change surgeries.

Dr. Moggey is the first child psychiatrist that Dr. Sigmundson finds for the prepubescent Brenda. Because of a well-known medical study she was a part of, Moggey seems to succumb to the idea that “they had little choice but to continue the treatment Money had begun” (113). Slowly, though, her doubts rise, and Moggey writes several letters to Dr. Money. She is particularly adamant that Brenda should be able to have surgery in Winnipeg. Though she works to persuade the Reimers, they eventually turn to Dr. Money. Dr. Moggey relocates and no longer works with Brenda.

Dr. Ingimundson is the child psychiatrist who comes after Dr. Moggey in Brenda’s long line of doctors. Though “uncomfortable with every aspect of the case,” she follows Dr. Money’s guidelines for treatment (122). Ingimundson is the first to suggest to Brenda’s parents that they tell her the truth about her surgery, though they do so only in veiled terms. Dr. Ingimundson eventually moves off Brenda’s case for a maternity leave. 

Dr. Cantor is a psychiatrist who briefly works with Brenda. She is “aggressive and outspoken” and immediately declares Brenda’s assignment as “a dismal failure” (143). Though other doctors agree with Cantor in retrospect, her blunt address to the Reimers alienates them, and they move on from her treatment quickly.

Dr. Jones is the Johns Hopkins gynecologist who works with John Money. Jones’s surgical techniques allow Money to undertake the infant sex reassignments that Money’s research relies upon. He makes the first operation on Bruce Reimer and would, theoretically, have constructed Brenda Reimer’s vagina. 

Heather is Brenda’s first friend in school, leader of a group of tomboy girls. Though Heather remembers Brenda as distinctly different from the group, she is loyal and friendly to the strange child. As an adult, she sees David at work and grows curious; she expresses happiness at his successful transition.