A True Life "Rock Opera"

[Marc/Carolyn Hurwitz <hurwitz@ieee.org>]

Something I read recently made me think of "I'm A Boy", and I thought
the rest of you might be interested as well.  This is not made up.  The
entire account can be found in a recently published book, AS NATURE MADE
HIM, by John Colapinto.  What follows I got from our local newspaper.

In Canada in 1966, twin boys were born.  When they were seven months
old, their parents took them to their pediatrician for routine
circumcisions.  Without going into details (to spare the men out there),
there was an accident, and one of the boys lost an important body
appendage.  The distraught parents consulted the Mayo Clinic, which
informed them that even with plastic surgery the infant would be
disfigured for life.  In desperation, they then consulted a leading sex
therapist, who suggested that the child be raised as a girl.  He would
have additional surgery and hormone treatments when older, and would
supposedly be better adjusted than if left alone.  The parents agreed.
Therefore, this boy was thereafter raised as a girl--put into dresses,
renamed appropriately, and otherwise treated as if he were female--while
his twin brother remained a boy.  The family was closely observed by the
therapist, and years later the case was revealed publicly and deemed a
complete success.  This showed how one's environment determines one's
behavior rather than genetics, said the experts.  Sadly, however, this
poor man was *not* happy as a girl, and in fact rebelled throughout his
childhood and teen years against the therapist's efforts to make him
content with his assigned gender.  As an adult, he changed his name to
another masculine name and had surgery to give him back his missing body
part.  He is now married and recently "came out" in order to tell people
his side of the story.

Kind of creepy, isn't it?  Pete Townshend was a better prophet then we
all knew--including him....

--Carolyn
"I'm a boy, I'm a boy, but my ma won't admit it/I'm a boy, I'm a boy,
but if I say I am, I get it"