Eight years ago today, on 5 May 2004, David Reimer took his own life. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a twin son of working class Canadian parents, David became famous as the subject of John Colapinto’s book, As Nature Made Him—the story of a boy forced to live as a girl until, upon finding out the truth about his history, he heroically emerged as… well, as himself.

John Colapinto’s book about David is a must-read for anybody interested in gender, identity, the runaway abuses of the medical and research establishment, and the boundlessness of the human spirit. The event that shaped the Reimer family’s life was a botched circumcision that caused David to lose his penis. But this story is not exactly about circumcision. Rather, it is about the abuse of power, about malevolence masquerading as rationality, and about the failed theory that “nurture” (whether through the shaping of children’s genitals or the denial of gender identity itself) can overcome nature. It is also about the power of self, and about how the truth will always emerge—sometimes too late, and helpless to stave off the tragic consequences of lies, hypocrisy and adults’ self-serving secrecy invoked as a front for “privacy.”

David Reimer told Colapinto that his parents felt horribly guilty about his life. Of course. But Ron and Janet Reimer were victims, too. Victims of the doctor who convinced them that their boys needed to be circumcised (David went first, but after the machine burned off his penis, the necessity for circumcising Brian suddenly evaporated). Victims of Johns Hopkins psychologist and researcher John Money (who not only abused both twins in the name of  “therapy” and “research,” but lied for the rest of his life to the scientific establishment and the public about the results of his “natural experiment”). Victims of their own passivity and lack of knowledge. Victims of their desperate desire to make things right, as their family’s life was shattered, and then re-shattered over the years—Brian also killed himself, years before David’s death.

Let us remember David Reimer for the lessons that his life—and death—can teach us.

Georganne Chapin

[Georganne is founder and director of IntactAmerica.org ]

[The above tribute and the following comments are found at:

http://intactamerica.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/honoring-david-reimer/

One of Intact America’s greatest strengths is the diverse and supportive intactivist community. Our “Intactivist of the Month” series highlights some of the most ardent opponents of infant and childhood circumcision, whose tireless efforts will ensure a future where all babies are kept intact.

APRIL/MAY 2012: This Mother’s Day, as we honor the women, mothers, and grandmothers who have impacted our lives, Intact America celebrates the “founding mother” of the intactivist movement—Marilyn Milos, RN. Thanks to Marilyn’s vision, passion, dedication, and leadership, thousands upon thousands of people across the country have found the courage to stand up for the rights of newborn children; countless babies have been spared the knife; and parents, doctors, and medical professionals are finally realizing that an intact penis is a normal penis.

As a young nurse, Marilyn witnessed a circumcision and heard screams that will haunt her to her grave. After hearing the doctor say, “You know, there is no medical reason for doing this,” Marilyn set out to tell parents and others the truth about circumcision. The organization she founded is the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC.org), which has at its center the word “information.”

Since the advent of medical science, the rite of circumcision has been justified under successive waves of pseudoscience. Marilyn has taken them on, one wave at a time, with truthful information. Those screams she heard as a nurse are still all too common. But thanks to Marilyn’s tireless efforts, that is changing. We know for a fact that more babies now leave the hospital intact than those who don’t.

This year, in honor of Marilyn and all the other mothers who’ve had the courage to stand up in defense of baby boys, Intact America is launching the Marilyn Milos Education Fund. Donations to this fund will be used by both Intact America and NOCIRC solely to reach doctors, medical professionals, medical students, and parents all over America with the information that circumcision is medically unnecessary, harmful, and unethical.

As the American Academy of Pediatrics continues to threaten us with new recommendations in favor of circumcision, and as those with an interest in promoting circumcision trot out new justifications, one after the other, we must work harder than ever to get the truth out. Intact America needs your help. Marilyn needs your help. Every future parent who does not yet know that baby boys are fine just the way they’re born, needs your help. By joining forces, NOCIRC and Intact America have made the movement stronger. With your support, imagine how many more lives we can affect, how many more babies we can save?

Says Georganne Chapin, Executive Director of Intact America, “Marilyn is that rare person whose reaction to a single event can open up a moral universe. That circumcision she witnessed, and Marilyn’s response, set in motion a new human rights movement, one that for many years subjected its founder to mockery and derision. Marilyn gets up every morning and works until bedtime, organizing events, writing and editing papers, and fielding phone calls from parents worried about their sons, from men who are processing their loss, from curiosity seekers, and from the press. The circumcision rate in the United States is now at its lowest in 50 years, and it continues to fall. Intact America is immensely proud to have Marilyn as one of its founding members, and we honor her for her past and present work, for her wisdom compassion and bravery, for the future victory to which she may certainly lay claim, and for the MILLIONS of babies spared the painful loss of their normal sexual anatomy.” Please help Intact America to honor our mother Marilyn Milos, and to protect our baby boys.

DID YOU KNOW?

As the voice of NOCIRC, Marilyn Milos has become a one-woman support system for thousands of parents, doctors, and young men who need answers to their questions about caring for the intact penis, about forcible retraction, and about circumcision-related injuries. Marilyn, and her home office in northern California, are a repository of knowledge about the historical, sociological, and medical history of circumcision worldwide. She works with scholars, ethicists, researchers—anybody with an interest in stopping the mindless genital cutting of babies—and has organized eleven international symposia (the 12th will take place in Helsinki this Fall), where academics, clerics, health professionals, and “regular people” gather to explore the history and reality of forced circumcision, both male and female, and consider how it can be stopped.

That’s why we’ve created the Marilyn Milos Education Fund, in her honor. The single greatest way to help change the way America thinks about circumcision is to talk about it. Mountains are moved one stone at a time. Talking to people one-on-one, facing our own fears and delving into deep, honest conversation are the most effective ways of helping to change individuals, cultures and societies. The intactivist movement owes its success to the courage, tireless work, and inspiration of Marilyn Milos.

[Georganne Chapin, founder of IntactAmerica.org]

[The above text is found at http://bit.ly/ICfPY3 ]