Mainstream Narrative:
Based predominantly on the work of Prof John Money in the 1960s, the theory of Gender Role (later Gender Identity) proposed that a child’s gender is not related internally to the child’s biological sex, but instead is a result of external social conditioning. Thus, it is malleable and can be changed through a manipulation of the child’s external social environment. Basically, if the intervention is early enough (around 24 months) a boy brought up as a girl, is a girl and vice versa.

The ‘proof of concept’ to Money’s Gender Identity theory, and the thing that gave it considerable scientific credibility, was the case of David Riemer. Riemer was born a twin boy called Bruce, and at eight months suffered damage to his penis from a botched medical operation. His family sought help from Prof Money who suggested a further ‘sex reassignment operation’ and subsequently that they raise him as a girl. Over the next few years, Money claimed that Bruce, now called Brenda, was successfully transformed into a healthy happy girl thus providing the foundation for the current concept of Gender Identity. However, Brenda did not adapt to the ‘girl gender role’, had a troublesome childhood and reverted to being a boy named David around the age of fourteen. The case of David Riemer actually disproves and discredits Money’s theory.