Dr. John Money
• Gender Outsiders: Transgendered & Others
So many have so much to be grateful that he existed:
Money believed a person’s gender identity was determined by an interaction between biological factors and upbringing. That represented a break from past thinking, in which gender identity was largely believed to be caused only by biological factors.
“He really developed that entire field of study,” said Dr. Gregory K. Lehne, a Money protege and an assistant professor of medical psychology at Johns Hopkins. “Without him, that whole field of study might not have existed.”
Money advised parents on what sex they should raise hermaphrodites — people born with characteristics of both sexes — to be. He also worked with people who were born with normal sex organs but did not identify with the gender they had been raised to be.
“He pioneered the concepts related to this and the psychological aspects of sex reassignment,” Lehne said.