All of this - in the cartoon and thread - is an overreaction and an oversimiplification of a moment in the life of a famous researcher who, during his lifetime received 65 honors, awards and degrees, wrote several famous books and hundreds of articles, and in all of that research probably made some bad decisions, as one as likely to do in half a century of studies of sexual orientation and sex-reassignment, especially during a time when that research was not prohibited or questioned as much as it would be now.

Not that this should explain away what happened to David Reimer and others, but this kind of cartoon is terribly anachronistic. No one here on Saidit would read that statement in the cartoon and react like the idiots in the cartoon, nor were there reactions like this among similar clinical professionals - as far as I know - when the research was published. Perhaps he was a monster, and perhaps there are websites that discuss this in lurid detail. But the general information about him is that he conducted a lot of research, some of which was not appropriate.

This is what I can learn about the doctor after a quick read online. My reaction to Tom was related to his comments, which I thought were strange, and that he had not taken my responses seriously. The message of the cartoon - in my view - is not about children, but about hatred for the doctor and his work, which cannot be summarized in that short comment in the cartoon.