In the 1960s, the penis of an eight-month-old boy was accidentally destroyed during minor surgery. His parents were told by a doctor to raise the boy as a girl and surgery was performed to create female anatomy. At first, this surgery was considered a success and reported in medical journals as proof that sex- reassignment surgery was viable. However, three decades later it was revealed that the child—known pseudonymously as John/ Joan—had always thought of himself as a boy, despite being dressed in girl’s clothes and raised as a girl. John/Joan wanted to learn how to shave, played with his twin brother’s toys, and voiced interest in being a garbage collector. When he was a teenager, his father told John/Joan about the surgery, and the boy underwent a sex change to return...