Though he refused to discuss John Thiessen directly, Money claimed that the media's reporting of the case has reflected a conservative bias. "It's part of the antifeminist movement," he said. "They say masculinity and femininity are built into the genes, so women should get back to the mattress and the kitchen." As to his failure to report the case's outcome, Money was unapologetic, saying that he had lost contact with the Thiessens when they did not return to Johns Hopkins and that the opportunity to conduct a follow-up had been denied to him. He stood by his original reporting of the case and dismissed my suggestion that he "misperceived" what was going on with the child. Furthermore, he implied that John's sex change to male at age 15 may not have been entirely his own decision. "I have no idea," Money said, "how much he was coached in what he wanted, since I haven't seen the person." He also hinted that the Diamond-Sigmundson paper had a hidden agenda. "There is no reason I should have been excluded from the follow-up, was there?" he asked. "Someone had a knife in my back. But it's not uncommon in science. The minute you stick your head up above the grass, there's a gunman ready to shoot you." (Diamond insists that there was "nothing personal" in his decision to publish the outcome of John's case.)
When I asked Money about Diamond's appeal to delay surgery on intersexual babies until they are old enough to speak for themselves, Money emphatically rejected the idea. "You cannot be an it," he declared, adding that Diamond's recommendations would lead intersexes back to the days when they locked themselves away in shame or worked as circus freaks.
I reminded Money that his book
Man Woman, Boy Girl is still in print and that it reports the John/Joan case as a success. Asked if it would not be worthwhile for him to make changes in the text for a future edition, Money said flatly, "I'll be dead by then."
It does state that they look at the violence faced in life time which would include the previous in-closet time male partners.
