To the Editors:

In my article “Gays and Genes” [NYR, March 27], John Colapinto should have been identified not as an “intersex” child who was made into a girl shortly after birth and decided in his teens that he was really a boy, but as the author of a book about such a case, As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. I regret these errors.

I should add that, according to Mr. Colapinto, the subject of the book suffered from a botched circumcision in which his penis was burned off. Doctors suggested to his parents that he be raised as a girl. On finally being informed of his medical history, he decided from his teens on to live as a man.

Andrew Hacker

This Issue

April 10, 2003