Milton Diamond was an American biologist who wrote extensively on sex and gender minorities. Diamond founded the Pacific Center for Sex and Society (PCSS).
Diamond famously said, “Nature loves diversity. Society hates it.”
Background
Milton “Mickey” Diamond was born March 6, 1934 to Aaron and Jennie Arber Diamond. Diamond was married to Grace H. Whitney Diamond. After Grace’s death, Diamond married Constance C. “Connie” Brinton-Diamond (born 1947).
Diamond earned a bachelor’s degree from City College of New York in 1955, then was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers, stationed for threee years in Tokyo. Diamond earned a doctorate in 1962 from University of Kansas, then taught at University of Louisville School of Medicine before joining the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 1967. In 1971 Diamond was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Reproductive Biology. In 1985 Diamond founded the Pacific Center for Sex and Society.
A longtime critic of unethical sexologist John Money, in 1997 Diamond was able to debunk Money’s fabricated case report of David Reimer’s successful surgical sex reassignment (dubbed the “John/Joan” case). Diamond and Reimer’s psychiatrist H. Keith Sigmundson published the actual results of Money’s celebrated case. Diamond’s work led to reforms in the surgical “treatment” of children with differences of sex development.
Diamond died in Honolulu, Hawai’i on March 20, 2024 from cardiac arrest.
References
Staff report (March 2024) Obituary – Professor Emeritus Milton Diamond Ph.D. Pacific Center for Sex and Society https://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/obituary/index.html
Risen, Clay (May 8, 2024). Milton Diamond, Sexologist and Advocate for Intersex Babies, Dies at 90. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/health/milton-diamond-dead.html
Resources
University of Hawai’i Manoa (hawaii.edu/PCSS)