The Investigation

What Are Little Boys Made Of?

Part 1: Introducing Kirk. Much has been written about “Kraig,” but until now the world knew virtually nothing about Kirk, the real life young boy behind George Rekers’s most famous case. It’s time to change that.

Part 2: Psychology, 1970 Style. Kirk’s therapy took place at UCLA, home to some of the world’s top experts on gender identity and sexual orientation. As Kirk’s mother said, “I trusted these professionals to know what they were doing.”

Part 3: Red Chips, Blue Chips. Kirk’s therapy at UCLA was only partially successful. The next phase took place in the home, and it involved red and blue poker chips for punishments and rewards. But the therapy was so abusive, Kirk’s older brother tried to protect him by moving some of Kirk’s red chips onto his own pile. “My goal was to take the beating for my brother.”

Part 4: The Bitter Root. The therapy was over, but the stress continued to build. “I can’t do this. I can’t act that way or people will know that I’m different,” he’d say when he thought no one could hear him. But despite his best efforts, people knew. “I did,” said one very sympathetic neighbor. “I always thought that he was gay.”

Part 5: “No One Was Obviously Harmed.” Kirk attempted suicide for the first time, but everyone missed the warning signs.

Part 6: The Tug of War. After graduation from high school, Kirk left Montana and flourished for a while. But he continued to struggle with what his sister calls “the day-to-day things in life.”

Part 7: Skirting the Issues. The world-renowned experts at UCLA’s Gender Identity Clinic have distanced themselves from the children’s behavioral modification program, but they have yet to address their responsibilities to Kirk and his family. And because they haven’t, a mother is still trying to reconcile what those experts promised her with the grief that she endures today.

The Epilogues

Cuius Culpa? All of the published literature surrounding Kirk’s case has it that George Rekers was solely responsible for Kirk’s treatment. But that’s not how Kirk’s family remembers it. To them, Rekers was nothing but a first year grad student. For forty years, they’ve held Dr. Richard Green responsible, the expert that Kirk’s mother saw on television. Getting to the bottom of who was really in charge of Kirk’s treatment is not as easy as one would expect.

The Doctor’s Word. Rekers often defended his treatment of Kirk by saying that Kirk had been independently evaluated by other psychologists throughout his childhood, and that those evaluations confirmed Rekers’s success. But this investigation shows just how foolhardy it is to simply accept the doctor at his word, no matter how authoritative he may be.

Blind Man’s Bluff. To understand the theoretical basis of the particular style of treatment that Kirk Murphy experienced, it is critical to know what Behavioral Therapy is all about. It turns out that revulsion over the excesses of behavioral therapy played an important role in the APA’s final decision to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.

Maris’s Statement. Having learned more about Kirk’s involvement with UCLA’s Gender Identity Clinic, Maris ponders what it all means. “I used to wonder why he decided to take his own life at the age of 38. Now I wonder how he made it that long.”

Mark’s Statement. “I was also put into those same therapy rooms with the toys and the one way mirrors. I never understood why, but now I think I can safely assume it was to be a benchmark to which my brother was measured. To know that I was used for that purpose, against my own brother, makes me horribly hurt and angry.”