"John [the father] kept saying, You have a penis. That means you're a boy. One day, Shannon noticed that her son had been in the bathroom an awfully long time and pushed the door open. He had a pair of my best, sharpest sewing scissors poised, ready to cut. Penis in the scissors. I said, 'What are you doing?' He said, 'This doesn't belong here. So I'm going to cut it off.' I said, 'You can't do that.' He said, 'Why not?' I said, 'Because if you ever want to have girl parts, they need that to make them.' I pulled that one right out of my ass. He handed me the scissors and said, 'Okay."
Andrew Solomon is an American writer and lecturer focused on psychology, culture, and politics. He was born on 1963-10-30. He is known for books including The Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree.