FLORIDA: Arrest ordered of mother protecting 4yo from cutting

Sun-Sentinal (Palm Beach, Florida)
March 10, 2015

Judge orders West Boynton mom's arrest in circumcision case

by Mark Freeman
Despite the threat of being jailed Tuesday, a West Boynton mother hid with her 4-year-old son in a domestic violence shelter, the latest twist in a widely reported court fight to stop the boy's planned circumcision.

But Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Dana Gillen still signed a warrant for Heather Hironimus' arrest, refusing requests from her lawyers to first consider a mental health exam of the boy and appointing an independent guardian to speak on the child's behalf in court.

"The child is scared to death of the procedure and doesn't want it," said attorney Thomas Hunker. "There have been no safeguards put in place to protect the child's psychological and emotional condition with regards to this surgery."

Attorneys for the child's father, Dennis Nebus of Boca Raton, requested the crisis shelter's name and location during a brief hearing Tuesday, so the mother could be served with a court order for Nebus to pick up his son. But Gillen said he would not order the disclosure of the shelter's name.

The mother and son "sought refuge" at the shelter on Feb. 23, when it was her regular time to have custody of the boy, Hunker said. Nebus then was attempting to make arrangements for a Broward doctor to remove the child's foreskin.

The warrant authorizes law enforcement to take Hironimus into custody, on the grounds that she failed to appear before the court Tuesday as ordered. Such warrants typically require apprehended individuals to be brought before a judge within 24 hours.

"She doesn't believe she should be incarcerated for protecting her child," Hunker said.

On Friday, Gillen declared the mom in contempt of court for violating an order enforcing a 2012 parenting plan, which makes the dad responsible for arranging the circumcision. The mom and dad did not marry either before or after the boy's birth on Oct. 31, 2010.

After Nebus testified Friday that he can't find his son, the judge ordered the mom to appear in his courtroom with the child by 2 p.m. Tuesday.

"I was hoping the mother was going to be here," Nebus' attorney May L. Cain said after learning Hironimus remained at the shelter.

"I was, too, obviously," Gillen replied.

The judge last week called it "reprehensible" for the mother to spirit away the boy.

"I will allow her to avoid incarceration or get out of jail if she signs the consent to the procedure," Gillen said Friday.

The judge found the mom had willfully violated the plan she signed when the boy was 1. The judge also said Hironimus had committed a "direct, contemptuous violation" of court orders by continuing to team with circumcision opposition groups — called "intactivists" — that have "plastered" the child's photos and name "all over the Internet."

After a state appellate court in December held up Gillen's earlier ruling enforcing the parenting plan, the judge instructed Hironimus and Nebus to "protect the child from any exploitation."

Gillen has ordered the media not to release the name or photo of the child, and the Sun Sentinel has filed a motion seeking to vacate the order. A hearing on the matter is scheduled before Gillen on Wednesday.

More than a dozen protestors stood outside the county courthouse in Delray Beach on Tuesday. Some carried signs reading, "His body his rights" and "circumcision is a sex crime."

"It's outrageous that this could actually be happening," said Jennifer Cote of Pembroke Pines, a mother of a 2-month-old son and a 4-year-old girl. "We think this is a choice [Hironimus' son] should make for himself."

Kristen Shockley, of Boynton Beach, one of Hironimus' longtime friends, said it's important to consider the boy is well "past the infancy stage." Shockley said her 9-month old and 4-year-old sons were not circumcised since there was no medical reason for it, nor any cosmetic or religious purpose.

Neither Nebus nor Hironimus is Jewish, but the dad testified last year he thinks circumcision is "just the normal thing to do" and he decided late in 2013 to press for it after noticing his son was urinating on his leg. The father says the boy has a condition called phimosis, which prevents retraction of the foreskin, but the mother has said there is no such diagnosis.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says the benefits of newborn male circumcision are lower risks of urinary tract infections; getting penile cancer; and acquiring HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Judge Gillen mentioned these benefits in court last week, and called the procedure "very, very safe."

Still, the most recent federal statistics indicate circumcision has been waning in popularity across the country.

For Jewish families concerned about following the ancient tradition of circumcisions, a group called Doctors Opposing Circumcision advocates an alternative ceremony called a Brit Shalom, "which does not cut the genitals or risk physical or psychological harm to the child."

In an emergency motion filed last week, Hunker wrote the boy "is aware of what is happening and is terrified by the procedure. He is also angry that the procedure is being forced upon him."

The attorney said the boy needs to be examined a by mental health expert so the court can "consider the child's emotions and feelings on the matter."

"This is not a situation where [the child] is a newborn; he is old enough to remember the procedure and what his body looked like before," Hunker wrote. "Removal of part of the most private part of his body could emotionally scar [the child] for the rest of his life."

Nebus has accused the mother of putting fear into the boy.

"My son has mentioned things to me that he's scared to have his penis cut off," he testified.

FLORIDA: No appearance of mother of boy threatned with spite-circumcision

Broward Palm Beach New Times (Florida)
March 6, 2015

Mother of Boy in Circumcision Case Has Vanished With Child; Judge Orders Her to Return

by Chris Joseph
(Note: Judge Jeffrey Dana Gillen has requested the media to withhold the name of the child and the names of the doctors in this case, due to the nature of this story. New Times has published these names in past stories.)

Heather Hironimus, the mother of a 4-year-old boy caught in the middle of a circumcision case, has been ordered to appear before Judge Jeffrey Dana Gillen of the 15th judicial district in Palm Beach County on Tuesday or be found in contempt.

In a hearing held Friday, Gillen heard testimony from the boy's father, Dennis Nebus, over how Hironimus has fled and vanished with their son. Nebus also asked the court to have Hironimus stop allowing anti-circumcision activists to continue using their son's name and likeness on the internet. She had been ordered to do so in the past but has disobeyed that court order.

The case revolves around the separated couple's fight over whether the child can be circumcised. The couple had previously agreed that Nebus would pay for and schedule the child's circumcision. But Hironimus has been arguing that there is no medical reason for her son to be circumcised and that the procedure could harm or even kill the boy. The practice is even more scrutinized now that the boy is no longer a newborn.

However, Nebus testified that three doctors who were supposed to perform the procedure on the boy had removed themselves from doing so after apparently receiving what he called "threatening letters" from activists calling for the father not to have the boy circumcised. Nebus claimed that he too had received death threats.

During his testimony, Nebus detailed an incident where Hironimus burst into a doctor's office where the child was being examined in order to schedule a procedure. Nebus said she "threw a tantrum," and yelled at the medical staff that she had not given consent for the boy to be examined by the doctor. Nebus said that their son, who had witnessed the outburst, was "visibly shaken." He also claimed that the boy had expressed fear over getting a circumcision. Nebus hinted on the stand that this was due to Hironimus using "scare tactics" on the boy, though he didn't make clear what those tactics might've been.

Nebus also testified that the mother had been allowing the anti-circumcision activists to use the child's likeness and name on their websites, as well as on posters and picket signs during protests outside the courthouse as well as at CityPlace.

Gillen said he expected that, although Hironimus was ordered not to allow the boy's name and likeness to be taken from her personal Facebook and used on these websites, she did anyway. "I expected this to happen," Gillen said during his ruling, "that the child's likeness would be used, making him an object of curiosity on the Internet."

More pressing, however, is that Hironimus and the child have gone missing since the last scheduled doctor's visit on February 19. Nebus testified that he visited the home of the mother to take the boy for his prearranged visiting time and found no one home. The car was also gone, and when he tried calling Hironiumus, he said the phone was turned off.

Hironimus was not present during Friday's hearing, and the judge ordered that she and the child report to court on Tuesday by 2 p.m. or face the consequences.

Gillen had ordered a gag order on Hironimus to not speak to the media at a previous hearing. The case has made headlines, has been the cause of much debate on the internet and has even caught the attention of actor Russell Crowe. Anticircumcision activists -- sometimes called "intactivists" -- have been extremely vocal about the case and have befriended Hironimus on Facebook and social media. They've also launched several websites with the boy's name.

Nebus testified that the boy's likeness had been used as early as December, when the mother allowed the groups to take a recent photo of the child with Santa Claus taken at a department store. They were also given access to the mother's Halloween photos of the child.

"It's unfortunate that due to the mother's actions, the child has been placed in this position -- the light of too much scrutiny for a little boy," Gillen said. "I blame the mother for this. She has willfully denied a court order and has provided the father with no information of their son's whereabouts. Leaving the father to wonder where his son is is reprehensible."

Gillen put a pickup order into effect for Hironimus.

"If she does not [appear with the child on Tuesday], I will sign a writ of bodily attachment."
This means if Hironimos and her son do not obey the court's order, she'll be hunted down by authorities. Gillen also said he would have her passport suspended and not allow the boy to have a passport issued.

Moreover, Gillen said that he had heard enough testimony from doctors that circumcision is safe. "I have heard testimony from doctors that there are zero cases of penile cancer in circumcised males, but there have been some cases in uncircumcised males," Gillen said. "I've also heard testimony from doctors that there are less cases of STDs in circumcised males than in uncircumcised males."

Gillen, saying he wanted to "rein in this case," also added that circumcision is "short, under local anesthesia, and, at this stage of the boy's life, very, very safe."

Gillen found Hironimus in contempt of court for allowing the use of the boy's likeness on the internet and said that Hironimus is responsible for Nebus' attorney fees. Gillen reserved ruling on how much that fee is.

Earlier story

FLORIDA: Protests as 4-year-old's cutting nears

Palm Beach News (Florida)
February 23, 2015

Protesters at Doctor's Office Hope to Stop 4-Year-Old From Being Circumcised

by Dierdra Funcheon
A 4-year-old boy named Chase has been at the center of a long court battle between his parents over whether he should be circumcised. The courts have now ruled that the circumcision be allowed to proceed, and the boy is reportedly due to be circumcised tomorrow at South Florida Pediatric Surgeons in Plantation.

Protesters, who believe that childhood circumcision is wrong because it's an invasive cosmetic surgery performed before a boy is old enough to consent, will be holding signs outside the doctor's office from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. today.

Organizer Jen Cote VanWie said they hoped to persuade Dr. Subhash Puranik not to perform the procedure. She said this tactic worked a few months ago, when a doctor in Boynton Beach had been scheduled to circumcise Chase but backed out after a protest at his office.

"We hope to convince this doctor to change his mind," she said. Even though the court had ruled that the boy's father be allowed to schedule the circumcision, the court "can't force [Puranik] into doing the surgery."

The saga began in 2010, when Dennis Nebus of Boca Raton and Heather Hironimus of Boynton Beach had a child together. They did not remain a couple but entered into a parenting agreement more than a year later. The agreement clearly stated that the father would be responsible for scheduling and paying for the boy's circumcision.

But after the mother learned more about what the procedure entailed, she objected because, court papers said, it was "not medically necessary and she did not want to have the parties' son undergo requisite general anesthesia for fear of death."

Both a local judge and then an appeals court eventually sided with Nebus. A judge ordered that Hironimus stop speaking to the media, but anticircumcision activists -- sometimes called "intactivists" -- largely took up the cause on her behalf, organizing protests and launching a website, savingchase.org, and a group, Chase's Guardians.

Jen Cote Van Wie said she became interested in the intactivist movement when she became pregnant and researched circumcision. She became an activist "when I found out that babies are dying from this."

Jonathan Friedman of Chicago designed the Saving Chase website and also does work for Attorneys for the Rights of the Child. He says he became involved in the intactivist movement because he had problems with his own circumcision.

He said that last year, Chase had a circumcision scheduled with a Boynton Beach doctor but that at the last minute, after a protest, the doctor backed out.

Friedman says that "a lot of doctor policies require consent from all guardians" and that the Boynton doctor had even asked the court if he would be legally protected from lawsuits by the mother if he performed the procedure; the judge would not guarantee it. The doctor, he says, "called me two hours into the protest and said, 'I am on your side. Unless [the father] hands me a signed and notarized consent form from the mother [I won't circumcise Chase].'"

Friedman said his group disputes the supposed health benefits of circumcision.

Earlierstory

LOS ANGELES: Intactivist paediatrician Paul Fleiss dies, aged 80

LA Times
July 19, 2014

[Intactivist] Dr. Paul Fleiss dies at 80; father of 'Hollywood madam' Heidi Fleiss

by David Colker

Pediatrician Paul Fleiss, who pleaded guilty in 1995 to conspiring to hide profits made by his daughter, convicted "Hollywood madam" Heidi Fleiss, died Saturday morning at his home in Los Angeles, said his cousin, Joel Fleiss. Paul Fleiss was 80.

The cause of death was unclear. Paul Fleiss' son, Jesse, heard him having trouble breathing while still in bed, Joel Fleiss said. A call was made to 911 and paramedics pronounced Fleiss dead at the scene.
Fleiss, who was known for having a gentle bedside manner and devoted patients, was still practicing medicine. He was the rare doctor who made house calls, and although he was pediatrician to children of several Hollywood celebrities, he also took on patients whose families could not afford to pay him.


Dr Paul Fleiss
(at the 6th International Symposium on Genital Integrity
in Sydney, Australia in 2000) [Despite being Jewish, Dr Fleiss was a strong opponent of infant circumcision. With others he wrote articles for medical journals debunking medical claims, and a book, "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Circumcision"]

Hundreds of supporters crowded into the courtroom for his sentencing in 1995 for the crime that prosecutors said involved Fleiss signing the mortgage on a luxury home his daughter used as a headquarters for her call-girl ring. "I never intended to cheat or lie or steal," Fleiss said outside the courtroom. "I only wanted to help my daughter."

...

He ... was sentenced to three years' probation, 625 hours of community service and a fine of $50,000.
Paul Fleiss was born Sept. 8, 1933, in Detroit. He trained as a pharmacist and osteopath, moving to Los Angeles after a law was passed in California in the early 1960s allowing an osteopath to convert to an M.D. degree. He took his residency in pediatrics at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

...

In addition to Fleiss' daughter Heidi and son Jesse, he is survived by daughters Amy, Shana and Kim. His son Jason died in a drowning accident.

...

COPENHAGEN: Popular song given to Intactivist campaign

Ekstra Bladet
24. januar 2014

Shu-bi-dua donerer sang til forhuds-kamp

Den danske forening mod børneomskæring - Intact Denmark - får nu hjælp fra et af Danmarks mest folkekære bands
Af: Rune Melchior Sjørvad
Det har længe stået højt på ønskesedlen hos Intact Denmarks talskvinde at få lov til at bruge en helt speciel Shu-bi-dua-sang i foreningens kamp for et forbud mod omskæring af raske, danske drengebørn.


Nu er drømmen gået i opfyldelse, og Shu-bi-dua har kvit og frit stillet nummeret 'Den lille mands sang' til rådighed for foreningen.

Nationalhymne
For de, der ikke måtte kende den 17 år gamle sang, kan det oplyses, at den meget tydeligt opfordrer til at sætte en stopper for omskæring af drenge.

Blandt andet lyder det i sangen: ' Vi må og skal gøre op med en skik - Et af oldtidens regulativer - At skære et stykke af barnets pik'.

- Det har længe været en slags 'nationalhymne' for foreningen, så at få mulighed for at bruge den lune, humoristiske sang i vores kampagner er en drøm, der er gået i opfyldelse, siger Intact Denmarks talskvinde Lena Nyhus til Ekstra Bladet.

Hun forklarer, at Shu-bi-duas tidligere guitarist Michael Hardinger og sanger Michael Bundesen begge har sagt ja til, at sangen kan bruges som underlægningsmusik i foreningens kommende video-kampagne, uden at Intact Denmark skal betale for det.

Grotesk handling
Om sanggaven fortæller Michael Hardinger via mail fra sit hjem i Las Vegas til Folkets Avis:
- For en del år siden indspillede vi med mit gamle band Shu-bi-dua 'Den lille mands sang', som handlede om omskæring. Måske ikke det mest populære emne hverken dengang eller nu når man skriver popmusik. De andre var meget imod 'Den lille mands sang', som egentlig startede i mit hoved ved, at jeg hørte en stand-upper i USA sige: 'Jøderne er det mest optimistiske folkefærd på jorden. De klipper et stykke af penis, inden de ved, hvor lang den egentlig bliver.' Men den groteske handling krævede, i min hjerne i det mindste, at der blev sat spotlight på denne mishandling af børn, siger Michael Hardinger.

Foreningen Intact Denmark oplyser, at Shu-bi-dua blot er de første af en række danske musikere, der har sagt ja til at støtte op om kampen for et dansk forbud mod omskæring.

Shu-bi-dua. 'Den lille mands sang'
Vi må og skal gøre op med en skik
et af oldtidens regulativer
at skære et stykke af barnets pik
før man ved hvor lang den bliver
Eksperter hævder mod al sund fornuft
at længde er ej lig med lykke
vi siger til manden med saksen: forduft
vi behøver hvert eneste stykke
Og elskovsnatten kan blive til gru
hvis klokkerne slet ikke ringer
ofte man hører: er den inde nu,
eller bruger du stadig din finger?
Så op alle mand - så' det helt op at stå
kæmp for den hud I fortjener
lad kraverne dække de kongeblå
så bli'r de osse lidt pænere

(Microsoft translation, with help)
January 24, 2014

Shu-bi-dua donates song to preputial battle

The Danish Association of child circumcision, Intact Denmark, now gets help from one of Denmark's most beloved bands
by Rune Melchior Sjørvad

It has long been high on the wish list of Intact Denmark's spokeswoman to be allowed to use a very special Shu-bi-dua-song in the Association's campaign for a ban on the circumcision of healthy Danish boy children.

Now the dream has come true, and Shu-bi-dua has given 'the little man's song' to the Association, absolutely free.

National Anthem
For those who may not know the 17-year-old song, it can be reported that it very clearly calls for putting an end to circumcision of boys.

Among other things, it says in the song: 'we must and should do away with a practice - one of the ancient regulations - To cut a piece of child's dick'.

"It has long been a kind of 'national anthem' for the Association, so to get the opportunity to use the warm, humorous song in our campaigns is a dream come true," says Intact Denmark's spokeswoman Lena Nyhus to Ekstra Bladet.

She explains that Shu-bi-Dua's former guitarist and singer Michael Bundesen Michael Hardinger has said yes to that song being used as background music in the Association's upcoming video campaign, without Intact Denmark having to pay for it.

Grotesque act
About the gift of the song Michael Hardinger told the people's newspaper by email from his home in Las Vegas:

"A few years ago we recorded with my old band Shu-bi-dua ' the little man's song ', which was about circumcision. It might not be the most popular subject when one writes pop music, either back then or now. The others were very much against 'the little man's song', which actually started in my head know that I heard a stand-up [comedian] in the United States say: 'The Jews are the most optimistic people on Earth. They cut a piece of the penis before they know how long it actually will be.' But the ludicrous action required, in my brain at least that there was put spotlight on this abuse of children," says Michael Hardinger.

The Association Intact Denmark says Shu-bi-dua is just the first of a number of Danish musicians who have said yes to supporting the fight for a Danish ban on circumcision.

Shu-bi-dua. ' The little man's song '
We must do away with the practice
of ancient regulations
to cut a piece off a child's cock
before you know how long it'll be.
Against all sense, "experts" claim
that length does not equal joy.
We say to the man with scissors: Vanish!
We need every inch!
And a night of love can become gruesome
If the bells don't ring at all
You often hear: is it in yet,
or are you still using your finger?
So get up, guys, completely erect
and fight for the skin you deserve!
Let the hoods cover the royal blue
Then they look a bit nicer too.

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND: Intacitivist touring protest hits town

The Phoenix
November 20, 2013

'Intactivists' take to the streets in Providence

by Steve Ahlquist

A COLORFUL PROTEST Brother K

“The destruction to the male genitals is absolute,” says Brother K. “Total. You’re left with a fraction of what God and nature intended. It’s appalling.”

It’s Sunday morning on Hope Street in Providence and cars are whizzing by. Some honk their horns in solidarity; others carry passengers clearly confused as to the necessity of a demonstration against circumcision featuring men in white jumpsuits with large red bloodstains on their crotches

...

Rest of story. Has this link failed?

MEDFORD, OREGON: Mainstream TV mentions circumcision deaths, risks, profit motive

KOBI TV
May 23, 2013

Intactness goes mainstream

by Hugh Young

Intactivism took a step forward with the broadcast on a mainstream TV channel of a programme detailing the risks and harms of circumcision. On May 22, KOBI TV (NBC) broadcast "Circumcision Secrets" including an interview with Jennifer Margulis, author of "The Business of Baby" in which she mentioned - for perhaps the first time - the risk of death from circumcision.

Koeby Johnson is perhaps the first father on mainstream media to say that he is circumcised but has left his sons intact.


The figure of 117 circumcision deaths/year in the USA is speculative, but conservative. A study in Brazil suggests a US death rate of 156/year.

In Part 2, Jennifer Margulis mentions - again for perhaps the first time on mainstream media - botched circumcisions and the profit motive in circumcision.

ISRAEL: Intactivist group spreads the word in Hebrew

Gonnen
May 2, 2013

Israeli Intactivist group produces Hebrew materials

Gonnen, an Israeli Intactivist group, has produced stickers and postcards in Hebrew:
1. (card, front)

A WORD ON BRIT [a double entendre in Hebrew]
CIRCUMCISION SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCES THE SENSITIVITY OF THE PENIS. On normal skin the size of the foreskin there are 50 nerve endings. In the foreskin, there are 1000 nerve endings.		THE FORESKIN IS IMPORTANT AND HAS MANY FUNCTIONS. There are risks and complications in the cutting of the foreskin. Some of the problems are only revealed in adolescence. Some people are not aware that they were damaged and think it's normal.
SOMEONE BORN TO A JEWISH MOTHER IS JEWISH WITH OR WITHOUT A FORESKIN
Removal of the foreskin is no guarantee for social acceptance.

1. (card, back)

	"In the natural state, the corona within the foreskin is protected as an internal organ, moist like the eye. In infancy, the foreskin is connected to the organ and protects it. An organ without the foreskin is exposed to infection.
		Many of the circumcised require corrective surgery to widen the urethral opening under full anesthetic.
	THE MOHEL PARES AND REMOVES AROUND 1/3 OF THE SKIN OF THE PENIS!
	RECOVERY FROM THE CIRCUMCISION WOUND IS SIMILAR IN SEVERITY AND RISKS TO RECOVERY FROM A THIRD DEGREE BURN. (ORGAN WITHOUT SKIN)
	Following the removal of the foreskin, the psychology of sexual relations is changed. Sexual intercourse with a foreskin is gentler, more sensitive, and more satisfying.
	For additional details, visit 'Gonen on the child' www.gonnen.org and in the forum 'Passing on Brit Milah' on Tapuz.

2. (sticker)


Circumcision = Abuse
3. (sticker)



I am against circumcision
and any unnecessary word
[a double entendre in Hebrew]

4. (sticker)



PENIS IS GOOD FOR THE JEWS!
The association for the abolition of circumcision.

5. (sticker)



JEWS DON'T CUT JEWS!
The association for the abolition of circumcision

- translation by Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon

OCEAN CITY, MD: Bloodstained Men create a stir

The Dispatch(Maryland Coast)
April 5, 2013

Roadside Protest Creates A Stir In Downtown OC

by News Editor, Shawn J. Soper

OCEAN CITY -- An otherwise quiet and peaceful post-holiday afternoon was marked by a rather unusual protest even for Ocean City standards when representatives of the “Bloodstained Men” activist group set up shop at the foot of the Route 50 bridge to get their message out.

Passersby on Route 50 at N. Division Street on Tuesday afternoon witnessed three men and one woman wearing white coveralls with a red paint splotch on the crotch symbolizing generations of male children circumcised at birth and called for the abolition of the centuries-old practice. The small group in Ocean City on Tuesday was an extension of a much larger event in Washington D.C. last week marking the 20th anniversary of Genital Integrity Awareness Week. The Ocean City protest on Tuesday also coincided with the 16th anniversary of a ban on female circumcision passed in the U.S. in 1997.

“We’re protesting to end forced genital cutting of male children here in the U.S. and worldwide and bring them into equality with female children,” said Delmarva Area Intactivist Group spokesperson Shelly Wright. “We’re trying to get the word out about circumcision because it shouldn’t be forced on male children. They should have the right to decide that when they are adults and can make decisions on their own.”

Wright was one of four protestors to set up shop at the busy intersection in Ocean City on Tuesday and was joined by three other activists from New Zealand, Texas and Sacramento, Calif., ironically just about under the mileage sign for his own hometown over 3,000 miles away at the western end of Route 50. Wright said the mock blood-stained coveralls were an attempt to force people to face the fact that infant circumcision inflicts permanent physical, psychological and sexual damage on male infants [tant]amount to mutilation.

The protestors held up signs with varied messages including “say no to penis cutting,” and “occupy foreskin,” for example. Wright’s own sign read “For Sale: $431, Infant Foreskin Sold by Hospitals.” She said it is a common practice for hospitals to sell the foreskin removed from circumcised infants, which, she said, is a major ingredient in many high-end anti-aging creams.

Generally, the protestors were met with some cheers, some jeers and more than a few honking horns. The Ocean City Police Department was hanging around close to the scene, but only interceded when one of the protestors briefly stood in the middle of N. Division Street facing oncoming traffic from the bridge.

WASHINGTON, DC: Intactivists converge for Genital Integrity Awareness Week

DCist
March 27, 2013

Anti-Circumcision Protesters Cut Into Supreme Court Scene

by Benjamin R. Freed

While most of the thousands of demonstrators lined up outside the U.S. Supreme Court today were there to show their opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act, a handful of people were getting snippy about a completely different issue.

Circumcision.

This week marks the 20th annual Demonstration Against Infant Circumcision, a yearly protest in which hundreds of "intactivists" descent upon Washington to clamor for an end to the practice of doctors removing newborn infant boys' foreskin, whether for religious purposes or because it's a standard practice in American medicine.

"Forcing children to participate in blood rituals is wrong," says Jonathan Conte, a San Francisco resident holding a large sign reading "Equal Justice" above a large, graphic photo of a newborn being circumcised. "Religion of one's parents is not a reason to abuse."

Noting that the federal government adopted legislation in 1996 banning vaginal circumcision, Conte wants to see a similar measure adopted that protects penises. While the removal of the foreskin is an ages-old custom in Judaism, Conte says that accounts for only a fraction of circumcisions performed in the United States, where it was adopted as a standard medical procedure for newborns in the mid-19th century.

"That started 150 years ago as a way to curb masturbation," he says. Conte also argues that the reasons for circumcision continuing as a customary operation keep changing, such as AIDS prevention, despite what he says is a lack of evidence. It's also a practice he says is unique to American medicine.

"Most of the world's men have their whole penises, and they're not dropping dead," he says.

To his very open frustration, Conte does not have his whole penis either. He was snipped at birth, and he says he resents his parents for electing to have the operation conducted, as well as the doctor who performed it.

"Every one of my sexual partners has had sex with a mutilated man," he says.

Conte says that a circumcised man of is missing roughly 15 square inches of protective issues around the glans, or head, of his penis, an effect he displays by rolling up a small handbill preaching the ills of foreskin removal. "It permanently alters the form and function of the penis," he says. "The glans is mucosal tissue. It's meant to be covered."

Then there are the effects on the most important functions of the penis. Conte wants to assure people he speaks with that circumcised men—like himself—are still capable of sex and procreation, though in his opinion it can be a bit dodgy.

"I'm not saying cut men can't have sex," he says. "Or that they can't feel pleasure or get erections. Sex without a foreskin is much more abrasive and dry. It's the mechanics of it."

Moreover, the circumcision opponents say the practice is one more example of the U.S. medical system's fee-for-service setup, in which doctors have a natural incentive to perform as many procedures as possible. Only, in the case of circumcision, Conte says doctors are being paid to lop a body part that "years of evolution" haven't discarded.

"Can you imagine if doctors were making money cutting off other parts of healthy baby boys?" he asks.

Conte and his fellow "intactivists" will be in town through the weekend, culminating with a march from the U.S. Capitol to the White House on Saturday. The demonstration will be "extremely diverse" he says. "We have both victims and intact people."

NEW ORLEANS: Intact America confronts AAP Convention: AAP tries to have them removed

Washington Post
October 23, 2012

Anti-circumcision activists confront pediatricians

By John Pope| Religion News Service [Religion?]

Intactivists demonstrate that circumcising babies harms the men they become, opposite the AAP convention Picture: James Loewen

NEW ORLEANS — Pediatricians gathered here for the American Academy of Pediatrics convention were greeted by protesters urging the medical group to rethink its position on an issue that makes most people squirm: the circumcision of newborn boys.

And although the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn’t recommend routine removal of infants’ foreskins — that has been its stance since 1999 — its report, released two months ago, does cite literature saying that the procedure can prevent [some] urinary-tract infections, cancer of the penis and sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.

Such benefits, the report says, justify its coverage by private insurance and Medicaid. But opponents, who call themselves “intactivists,” go beyond mere opposition to the circumcision of healthy infants.

Georgeanne Chapin J L

“We say that it’s a human-rights violation to tie down a baby and cut off part of his penis,” said Georganne Chapin, the founding executive director of Intact America, which held a press conference and rally outside the convention on Saturday (Oct. 20).

The AAP convention continues through Tuesday.

Moreover, she said, “There are absolutely no data suggesting that areas with high circumcision rates have healthier boys or areas with low circumcision rates have less healthy boys.”

Data suggest a decline in the percentage of American newborns undergoing the procedure.

...

Anthony Losquadro at the press conference Picture: Barefoot Intactivist

Anthony Losquadro of Brooklyn, N.Y., who spoke at Saturday’s rally at the convention center, said it represents a shift in public opinion.

“Like any change in culture, it takes time,” he said, “but I think people realize that babies are born intact and you don’t need to correct a perfectly functional body part with surgery.”

...

The authors did not take a position on whether newborns should be circumcised. [Everything but...] They also took pains to point out that the data they used didn’t include circumcisions performed outside hospitals, such as those required for boys born into Jewish and Muslim families.

But the reason for the procedure doesn’t matter, said Chapin, whose organization opposes all medically unnecessary circumcisions.

“Our organization is not going after Jews and Muslims,” she said. “We’re saying that all babies are entitled to protection.”

...

Among the speakers at Saturday’s protest were men who were circumcised days after they were born and still profess to be upset by it, even though the procedure occurred decades ago. [Way to dismiss their human rights! Have their foreskins grown back?]

“I do feel a sense that my rights were violated on my second day of life,” Losquadro said.

The foreskin has a role, he said, because it covers the tip of the penis — he likened this role to that of an eyelid — and because it has cells that alert the immune system to potential trouble.

“It evolved for a reason,” he said, “and it’s foolish for doctors to assume that it’s an unneeded flap of skin."

---

Georgeanne Chapin writes:

Saturday, the second day of our protest, two AAP officials convened with police and security guards in front of the convention center. A couple of Intactivists were able to overhear some of the conversation. They asked the police if we could not be forced to leave the area. The police told them no, that we were marching on public property, and that we were breaking no laws.

I actually went up to the man, extended my hand, and introduced myself as Georgnne Chapin, executive director of Intact America. He refused to shake my hand and said, "So what?"

I said I just wanted to introduce myself and I would like to know his name. He said, "I don't agree with anything you do or say," turned on his heel, and walked away.

We had the equivalent of an outdoor, public booth across from the Center; it was a streetcorner, next to an outdoor parking lot, which was next to a Marriott Hotel. On Friday, we had received permission from the lot owner to hang our "I Did Not Consent" banner, and other signs on the chain link fence.


Picture: Intact Lousiana

Around an hour after the AAP officials' unsuccessful attempt to get rid of us, the valet from the Marriott came and told us that the owner of the parking lot said we were trespassing and had to take the banner and signs down.

Dan Bollinger asked to speak with the owner who "didn't have time" to talk with us, but asked the valet if he could give us the guy's number. Dan called him (turns out it was the manager, not the owner), and had a very pleasant conversation, which ended in him agreeing to extend the permission for us to have the signs up for two more days. (We paid him a small fee.)

We are certain that the AAP also had complained to the Marriott, which is what sparked them to contact the parking lot manager (who clearly felt he didn't owe the AAP anything). Very nice. All of that said, we had some good conversations, and I felt that by being on the street rather than in the convention exhibit hall, we were free to say all the things we believe.

Earlier story

ILLINOIS: New AAP policy may lean toward cutting

Washington Post
August 14, 2012

Circumcision, long in decline in the U.S., may get a boost from a doctors’ group

and Bangor Daily News
August 14, 2012 as

Circumcision waning in popularity as ‘intactivists’ denounce practice

By Michael Alison Chandler

When Tamar Jacobs became pregnant, she found herself hoping for a girl, mainly because she was dreading a difficult rite of passage that often comes with the birth of a boy — circumcision.

Growing up Jewish in Baltimore, “I never really questioned it,” she said, but the more she read and thought about it, the more “unnecessary and even cruel” circumcision seemed. By the time the grainy 20-week sonogram showed the outward sign of an XY chromosome, she knew she could not go through with it.

“It seemed like such a severe, out-of-this-time thing to do,” she said.

The 32-year-old fiction writer and community college professor is part of a new wave of parents who are questioning not just an ancient Jewish tradition but a long-entrenched American one.

More than 1.2 million infant boys undergo the surgery each year, making the United States one of the industrialized world’s leading producers of circumcised men. But the once ubiquitous practice, in which the foreskin is removed from the penis, is waning.

From a high of about 80 percent in the 1960s, the portion of baby boys leaving hospitals with petroleum-jelly-covered wounds in their diapers dropped to 56 percent in 2008, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The figures do not include those circumcised in outside clinics or by religious providers.)

The downward trend is probably fueled by Medicaid laws in many states that have stopped paying for the surgery, increased immigration from Latin America and other areas were circumcision is less common, and a growingly vocal cadre of so-called “intactivists” who argue that the practice is a human rights violation.

It also reflects a generation that’s more likely to trust nature and second-guess their medical treatment. For these parents, circumcision has become less of an assumption and more of a choice, and not always an easy one.

An expectant parent wading into the debate around circumcision is likely to discover a maze of medical research, white-hot rhetoric pitting children’s rights against religious freedom, and a choir of bathroom humor.

In interviews for this article, the untrimmed foreskin was alternately derided as an HIV-spreading “wrinkled elephant trunk” or heralded for its “elegant function” and thousands of pleasure-inducing nerve endings.

An uncircumcised California native described the embarrassed feeling of being the kid who looked different in the locker room, and an anti-circumcision activist explained how he spent the past decade trying to re-stretch his shorn foreskin and increase sensitivity in his penis by using a commercially available plastic cone that applies tension to the remaining skin.

Given the prevalence of circumcision, perhaps the most surprising perspective is one offered by American doctors, many of whom summarize the procedure as a “cosmetic” or “aesthetic” choice.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, which advises children’s doctors on research-based practices, has been officially neutral on the issue for more than a decade.

According to its 2005 position statement, which reaffirmed its 1999 stance, “existing scientific evidence demonstrates potential medical benefits” of newborn circumcision but not enough to “recommend routine neonatal circumcision.”

That position is poised to change, though, as the AAP is expected to release an updated statement and report reflecting recent research later this month.

While details are not yet available, the new position concludes that the health benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks, said Michael Brady, a pediatric expert at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and a member of the AAP’s task force on circumcision.

...

The AAP’s new position falls short of a routine recommendation, Brady said, adding that parents should continue to take into account their own cultural, religious or social views. [Trading of the ambiguity of "routine". It would be mad to do it so routinely that parents weren't consulted - Brady's meaning.] “But from a public health perspective, I think it’s a good decision and a lot of children will benefit.” [Since circumcision isn't claimed to prevent any contagious diseases of childhood, how is it a public health issue?]

‘A human right’
Many people, however, question the safety and ethics of using surgery to prevent disease. Some opponents liken it to using mastectomy to prevent, rather than treat, breast cancer.

At last month’s AIDS conference in Washington, protesters displayed signs outside the Walter E. Washington Convention Center that read “Circumcision is torture” and “Intact genitals are a human right.”

Activists traveled from Norfolk, Boston and New York to hand out condoms as a safer way to contain the virus. They challenge the relevance of the African studies in the United States. And they argue that men, not their parents, should be able to choose what to do with their genitals.

...

“Things are starting to happen,” said Matthew Hess, president of San Diego-based MGMbill.org, ...

Hess and other activists say a key challenge in their fight is countering denial among circumcised jmen who don’t want to acknowledge they have been victimized and among the parents and medical practitioners who have gone along with the status quo.

“To cut a body part off a little tiny baby in cold blood, you have to [suppress] a lot of your natural instincts,” said Georganne Chapin, executive director of Intact America, a four-year-old organization opposing infant circumcision.

...

An estimated 30 percent of men are circumcised around the globe today,... That includes North Sudanese boys circumcised at age 8 (using a cord and a knife) before they can enter school as well as 2-day-old American-born boys clipped [sliced, actually] at the hospital using a clamp — sometimes compared to a “cigar cutter” — and some local anesthetic. [The cigar-cutter-like Mogen clamp is no longer manufatured in the US.]

...

Starting in 1971, the American Academy of Pediatrics ruled and then periodically reaffirmed that there was no medical imperative for routine circumcision for babies.

Medical ambivalence [distaste, actually] curbed the practice of nonreligious circumcision in some Western countries, including Canada, New Zealand and Australia, over the past half-century. In Britain, national health insurance after World War II opted not to cover it, and the circumcision rate plummeted.

...

A cultural alternative
Tamar Jacobs and her husband, Raymond Anthony Scott Lloyd II, who is not Jewish and is not circumcised, opted for a different path entirely.

They planned what they called an “alterna-bris,” or what some call a bris shalom (covenant of peace), with a secular rabbi. There was a traditional ha-motzi (blessing for the bread) and a kiddush (blessing of the wine) and a naming ceremony, where their new son, Ray, was given a Jewish name, Reuven, but there was no traditional cutting.

The hardest part was telling her parents. They were at first “a little taken aback,” she said, “worried that somehow that would mean Ray would not be Jewish.’’

But they soon embraced the idea. They hosted the ceremony in their living room and baked challah and hundreds of cookies with their grandson’s name written on them.

“It was really cathartic to talk about some of these things. I think it got all of us thinking in a bigger way,” Jacobs said. “I feel like we are at the beginning of something exciting.”

Earlier story

WASHINGTON DC: Intactivists noticed at AIDS conference

Washington Post (Live Blog)
July 22, 2012

Battle over circumcision

By Pamela Constable
An impassioned battle over male circumcision emerged at the conference Monday, where advocates said the procedure would help reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in impoverished countries, but opponents asserted it would undermine the use of condoms while doing nothing to stop virus transmission.

Male circumcision has become increasingly accepted in Africa and Asia as awareness of AIDS has spread. A display by the AIDS Council of Zimbabwe featured photographs of boys in tribal costumes at a mass circumcision ceremony. Constant Karma, a doctor from Papua, Indonesia, led a delegation that promotes circumcision among religious communities there. He handed out brochures quoting Biblical verses and illustrated with traditional drawings of priests circumcising men. Karma said the former Dutch colonial rulers in Indonesia banned traditional circumcision for generations, but the AIDS epidemic has spurred activists to re-introduce a modern version.

“We are going to every church and mosque with our message. We have to do everything we can to stop the spread of AIDS,” Karma said through a translator. “We know how important this is, but even now there are groups preaching against it.”

Outside the convention center, protesters had erected banners that said “Circumcision is Torture” and “Intact Genitals are a Human Right.” Natalie Erdossy, 29, an activist from Reston, said circumcision is not the answer to AIDS, and that it can lull men into thinking wrongly that they are protected against the virus.

“People are touting studies from Africa saying circumcision reduces HIV infection,” she said. “That is totally flawed. Only condoms protect people from it. If a man in Africa hears that circumcision can protect him, he’ll think, ‘Hot dog, now I don’t have to use a condom.’”

Brochures handed out by Erdossy and a group called NOCIRC said male circumcision might actually increase the rate of HIV/AIDS transmission and place female partners at greater risk, because circumcised men may believe it provides an “invisible condom.” They also said there is frequent risk of infection from surgical complications.