CIRCUMCISION INFORMATION NETWORK Formerly CIN CompuBulletin Volume 2, Number 35, 2 November 1995 E-Mail: CircInfoNe@aol.com The purpose of this weekly bulletin is to educate the public about and to protect children and other non-consenting persons from genital mutilation. Readers are encouraged to copy and redistribute it, and to contribute written material. --Rich Angell, Editor. RESPONDING TO ELLEN GOODMAN Editor's note: Feminist Columnist Ellen Goodman recently wrote another article denouncing female genital mutilation. One question we have to ask ourselves is: why do we call female genital mutilation 'female genital mutilation'? Could it be an unspoken or subconscious way of ignoring or hiding the obvious fact that genital mutilation is genital mutilation, whether the amputated tissue is a foreskin, a clitoris or a labia, whether it is done for social, religious or so-called medical reasons, whether it is done to male or female children? Read on for one man's response to Ms. Goodman's article: Contributed by Barry Ellsworth, BarryBE@aol.com In a recent Boston Globe article decrying female genital mutilation, you mentioned "a bizarre analogy made between female circumcision and male." It was implied that this analogy is both false and an impediment to the eradication of female genital mutilation. You declined to identify those who assert that there is a connection; those who assert the connection because they see the removal of healthy genital tissue from any child as a violation of human rights. Circumcised men such as myself have lost fifteen square inches of genital tissue. That tissue would have contained over a two hundred and fifty feet of nerves, and a thousand nerve endings. It contained an anatomical structure called the frenulum which is perhaps the most sensitive part of the penis, analogous to the female clitoris. We are left only with a scar, and a vague assertion that we are cleaner and more desirable, much like the female victims of genital mutilation. The connection between male and female genital mutilation is readily recognized by "circumcised" women, African and American, who are working to stop FGM. Maserka ["Mimi"] Ramsey, an Ethiopian woman active in the fight against both male and female circumcision, has stated that "cut is cut, mutilation is mutilation," regardless of gender. When I met filmmaker Soraya Mire, who made a movie about her own circumcision in Somalia, we were struck by our feeling of sharing the experience of being genitally mutilated. Several North American women who have been genitally mutilated by US doctors have stood with circumcised men to end all medically sanctioned mutilations. Failing to recognize the connection is an impediment to stopping all mutilations. The similarity has not been lost on the circumcisers. The government of Egypt, in its attempt to reconcile international opinion with its own powerful pro-circumcision clerics, has decreed that all female circumcisions will be performed in modern hospitals. They noticed that moving mutilation into the medical setting has legitimized genital mutilation in the west. If girls are circumcised in Egyptian hospitals with sterile instruments and the benefits of anesthesia, how can we object? THE DIARY OF AN AAP CONFERENCE ATTENDEE Part 1 of a multi-part series Editor's note: The last issue of the CIN reported on activists who quietly picketed outside of the American Academy of Pediatrics conference in San Francisco. Following is a report, contributed by W.H., of activist Richard DeSeabra, Director NORM of NYC, who actually attended the conference: Thursday, Oct. 12th Arrived in San Francisco and actually bumped into Ken Drabick, director of NORM of New Zealand on the street 3 hours after my arrival! He had just flown in an hour earlier! We had met a few weeks earlier in New York City. The fact that intactivists are now bumping into each other around the world must be a good sign. Friday, Oct. 13th: Registration Day. Felt nauseous approaching the Mascone Center. The hostility of the Pediatricians at the AAP Philly Conference came back to me and I realized then and there "here we go again." My goal was to contact committee heads and discuss the importance of inviting doctors who share our views to speak at future conferences. I also wanted to meet with the heads of the three committees that are going to revisit the circ issue. I always introduced myself as the director of NORM of NYC, a support network for men damaged by circumcision. That word "damaged" stops them in their tracks. Then after talking about the deaths and the boy who lost the head of his penis recently in Marin County just over the Golden Gate (I would point as if I knew what direction Marin County was in) I would proceed to talk about what men are doing to reverse this. As soon as I started to get smirks I would mention if it is OK for a woman to want a breast after mastectomy then it should be acceptable for men to want a prepuce after a postectomy. I felt very empowered by the fact that so many restoring men had contributed to my being out there. I had a constituency I was representing. I left messages with a few heads of committee and got a call back from the head of COPAM, Peter Rappo. Spoke for 45 minutes. Told him about the various movements and mostly about NORM. He told me they were literally "bombarded" with material. I told him you can't go around cutting off the best part of millions of men's penises and expect every one to be happy about it. Saturday, Oct 14th: Day 1 of conference: NOHARMM Demonstration at 11:00 AM. I don't wear a NOHARMM button to keep NORM and NOHARMM separate. NOHARMM was very professional looking. They got a lot of frustrating snickers and laughs from doctors but every once in a while there was a good response. One nurse from San Antonio told me they have to save the foreskins for the Hospital's Dept. of Oral surgery which uses them for reconstructive surgery of the inner lining of the mouth. I couldn't find her address afterwards because I forgot her last name. I'm still working on finding her though. At 14:00 I go to COPAM meeting. I thought I was going to stand outside and lobby as they went in and came out but the sign by the door said "Meet the Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine." I didn't realize the meeting was open to all conference members. Sat there for an hour and a half and they talked about liability problems, congress, Hillary Clinton, money, vaccines and I finally realized that circ was not going to be brought up. Finally I got up and said that for the past three months I had heard that COPAM was going to address the issue on circumcision... And as soon as I said the "c" word they all smirked and there were some laughs. I told them to shut up and stop laughing because 4.5 billion people agreed with the demonstrators outside and not with them. "If there is anyone who is lunatic fringe here it's not me and it's not NOHARMM. Let it be known that YOU are in the minority on this issue. Not us." They clammed up and I spoke and told them about the deaths and botched cases (I pointed to Marin County again). I told them I was representing men of NORM. Rappo interrupted me and said "Well Richard, you know we spoke yesterday for 45 minutes." My reply: "Yes, you and I spoke but had I not shown up here you wouldn't have mentioned anything about our conversation to your colleagues nor was circumcision going to be brought up." I added that as they talked for an hour and a half around 130 boys had been circumcised. I asked them to come up to me and take the report I had written up at the request of another committee called Five Fields of Study on Circumcision for Future AAP Conferences. At the end, some of them asked me for the report and I handed out the rest. One doctor interjected, "What's the big deal. The parents of those 130 children all consented to having the circumcisions done." Then, I blurted out "No one has the right to amputate all or part of someone else's healthy genitalia without their consent! Why is this so difficult for American doctors to get? Why? No one answered. And I insisted, "Can you tell me why?" Silence. Then after doing a brief one on one with them afterwards, I was told that a new task force is going to be formed and that they were going to discuss this issue later that night in a closed meeting. FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION call NOCIRC, the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers at (415) 488-9883, fax (415) 488-9660. Ask about the resource provider nearest you. For written information, write NOCIRC, PO Box 2512, San Anselmo, CA 94979, with SASE and/or donation if possible.