CIN (Circumcision Information Network) 2:37

Introduction
This weekly bulletin is a project of CIN, the Circumcision Information Network (formerly CIN CompuBulletin). 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.

A VICTIM SPEAKS
Contributed 9 Nov. 1995, by [Anonymous]

I am shaking with rage, fear, loss, and I don't know what else.  My
girlfriend is a doctor just finishing her residency in Australia.  We have an
open relationship until we can manage to live in the same country.  I have
just been been talking on the phone with her, and she told me she slept with
one of her friends.  This is not what is bothering me.  We were talking about
the details and she mentioned that he was uncircumcised, and we started
talking about the differences.  

She said that it was easier to give an uncircumcised man a hand job because
she could slide the skin up and down and when he was close to coming there
was this thing you could do that they said felt really good.  She couldn't do
this at all with a circumcised man.  She asked me if I was sorry about mine
and I lied, lied, lied.  (I have not told her about my feelings about having
been circumcised at all.) 

I told her that I'd always been that way and didn't know any different so how
could I mind.  Then we started talking about the rights of people to have
their children circumcised and she said that they explained the risks then
did it under general anaesthesia if the parents still wanted it.  She said
that people who were uncircumcised got more penile cancer "full stop."  

I feel the same sense of loss that the earlier poster did (whose name I can't
remember) who wrote the beautiful essay on the impact of his circumcision.  I
will never have a penis that she can do those things with.  I will never know
what it feels like.  It is times like this that I believe that the business
end of a shotgun, judiciously applied to the roof of the mouth, is a fit
escape from what was done to me.  There seems to be no other.  I often ( and
this is one of those times) wish that, after my circumcision, the doctor had
just reached up with his scalpel and cut my throat while he was at it.

[Editor's note:  Lawrence later called his girlfriend and openly confronted
her.  She has seen the light.  Lawrence says she is now just vehemently
opposed to circumcision.]

THE DIARY OF AN AAP CONFERENCE ATTENDEE
Part 3 of a three-part series
Editor's note:  A previous 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:

Monday, Oct 15th, Day 3. 
I bumped into two doctors I had seen at the Philly conference.  One was
against circ (she's European) but she's not too outspoken because she loses
referrals from OB-GYN's.  This is one dynamic in the issue that should be
studied.  The other doctor was a Muslim from Brooklyn he said that he now
agreed with us after reading the NOHARMM literature I gave him at the last
conference.  I spent the rest of the day wiping smirks off of doctors faces
by talking about the deaths and botched cases (always pointing to Marin
County).

Tuesday, Oct 17th , Day 4. 
Cynthia Howard from Rochester spoke on breast feeding tips.  At no point in
her lecture did she talk about her widely publicized study in which she
discovered that circumcision may cause breast feeding failure.  One of her
tips should have been:  Don't Circumcise!  But doctors really fear this issue
even if they are against circ.  I brought that up during question period and
she agreed that it is "ludicrous" to circumcise 200 boys to prevent one UTI. 

Finally I went to the Friends of the Canadian Pediatric Society meeting.  I
had some wine and shmoozed.  I asked someone to point out the president of
the CPS and as soon as he was alone.  I approached him.  Introduced myself
and he was immediately asking me questions like "What's the deal with you
Americans? When are you going to give up circumcision?"  (They have a
fabulous statement on circumcision.)  He treated me as if we were old
buddies.  I told him to be strong and not make the same mistake the
Australians made when they just recently made their policy weaker by saying
there are possible benefits to circ.  He gave me his card and he reassured
me, "We are not changing our statement". 

On the way out of the hotel I saw Joycelyn Elders approaching me.  I stuck my
hand straight out shook hers and new that I would have to be brief.  So I
talked for not even a minute while she walked.  She mentioned that she knew a
physician who has been working on the subject . 

FOR JEWISH PARENTS
Jewish Associates of the Circumcision Resource Center invite Jewish parents
with intact sons and Jews who would not circumcise a son  to join them.
 Please specify if you are willing to have your name used publicly; if not,
your anonymity will be respected.  Ronald F. Goldman,  PO Box 232, Boston, MA
 02133

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.

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