SAN FRANCISCO - The City Council of San Francisco voted yesterday to outlaw circumcision.
The new law makes it a misdemeanor to “circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the…genitals” of all minors, and does not make exceptions for religious reasons.
The decision to permanently remove a boy’s foreskin should not be made by parents, says William Barfield, the author of the new law.
“People can practice whatever religion they want, but a man’s body is a man’s body,” said Barfield. “His body doesn’t belong to his culture, his government, his religion or even his parents. It’s his decision.”
Some parents interviewed by WWN disagreed.
“What? It’s my baby boy and I’m going to clip his wee-wee about five minutes after he’s born, because that’s the way we do things,” said Jefferson Tomkins of the Haight.
“Government can’t rule us on everything we do,” said Ashley Morter. The San Francisco mother told WWN that she had her son circumcised just 3 weeks prior. “It’s a health issue. It’s cleaner,” Morter said.
In July, a researcher from the Centers for Disease Control presented statistics showing that 32% of boys underwent the procedure in 2009. While the figure does not include circumcisions done outside of medical facilities, it’s a precipitous drop from the 56% of boys who were circumcised three years earlier in 2006.
Some supporters of male circumcision argue that the practice helps stop the spread of HIV and is more hygienic. Opponents say it can be painful and robs men of greater sexual sensation.
“We must stop genital mutilation in this country,” said Barfield.
Good. It's not your penis. We don't allow female cutting. This is simple equal justice under the law. Keep the hoodie on the woodie.
What is known as female circumcision (mutilation) is not the same thing as male circumcsion. At one point I'm sure that over half the U.S. population was circumcised and they did just fine. This is a ridiculous law.
You are correct. Female Genital Mutilation is different from Male Genital Mutilation. The first procedure is forced on females, the second is forcibly done to males. Other than that, genital mutilation is genital mutilation. Or didn't you know.
You are correct. In female genital cutting a helpless child who can not resist it is held down and part of her genitals cut off, for obscure and deviously sexual reasons, with a heavy overlay of custom, conformity, religion and fear; this violates her fundamental right as a human being to decide for herself what part of her own genitals she may want to keep, when she is old enough. Unlike male genital cutting.
I am not Jewish and I don't think that you have to be Jewish to be circumsized . My Uncle was in his eighties when he decided to submit to circumcision, he felt the it was more hygienic, and so do I.
I am in my eighties and I am thinking of doing it. As it is now I have to frequently wash my penis to remove the slime. As far as pain I think that local anesthetic would take care of that, by most part.
If anything circumsision should be done at infancy or before puberty. My son had it done when he was about 10 and as an adult he is doing fine, two children.
Why would you want this done in your 80's? You probably don't have any arousal anyways ..
There is a huge difference Here… You as an adult male have every right to decide for yourself whether you want to be mutilated or remain intact. But that right is being stripped away from our newborn sons by forcibly removing their perfectly healthy foreskins without their consent. Thats a huge difference. I am a victim of this hideous act and I didn’t chose to be mutilated. If I had to chose I would have chosen to remain intact. But I was robbed of that chose when the doctors and my parents thought they were doing what was best for me. They didn’t do me any favors. So yes. As a consenting adult you should be free to chose whether to mutilate your penis or not, for whatever reason you feel. It’s your penis your right.
Do the same for our infant boys. Protect them from these mass genital mutilations and give them their right to chose for themselves. No human being should ever have a healthy part of their body violated or mutilated without their knowledge and consent.
Circumcision ends with!
King David of the Old Testament used 200 foreskins to buy himself a wife. No doubt the doctors in San Francisco have been collecting wee-wee clippings to buy themselves wives, and now they will have to hit the singles bars just like everyone else.
The Biblical reference to foreskins as a bride-price is a euphemism. He actually delivered the entire penis, along with the testicles.
You mean something in the bible is not literally true??
With their calculated, deceptive rhetoric, the perpetrators of this atrocity attempt to draw links between an obvious horror and positive abstractions such as “tradition,” “religion,” “science,” “medicine,” and “hygiene.” The documents and essays on sexuallymutilatedchild.org, however, expose this charade and show what the sexual mutilation of children is really about: envy, lust, hatred, male sexual rivalry, sadism, criminal psychopathology, desperation, ruthlessness, power, control, oppression, violence, contempt for humanity, and greed.
It is about time that more human rights activists followed this lead and refused to play the circumcisers’ game of evading the real issues. Circumcision is not really about medicine or public health. Circumcision is not really about preventing or curing any disease. Circumcisers are not mistaken in their medical beliefs; they are lying. Circumcision advocacy is really about weaving a convincing network of lies to deflect the attention of the public and the criminal justice system from the frightening truth that circumcisers are really criminally deranged, psychotic, knife-wielding maniacs driven by psychopathic obsessions and compulsions that most people could never understand.
Excellent post.
That just made me laugh out loud.
Leave my wee-wee to meeee
This guy said it better than I could. http://www.calgaryherald.com/Stop+circumcision/38…
Removing half of the skin, and two thirds of the nerves, from a healthy person's genitals is simply unethical, and wrong.
There is no evidence that circumcision is cleaner, or prevents any disease. The longest running study, the Dawson study in New Zealand, shows no statistical difference.
Dickson study, but that's absolutely true. No protection against diseases in the real world.
[...] [...]
If doctors in the U.S. are cutting healthy, normally functioning foreskins off of babies for $300, what healthy, normally functioning body structures are they cutting off of adults for $3,000?
MALE Circumcision is nerve damage cutting off about 20000 fine touch and stretch sensing nerve endings and removing a source of pleasure from the male FOR LIFE. This is 2/3 of the total pleasure source amputated! This is nerves, blood vessels, protective covering and pleasure zones taken away from a human before the human can experience this. The dynamics and function and pleasure from sex and masturbation of the penis is harmed for good.
Only about 0.5% of males who are left intact (natural) at birth end up getting circumcised later in life. That tells you the foreskin parts are not as much of a problem as people make it out to be, and Men LIKE their foreskin parts.
I wish i had the choice but i did not i was circumcised and birth. It was the worst thing that was done to me in my life. I have suffered with a mutilated penis that has not much sensation. Emotionally because of the effects of not able to feel and enjoy sex as i was intended to I have anger toward my parents and the medical community that i do not trust. I feel violated this was done without my consent. Google infant circumcision video and watch one then you will know its wrong.. Also go to nocirc.org and watch the video on the homepage with Dr. Dean Odell.
No its not cleaner there is evidence to support it… If there was such a problem with foreskin the Europe would have a epidemic. I totally agree with your post wanted to add to it….
It makes sense that nuts in SF would do this. We have seen time and time again how these freaks do the most insane things. For all on the City Council I say MYOB! Worry about the crime and homeless instead! As a parent who has a son I wanted him to have the same hygenic benefits I and those I grew up with had. Besides, ever been around an uncircmcised penis on a hot day? Gad, the smell is horrible. Just another mindless attempt to do something weird. I say Pro circumcison and the folks in SF need to get a life.
Circumcision has hygienic benefits the way hanging cups in the trees keeps away raging rhinoceroses. See any rhinoceroses? Better keep hanging up those cups!
Living in a non-circumcising country, I must have been around many, many ordinary, whole (not "un-" anything) penises every day, yet nether I nor anyone else has ever seemed to notice this "horrible" smell. Perhaps we know something about soap and water that they don't know where AJscut is.
Mutilating an infants genitals for the supposed hygiene benefits is wrong. As a parent it is your responsibility to teach your son proper hygiene. A little water and soap goes along way. And I’m the only one mutilated in my family (first born son) my father, 4 brothers and 2 nephews and my Partner are all intact And smelly foreskins isn’t a problem. Why? Because everyone knows how to clean themselves.
What about a hot sweaty vagina? Now that’s an odor and a half to deal with. I can smell that a few feet away. Wanna ask your wife if she’ll gladly mutilate her vagina for the sake of hygiene and cleanliness?
This Ban is about putting an end to Genital Mutilation of non consenting infant males. It’s not a ban on circumcision all together. Anyone over the age of 18 can gladly make the choice to mutilate thier genitals for hygiene, religion, politics or whatever. But you ARE MAKING the CHOICE. That’s the difference. This Ban is returning the power of choice to the rightful owner. The owner of the penis.
Circumcision ends with me!
Identity problem??? Would you feel less a man if your son is not circumcised. Or are you caught up in a truly false imago Dei. In other words, seriously, please do some introspection.
Frank's report is a premature ejaculation. The city has no banned circumcision, yet, unfortunately. There is a citizen initiative making the rounds to ban it. The proposal needs 7,000+ signatures to make it to the ballot next year. Perhaps the good citizens of SF will ban it.
As of today 5/18/2011 it will be on the ballot.
If this ban is an infringement on "freedom of religion," and/or "parental choice," why isn't anyone up and arms about the federal ban on FGM? Female circumcision is an important tradition in families from Africa, Indonesia and Malaysia. The federal ban on FGM is an infringement of THEIR "religious freedom" and "parental choice."
Some may change the subject and say "meh, but it's different. Girls suffer more." To which I would say, you're talking out your asre. You can seriously sit there and tell me "don't compare the two," when I know for a fact that you have never seen and compared both male and female circumcision? You DO know that not all female circumcision is the horrible procedure advocates of circumcision describe, right? Some kinds of female circumcision are actually LESS SEVERE than the male circumcision that goes on in this country. Women in Malaysia and Indonesia talk about circumcising their baby daughters the same way parents in America talk about circumcising their baby boys, like talking about the latest episode of Sex and the City.
circumcising a male and female are verrry different. i made the choice for MY child when he was born.As a parent I do believe you make that choice. Your parents made that choice for you when you were born and now you have the guts to say how wrong they are in their parenting choices? I believe the parents need to decide for themselves if this is what they want to do.I'm not saying that it is right or wrong,All i'm saying is that its a parents choice.And yes they do get the choice.Also,you do know what female circumcising is right? Don't compare the two unless you know and have seen it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98f3IavuEgQ
There ya go, dumbass. Watch it & you'll hopefully get it through your head. You don't know squat about the various types of FGM. If I have to hear people yap that don't even know anything about the internal anatomy of the clitoris, or that mild forms of sunat are performed in nice clean clinics, I'll plotz. Educate yourself, THEN talk. It is so much less tiresome.
Bottom line: "Female circumcision is worse" is based on pure opinion. People against male circumcision think male circumcision is "mutilation," but that's always dismissed as opinion; we're supposed to take circumcision advocate's word for it when they tell us just how "bad" female circumcision is. Cat's out of the bag fellas, you can't fool everybody every day.
We can talk about which mutilation is "worse" all day. But this can only mean one thing; the "religious freedom" and "parental choice" arguments are complete rubbish. Either cutting up your child's genitals is justifed under "religious freedom" and/or "parental choice" in either sex, or these arguments are complete bunk and you have to change the subject.
And circumcision hasn't been banned yet!
Come on, people. Even intactivists know that this ban won't pass by a long-shot.
The purpose of this ban is to get people talking, and, if you look it up on google, it has had its effect.
We need to get more people talking on this taboo subject.
We might claim to be more "civilized" than Africa, but if we look hard, we will realize we have a ways to go…
Circumcision is so beautiful. I love filming it.
You're kidding right? Please tell me you're kidding!
No he's not kidding. You should read his stories which outline in great detail his erotic fascination with the procedure, and with men who have experienced genital mutilation. The stories will chill your blood.
Dear Dr. Brian Morris the Australian professor who does the most excellent work in your field. Circumcision does not belong in your academia. If you think so, it is your one and only true academic failure just as Einstein refused to believe in the expanding universe. Brian you may have heard of me. I am the one who took on your buddy Jake Waskett a few years ago on another web. You have just spoken like a true child molester who truly likes children and believes that what they do is beneficial to them. Yes, you do go to Africa to do this filming. I am sure the actual correlation does not apply to you, but something for you to reflect on. Dr. Richard L Matteoli, Author: The Munchausen Complex: Socialization of Violence and Abuse.
Hi
SAN FRANCISCO HAS NOT BANNED CIRCUMCISION! It MIGHT be on the ballot next november in 2011. So, everyone on this ridiculous thread can chill out. Maybe you guys should all check your resources before getting all worked up.
Love,
A San Franciscan
cabañas en iguazu cabañas en iguazu precios
l never hnew some people from such an advanced country are that barabaric. “Circumcision”, a brand name that makes mutilation acceptable. Americans are the ones now advocating for mutilation of men the whole world. Crazy, crazy, crazy Americans.
For all those who think it’s ok to mutilate a perfectly healthy infant boy (or girl) against it’s will or consent then I say MAN up and spread your legs. I was robbed of my foreskin shortly after birth. I was born prematurely as if that weren’t enough of a challenge and the doctors convinced my mother to mutilate me with out her fully understanding what it meant (I was her first born son). My father, 4 younger brothers, 2 nephews and my partner are all intact.
Even though I don’t have a badly botched cut I do have a skin bridge on my shaft and inner skin, I have a scar and a small piece of missing flesh from the head of my penis and a crooked messy scar line (jagged and imperfectly symmetrical)
I didn’t ask for any of this. If I had to choose to do this I never would have! But that’s the point I wasn’t given a choice. That was stolen from me at birth. But it’s my body and I have to live in it for the rest of my life. My mother doesn’t clean my penis, hasn’t for a very many years now. The doctors and my parents aren’t in bed with me and my partner. It’s my body my choice.
Stop this bull about it being just a snip, just a flap of skin or the crap about not being able to remember any of it. The trauma is there. The damage is done. As I get older I’m noticing more and more difficulty with sensitivity and sensations ( I’m 34!!)
Agree to disagree if you want. I don’t care. The bottom line is NO ONE DID ME A FAVOR by mutilating me. They violated my body and my rights. Point blank.
Politics, religion, doctors and parents have nothing to do with a healthy boys penis. He is born perfect as god intended him to be. If he want to get cut for religion or hygiene or his partner or whatever, then he can and should make that decision for himself. He and he alone!
Men have an ultimate right to this body part and its functions, that no other person has the right to take from them, especially when they are infants and unable to resist.
Cool down Weekly World News. This initiative is against FORCED circumcision (genital cutting) of children. Circumcision without consent. Adults who are fully informed and have weighed all the risks will still be able to have genital reduction surgery, on their own genitals. Children will finally be protected, allowed to grow up with all of their sexual equipment intact, as nature provided.
I fully support a parents choice to circumcise their child. No other opinion matters.
It is the child that ultimately judges the parents.
Good argument. Children have so much been violated havent they? It pains, especially, for those who’ve had circumcision done with errors so that they had cuts wrongly and parts of their muscle affected. But I think you in the so called advanced countries are going from civilization to the real stone age and dark ages of confusion. You simply know too much and claim so much right.
Parents should have no choice mad for their children. Just imagine the pain the child goes through as it is evident in the screams and cries. Same thing, it is not only circumcision that should be banned. I remember when a baby had to be forced to take food while it cried. If I had a voice I should have asked that parent feeding children while they cry should be banned. It is the children’s choice if they loose appetite and would die let them die, it is their right. Why should your mother force you to take your bath? to bad, she should allow you to remain dirty till you are 18 or above or wait till the child cries out mummy I want to take a bath. have you ever noticed how many children’s right are violated when they do not want to have a hair cut and yet their parents in the guise of making them look good force them to or see how some kids cry when they are to be taken to school for the first time. Wicked isnt it? This kids should be left till 18 then they can decide if they would go to school instead of forcing it on them.
Recently a child took a knife to play with, its choice, but to our chargrin the mother collected the knife from it, too bad, should have allowed the child to play with it untill it is 18 to decide. Allow them to play with the gas till they are 18. Another thing I hate is that I see, on most medicines, or drugs, inscribed, keep all medicines out of children’s reach, too bad, why discriminate against them. Do they not have the right to have access to the medicine until they are 18 to know that it is good or bad.
The simple reasons for all this argument is that we have become the children while the children have become the adults.
If there is any reason against circumcision, let it be another but not because of their rights. All the baby formulas we have today were never manufacture as a result of babies conferences where babies meet and decide what they would take. Why immunize them, why inject them. Too much rights for you advanced countries. Rigth to bomb a place if you feel like and the list goes on.
Neither for or against but against your RIGHT CAMPAIGN. Cant you see how it has turned you advanced countries into child worshipers and your youth generation a set of mad people without law and order? Rape here, murder here, suicide here. Because parents allow what they called right of child, which is actually a display excuse because ouf our laziness and deficiency in training a child.
You better wake up.
I do have to ask, if god intended for males to be circumsized, then why didn’t he just make us that way? I mean he obviously isn’t cause Adam was made in his image and I’m pretty sure no one was around to chop him off.
It's not San Francisco and it's not circumcision.
The U.S. has BANNED circumspection – an even more heinous act!
There go the "gratuities" or tips as they call them…