I am a victim of infant Male Genital Mutilation. The only difference between myself and a little girl in Africa is that my mutilator used a scalpel instead of an old razor blade. Why are only females in America protected under federal law from genital mutilation? There are very few people that want to hear these truths. Our culture is in deep denial and denial makes a powerful fortress. Why should an individual man feel so badly about his condition when there are millions just like him? Do numbers make an atrocity acceptable?
I have suffered my entire life from the disfigurement, humiliation and trauma of what was done to my innocent, healthy, and perfect body without my consent. Each year in America circumcision kills over one hundred baby boys. The medical community and mohels continue to inflict this unethical, immoral, barbaric and purely cosmetic surgery on helpless non consenting infant boys all the while placing the onus of culpability on the parents. A parents first instinct is to protect, yet because of an authoritative abuse of power that fundamental instinct is over ridden by coercion and lies. I have dedicated myself and my art to speaking out against this physically disfiguring, psychologically harmful, and completely unnecessary practice. MGM deprives a child of his human rights, diminishes sexual enjoyment, and denies him religious freedom. It is time to stop this shameful madness and to start recognizing that a persons' human rights begin with his first breath.
