Report from the Advances & Controversies in Clinical Pediatrics conference in SF

[SoCo Intactivists]

Our colleagues with Bay Area Intactivists have been busy doing education and outreach around the Bay. Thursday and Friday they demonstrated and gave out info at the "Advances & Controversies in Clinical Pediatrics" conference in San Francisco. It's curious how the responses and stories follow demographics. Here's their report from the front lines:

Thursday: [We] demonstrated for a couple hours outside The Westin San
Francisco Market Street this afternoon. There was a great deal of
vehicular traffic on Third Street where a few drivers honked their car
horns in support. Pictures of us and our signs were taken several
times. Most people walking by us were supportive or remained quiet.
One defensive guy got into a debate with us but he remained courteous
throughout and even took our picture.

A pediatrician who was visiting from New Mexico advised us that he had
never performed a circumcision in his life and that he had bribed
someone else to stand in for him to perform one on his behalf during
his medical training. He repeatedly stated that male circumcision was
a form of genital mutilation and that doctors who perform it are liars
and hypocrites. He also said that doctors make $300-500 per
circumcision and that some do it because it is easy money. When I
asked him if he would speak out to his colleagues in an effort to
educate them and get them to stop, he responded that he already felt
marginalized for refusing to perform circumcisions himself and that he
didn't wish to stretch his neck out any further.

Friday: [There were] a few thumbs-ups and nods of agreement today--both from
pedestrians and others passing by us in cars. One taxi driver with his
window rolled down yelled out "Yes, it should be his choice!" as he
drove past. A couple mothers told us that they kept their sons
intact, including one who said that she grew up in an Orthodox Jewish
home but decided to not circumcise 7 years ago when she was pregnant
with twins. She said that everybody thought she was crazy but she
couldn't do it after a friend who had witnessed circumcisions in a
hospital told her how horrific it is.

There were a couple of men who voiced their disagreement with us
including one middle-aged man who flipped us off from a bus.