Genital Integrity Symposium 2018

[universitylad]

Has anyone heard any news about the 2018 Genital Integrity Symposium? It should likely be back in Canada or the US as it was England this year.

[admin]

Vancouver was rumored.

[universitylad]

Looks like it will be SanFrancisco in May!

http://www.gaamerica.org/symposia/index.html

[universitylad]

I haven't seen much press about this yet. Are people aware it is happening?

[Tony]

Intaction posted the event on its FB Page. It will be May 4-7 at the Kabuki Hotel, San Francisco. Check the Genital Autonomy website for updates. http://www.gaamerica.org/

[universitylad]

How was the conference?

[Tony]

The symposium was a success, I think there was around 100 attendees. Brother K of the Bloodstained Men posted videos of most of the lectures on his FB page. Intaction's presentation is posted on our YouTube channel.

[admin]

Here's my story about the thing that impacted me the most at the Symposium.
= = = = =
On the trip home from San Francisco, a lady waiting for her plane wanted me to watch her stuff while she went to the toilet.

Like me she had gravitated toward the working A/C outlets in the gate 81 boarding area. At some point she says to me "Hey, would you watch my stuff while I run to the bathroom?" Now I'm feeling honored that I must look trustworthy, but I have to tell her this isn't even the gate for my flight. "If those folks lined up over at gate 82 start moving I'll have to go, but see, you have lots of time because people are still coming off the inbound flight."

Talk about trust; she even left her cell phone behind. I guess sometimes you just gotta suck up every bit of that A/C juice before boarding. Newly remodeled departure lounges have outlets everywhere WHICH IS A SHAME, because just like an appetizer table at a party, limiting outlets gives people an excuse to invade each other's personal space and it facilitates people getting to know each other. I always travel with a 3-way outlet adapter so even if the outlets are all filled I can squeeze in and actually make room for more.

So before my bathroom woman gets back I take out one of my "baby head" intactivist leaflets https://tlctugger.com/product/leafle...-circumcision/ and place it on her phone. When she walks up and thanks me for tending her things, I tell her that the fee for my services is one leaflet. She picks it up and says "Sure, I'll read it."

So I explain: "I've just been to a human rights symposium where we heard a Liberian newspaper reporter on the topic of intersex atrocities. Do you know about the Prader Scale? It's these seven diagrams to rate a newborn's genitals. A grade ONE is 100% female, and a SEVEN is 100% male, and the other 5 pictures are the stages of differentiation from female to male, because ALL babies are female until three months' gestation. It's only then that testosterone starts to differentiate the male ones. But quirky DNA, or stressors like maternal smoking or traumatic events can interfere with typical development leading to a healthy baby with genital appearance not fully male or fully female."

She's riveted (or just very polite). I continue: "In the US we're starting to treat such intersex people with compassion and we're making sure they have access to all society has to offer for a fulfilling life. In the less-modern parts of Liberia, what we heard is that when an intersex child is born THE MIDWIFE might {me making the snap-the-neck gesture while my audience gasps} promptly kill this healthy human being and tell the mother it was still-born. If the family does choose to raise the child then the family and the child are ostracized because the parents are presumed to be witches to be so cursed - so no school or playmates for the child, and no chance at a career more rewarding than shoveling shit."

"It's horrifying. And we heard from experts on female genital cutting, like how in Malaysia or Indonesia it's very common to slit the clitoral hood of girls. Nothing is amputated, but still it's something that should only happen to an informed consenting adult, right?"

"And Soraya Mire was there. She's been on Oprah. She told us about girls and the infibulation in Somalia, you know, where they slice away the labia and then suture her shut so only urine can get out. And her 'manly' husband is supposed to bust through that scar on her wedding night. Soraya is charismatic and can whip up support and big-time donations, and get our politicians to accompany her on overseas trips. And in that way, we in the US can try to influence these barbaric cultures. We could buy billboards and radio ads and address their parliaments."

"But we are POWERLESS to influence them. We have no moral or ethical standing to tell them what to do, because we in the US strap down our healthy baby boys and cut their genitals. The foreigners dismiss us for our hypocrisy. So this is why infant circumcision in America keeps us human rights activists from healing the world."

At this point my captive audience asks about medical benefits of circumcision, and I explain that supposed benefits are dubious, and how they don't accrue to the infant, and that no medical association endorses routine genital cutting, that most of the world is intact, and informed adults can decide for themselves.

And then she asks if male circumcision is harmful, admitting that she had an intact daughter, and then later she let her son be cut because she didn't think doctors would offer something harmful. So I gently explain that doctors' training hasn't always covered the value of the normal foreskin: pleasure-receptive nerves, protection for the glans and mucosa, frictionless gliding mode of stimulation, and the more-engaged interaction with straight intercourse. I tell her I'm sorry her doctor mis-informed her and let her family down.

And I add that those bad effects are from when it goes right, and that lots of circumcisions have unintended awful effects, and that babies even die but you rarely hear about it because of settlements with non-disclosure agreements. And I add that thousands of men are trying to undo their circumcisions.

She's astounded: "They can do that?"

"To an extent. You want my other leaflet? You're an adult; I think you can handle it."

I hand her the explicit restoring leaflet https://tlctugger.com/product/leafle...your-foreskin/ and quickly sum up how restoring works and what its benefits are.

My boarding group is on the move. As I'm packing up she thanks me for telling her all this, and promises to tell her son and his father about it. She says she doesn't have anything of comparable value to give back to me, but she presents me with a red Tootsie Pop sucker (attached) as a token of thanks.

I'm reporting all this to highlight how dramatically hearing that Liberian reporter has energized and amplified my rap. I used the Liberia story on my Uber driver that morning when I landed in Chicago. I used it on the young woman in the aisle seat on my flight. I also used the Liberia rap at the post-symposium demonstration at the San Francisco Ferry Building.

And on my Uber Pool ride TO the SF airport, we riders were all busy pecking at our phones. The Prius went silent at a traffic light, and I spoke up: "Anybody mind if I dictate into my phone instead of typing?" I said:

"A reporter from Liberia reported yesterday at the Symposium that intersex babies are routinely killed moments after birth. If the family keeps the child the family and the child are ostracized. The child cannot attend school and will never have a career any more satisfying than shoveling s***. The US has no moral standing to demand a stop to such atrocities while we mutilate infants in our own country."

No reaction this time. But I'll keep using this one. Thanks go to Symposium curator Marilyn Milos for bringing me the Liberian story.

[z726]

Was there any mention of the current resolution in California's state legislature recognizing the rights of intersex children to be protected?

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SCR110

[admin]

Was there any mention of the current resolution in California's state legislature recognizing the rights of intersex children to be protected?
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/f...01720180SCR110

Hida Viloria spoke and mentioned progress on various fronts (this resolution was still in committee then). Read her excellent book BORN BOTH https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HZFB59W/

[universitylad]

Any news on where 2020 will be? Since 2018 was in SF, will it be outside of North America?

[Tony]

It will be in Atlanta Georgia, and scheduled for late August I believe.