Intact America Staffs Tent at Atlanta Pride 2023

Oct 2, 2023

Intact America, the Nation’s Largest Anti-Circumcision Group, Will Bring Its #ForeskinPride Message to the 2023 Atlanta Pride Festival on October 14 and 15

Why? Both the Anti-Circumcision and LGBTQA+ Movements Say Nature Knows Best When It Comes to Sex

Festival Goers Will Discover the Many Benefits of the Natural, Intact (Uncircumcised) Penis at Intact America’s Booth B34

(Tarrytown, New York—October 2, 2023)…Each day, 3,500 healthy baby boys are victims of genital cutting in America, the only Western developed nation in the world that still practices male child circumcision.

The practice continues because many Americans think circumcision is harmless—just “a little snip” of excess skin.

In reality, circumcision is a painful, complex procedure that removes the most erogenous tissue of the male genitals, according to Intact America, the largest, professionally run anti-circumcision group in the nation.

Now, Intact America will make its case for keeping baby boys intact—uncircumcised—at the upcoming 2023 Atlanta Pride Festival the weekend of October 14 and 15 at Piedmont Park.

“The foreskin is there for a man’s pleasure and the pleasure of his partner,” explains Georganne Chapin, MPhil, JD, founding executive director of Intact America. “No one has the right to alter a little boy’s genitals and deny him a healthy sexual future.”

Chapin explains why the foreskin is a vital part of a man’s anatomy:

• Foreskin heightens a man’s sexual satisfaction because it contains thousands of unique ultra-sensitive nerve endings—nerves that are not found anywhere else on the male body.
• Foreskin lets the penis glide in and out during penetration, making sex more gentle and pleasurable for the man’s partner.
• Foreskin protects the glans, or the head of the penis, from everyday chafing, drying out, and losing sensitivity over time. A protected glans remains moist and pink and ready for pleasure.

Find Intact America at Booth B34 at Atlanta Pride

The Intact America team will be at Booth B34 to greet festival goers and answer questions about intactivism, the word used to describe the anti-circumcision activism movement. The team will also encourage guests to play with “Foreskin Frank,” a friendly blow-up intact penis, and “Manny the Mannequin,” who dispenses a free condom to people who pull his intact phallus.

“For decades, the LGBTQA+ community has fought for the basic human right of all people to be who they are,” Chapin says. “Intact America celebrates the right of every child—male, female, or intersex—to keep and enjoy the body that nature gave them.”

About Intact America

Intact America is the largest national advocacy group working to end involuntary child genital cutting in America and to ensure healthy sexual futures for all people. It does this by challenging social and sexual norms and empowering supporters and volunteers through advocacy and education. To learn more about the issues involved in the current conversation about newborn male circumcision, visit IntactAmerica.org and CircumcisionDebate.org, and follow Intact America on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Intact America Celebrates its 15th Anniversary

Sep 29, 2023

Intact America Celebrates Its 15^th Anniversary and Gears Up Two New Initiatives to Fight Baby Boy Circumcision

The New ‘SKIN IN THE GAME’ Storytelling Campaign Will Feature the Victims of Circumcision to Show How ‘Circumcision Cuts Through Us All’

 The DoNoHarm.Report Project Will Make It Easy for the Public to Report Circumcision Solicitation, Harm, and More

‘Americans will never think the same thing about circumcision again.’

(Tarrytown, New York—September 29, 2023)…Fifteen years ago, the country’s grassroots anti-circumcision movement founded Intact America, a national, professionally run not-for-profit, to strategically change the way Americans think about the routine circumcision of baby boys. Despite Intact America’s notable progress—today, 22.5 percent of Americans think baby boys should be kept intact (uncircumcised), up from 10 percent in 2014—systemic forces continue to make the United States the only Western developed nation that routinely cuts the genitals of its baby boys, approximately 1.3 million baby boys a year.

One big reason circumcision persists is that, unfortunately, Americans erroneously believe that circumcision is harmless. Intact America plans to upend such thinking by putting a face to circumcision’s victims: parents who cannot forget their babies’ screams, men who live with scarred, desensitized penises, and women who suffer through painful, dry sex, to name only a few of the adverse ways circumcision affects lives.

“If we look at every successful social change movement, from the abolition of slavery, to the fight for women’s suffrage, to the Civil Rights movement, to the LBGTQ and same-sex marriage movements, to the more recent “MeToo” movement, we can see that key to effecting change was making public the personal stories, the voices, and the faces of the victims,” explains Georganne Chapin, MPhil, JD, founding executive director of Intact America.

“Intact America’s work has unleashed a groundswell of people aching to tell their stories, and we are going to ensure the public hears their stories,” Chapin adds.

This fall, Intact America will launch SKIN IN THE GAME: Circumcision Cuts Through Us All, a compelling storytelling campaign that uses photography and narratives to put human faces on circumcision victims—men and their partners, parents, and loved ones. The campaign features people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, and sexual orientations who are outraged, sad, angry, and determined to end a senseless practice that no medical society in the world—including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)—recommends.

“These stories will hit a nerve with the American public,” Chapin says. “Soon, we will reach a tipping point when popular opinion turns against cutting baby boys’ genitals, just as we currently denounce cutting little girls’ genitals.”

‘This Penis Business’

Chapin will further spread the anti-circumcision message when her memoir, “This Penis Business,” is published in February 2024 by Lucid House Publishing. The book will be released together with “Please Don’t Cut the Baby,” a memoir written by Marilyn Milos, one of the country’s earliest intactivists (or anti-circumcision activists) and currently a member of Intact America’s board of directors.

Holding Doctors Accountable

Intact America also is breaking new ground by developing DoNoHarm.Report, an online tool that will let parents and guardians do three things: (1) report incidents of circumcision harm, such as excessive bleeding, fever, infection, and physical complications; (2) report whether doctors and nurses pressured them to have their sons circumcised; and (3) report that their intact son was a victim of forcible foreskin retraction by a medical professional, a practice that is not condoned by the AAP. Each reported incident will be submitted to both hospital management and the state medical board.

“We must hold doctors and nurses accountable for the harm they inflict on healthy baby boys and intact children,” says Chapin. “Right now, it is an arduous process for any individual to file a complaint with a medical board or society. Whom do they contact? How do they word the complaint? DoNoHarm.Report makes it simple. Parents will fill out a single form and we will direct the complaint to every place it needs to go.”

Chapin notes that no one knows how often circumcisions go awry, but DoNoHarm.Report will make that such information available. “We should know how often routine circumcisions harm boys, even when the procedure is not ‘botched’, but we don’t,” she says. “Hospitals commonly fail to cite circumcision as the cause of infant hemorrhaging or other complications once the child goes home.

“I predict DoNoHarm.Report data will shock the public,” Chapin says. “Americans will never think the same thing about circumcision again.”

About Intact America

Intact America is the largest national advocacy group working to end involuntary child genital cutting in America and to ensure healthy sexual futures for all people. It does this by challenging social and sexual norms and empowering supporters and volunteers through advocacy and education. To learn more about the issues involved in the current conversation about newborn male circumcision, visit IntactAmerica.org and CircumcisionDebate.org, and follow Intact America on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Kevin Nelson, a Long-Time Advocate for Children and a Noted Health Care Leader, Joins Intact America’s Board of Directors

Feb 7, 2022

“Routine Male Newborn Circumcision Is Detrimental to a Child’s Well-Being,” Says Nelson, CEO of Aetna Better Health of New York, a CVS Health plan

(Tarrytown, New York—February 7, 2022)…Kevin Nelson, MPH, a health care executive and prominent advocate for children, has been elected to Intact America’s board of directors, announced Georganne Chapin, MPhil, JD, founding executive director of the anti-circumcision organization, today. Mr. Nelson, currently CEO at Aetna Better Health of New York, has spent more than 30 years in the health care and humanitarian fields and is passionate about protecting children’s health and welfare. He now will contribute to Intact America’s growing influence as the nation’s largest organization working to end the routine circumcision of baby boys.

“Kevin is a dynamic leader, strategic thinker, and change agent who moves organizations forward,” said Ms. Chapin, who has known Mr. Nelson for more than 30 years. “He cares deeply about making children’s lives better. For boys, that begins at birth by stopping hospitals from routinely circumcising newborns.”

Mr. Nelson commented that his attraction to Intact America’s mission comes naturally. He believes that routine male newborn circumcision is detrimental to a child’s well-being as it subjects baby boys to pain, trauma, and surgical risk when it is not medically necessary. The procedure has lifelong, adverse consequences for the baby and the man he will become.

The announcement about Mr. Nelson comes at a time when more Americans are questioning why the United States is the only Western country to routinely circumcise its baby boys. A 2020 Intact America public opinion poll found that nearly 1 out of 4 Americans favor keeping baby boys intact, up from just 1 out of 10 respondents in 2014.

“I compare circumcision to cigarettes and seatbelts,” Mr. Nelson said. “There was a time when smoking cigarettes was encouraged and we drove cars without seatbelts. But we know better now. As more Americans open their minds and learn the truth about routine newborn circumcision, it, too, will become a relic of the past.”

About Kevin Nelson  

Prior to becoming CEO of Aetna Better Health of New York, a CVS Health plan, Mr. Nelson was Vice President for Corporate Partnerships for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Before that, Mr. Nelson served as executive vice president and chief operating officer for Hudson Health Plan, where he launched one of the first Children’s Health Insurance Plans in New York State.

Mr. Nelson earned a BA in Healthcare Administration from the University of Pittsburgh and an MPH in Health Policy and Management from Yale University, which recently awarded him with a Yale Medal, the highest honor presented by the Alumni Association for outstanding individual service to the University. He also has been recognized by Yale School of Public Health, which bestowed on him its Distinguished Alumni Award.

Mr. Nelson’s community activities include serving as a board member for the adoption non-profit organization Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children. He is a mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters and has mentored children as part of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. He is married, the father of two children, and lives in Yorktown Heights, New York.

Intact America Names Dan Bollinger of West Lafayette, Indiana, as Vice Chairperson of Its Board of Directors

Nov 10, 2021

For 25 Years, Bollinger’s Activism and Research Have Propelled the Anti-Circumcision Movement Forward and Helped Shift Public Perception About a Medically Unnecessary Procedure

(Tarrytown, New York—November 10, 2021)…Dan Bollinger, an industrial designer whose personal circumcision trauma led him to become a committed American anti-circumcision activist, has joined the Intact America board of directors as vice chairperson, announced Georganne Chapin, MPhil, JD, founding executive director of the organization. Mr. Bollinger will also continue in his role as a strategic advisor to Intact America, which is the largest professional anti-circumcision group in the United States.

“Dan’s tireless devotion to this work has enabled Intact America to steadily shift public opinion against routine male child genital cutting in the United States,” said Ms. Chapin. “According to our latest public opinion poll this year, 22.5% of Americans favor keeping boys intact, up from 16.8% in 2019—a 25% increase in two years.”

The impact of Bollinger’s research

Mr. Bollinger’s studies and surveys have helped advance the field of circumcision research by documenting the procedure’s harm. His peer-reviewed paper published in Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies, “Lost Boys: An Estimate of U.S. Circumcision-Related Infant Deaths,” revealed that at least 100 babies die annually in the United States as a result of circumcision. Another study, published in the International Journal of Men’s Health, which he co-authored with Robert S. Van Howe, MD, “Alexithymia and Circumcision Trauma: A Preliminary Investigation,” uncovered an association between circumcision trauma and the personality trait disorder alexithymia, or difficulty in identifying and expressing feelings.

The “Alexithymia and Circumcision Trauma” paper also revealed an association between erectile dysfunction and circumcision, citing findings that circumcised men were 4.53 times more likely to use an erectile dysfunction drug than intact men. In his latest study, Mr. Bollinger writes, he found that dysfunctional households are more likely to chose circumcision for their sons, and that these boys have higher Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) scores. Higher ACE scores are associated with medical and psychological outcomes such as substance use, chronic illness, and a shorter lifespan.

“Doctors insist that circumcision doesn’t harm baby boys, but our research tells a different story,” said Mr. Bollinger. “The question we have to ask ourselves is why Americans encourage the genital cutting of baby boys when we’d be appalled if it were done to baby girls,” he adds. “No child—boy, girl, or intersex—should endure genital cutting until the child is old enough to give his, her, or their consent.”

Mr. Bollinger noted that the United States is the only Western country that routinely circumcises baby boys in a medical setting; therefore, most Americans know little about the male foreskin and its role in sex, “This is why Intact America is pushing to normalize the acceptance of the natural penis,” he said. He pointed out that the foreskin is the most sensitive tissue on the penis, designed to enhance sex for men and their partners. “It is unconscionable to me that American doctors routinely remove baby boy foreskins for no justifiable medical reason,” he said.

About Dan Bollinger

Dan Bollinger has been a social activist since his student days at Purdue University, where he earned his BA in Industrial Design. While at Purdue, he became interested in men’s issues and co-taught workshops to help men heal after losing their fathers. Later, he decided to focus on the one men’s issue he could personally relate to—involuntary male child genital cutting, or circumcision. A well-known and oft-quoted intactivist for 25 years. Bollinger was at the table when Intact America was founded in 2008, and has served as a strategic adviser since then. A lifelong Hoosier, he owns and operates, with his wife, a small manufacturing company in Tippecanoe County, Indiana.

 About Intact America

Intact America is the largest national advocacy group working to end involuntary child genital cutting in America and to ensure healthy sexual futures for all people. It does this by challenging social and sexual norms and empowering supporters and volunteers through advocacy and education. To learn more about the issues involved in the current conversation about newborn male circumcision,  visit IntactAmerica.org and CircumcisionDebate.org, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.