AUGUST 2013: Intact America is extremely pleased to honor George Hill as Intactivist of the Month. George, who turned 76 last month, has been fighting for babies’ rights for more than thirty years. But his awareness of circumcision goes all the way back to when he was 9-years old, when he realized that something “horribly wrong” had been done to him as a baby – but didn’t have the words to express his feelings.
George’s career is extensive, spanning time in the military to 25 years in the pilot’s seat of Eastern Airlines jetliners, to his family’s sugar farm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which he now manages. His real passion, however, is intactivism. George is well-known within the movement for his encyclopedic knowledge and grasp of intactivist information, from scholarly journals and medical articles to detailed clinical trials in Africa.
For many years, George served as Secretary for Doctors Opposing Circumcision (D.O.C.), compiling hundreds of articles and journals for the organization’s members. Now D.O.C.’s Vice President for Bioethics and Medical Science, George is a published author in his own right:
- Just last year, George published “Circumcision and Human Behavior,” which discusses the impact of circumcision on the behavior of infants and the men they become.
- In 2011, he coauthored “Sub-Saharan African randomized clinical trials into male circumcision and HIV transmission: Methodological, ethical and legal concerns” with Gregory Boyle, debunking the randomized clinical trials often quoted in support of mass circumcision efforts in Africa.
- In his article “
” published by D.O.C. in 2007, George directly addresses the problematic issue of circumcision and human rights. “Children enjoy a right to special protection due to their status as a child, including the right to protection from ‘traditional procedures prejudicial to the health of children.’ Circumcision is harmful to the health of children.”
George is also singlehandedly responsible for ending Medicaid coverage of non-therapeutic infant circumcision in Louisiana in 2005. Since then, Louisiana has gone from a circumcision rate of 42% to being the tenth lowest of all the states in incidence of circumcision. Thanks to George, genital integrity is now the norm in Louisiana.
“George has done a tremendous amount of behind-the-scenes work for the intactivist movement,” says Marilyn Milos of the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC), who first met George in the 1980s. “His articles and letters have been published in medical journals worldwide. George wrote our pamphlets on bioethics, HIV/AIDS, and MRSA. His contributions to the genital autonomy movement have been invaluable!”
“My career as an intactivist is winding down,” George told us in an email from his Louisiana home. “It is time to pass the baton to another generation of intactivists. Intact America is now the leading organization for a new generation of workers for genital integrity. I believe that, with Intact America’s guidance and counsel, we shall soon see genital integrity become the norm in America as it now is in Canada and Australia.”
“Every important human rights cause needs a George Hill,” says Georganne Chapin, Intact America’s executive director, “and intactivism has George himself!” His knowledge of circumcision is, quite literally, awe-inspiring, and is only equaled by his passion and dedication to our cause. Thank you, George, for three decades of your work “
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