During the Clinton Foundation Millennium Network event featuring a dialogue with President Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, and Hollywood actor Ed Norton, protesters from the human rights organization INTACTION disrupted the show to protest the exploitative and racist health policies involving the circumcision of African men.
The concept of HIV prevention through circumcision began with biased medical researchers searching for a solution to the AIDS pandemic that could be marketed to government agencies and philanthropic organizations. The research teams that could develop a marketable solution, regardless of efficacy, would be richly rewarded with grants, research money, and tenure at their institution.
The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Clinton Foundation, and the Gates Foundation jumped on the circumcision bandwagon to demonstrate their effectiveness to their stakeholders and their donors. However, these organizations were either misguided or blinded by their quest to increase goodwill and donations by hyping circumcision.
Male circumcision is a dangerous mistake in the fight against HIV, and it endangers both men and women. Recent studies examining circumcision rates and HIV prevalence found that circumcision did not significantly the reduce rate of infection in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and America.
U.S government medical authorities and U.S. academic researchers have a checkered history over human rights, ethics, and outright racism with STD experiments. From the Tuskegee experiments done to American black men to the disastrous STD experiments conducted in Guatemala, American researchers are now inflicting the same racist theories and pseudo-scientific experiments on Africans.
African men and women are being duped into the belief that circumcision offers effective protection from HIV. These organizations can tout their achievements to keep their revenue streams flowing, while poor Africans suffer from the continued spread of HIV and the trauma from the loss of their foreskins.
Further detailed information on these issues with citations can be viewed athttps://intaction.org/circumcision-a-dangerous-mistake-for-hiv-prevention/
Keep up the good work. I read Circumcision: An American Health Fallacy by Edward Wallerstein when it was first published back in 1980 and found nothing but derision and rejection when I tried to discuss the subject with anyone, even family members. I was circed as an infant and felt badly that I had no choice in the matter. Betrayed. But aside from Wallerstein’s book, there were no activist groups where I could find support. I thought of a one man protest in front of hospitals but concluded that this would just get me arrested and labeled a kook.
The years just went by and now in my 70s I find myself living in Central America where on the internet I came across the Lloyd Schofield ballot initiative story in San Francisco which was killed by a judge who surely erred by calling circumcision a medical procedure. This is only true when there is pathology but not when there isn’t. When not it is no different than tattooing and body piercing in general. It is cosmetic practice and as such can be regulated by cities and towns. Routine infant circumcision is a terrible, painful cosmetic procedure which violates the victim’s 4th and 14 Amendments.
I would have been proud to have stood with you at the Clinton protest. The US has poured billions into this African Aids scam while everyone knows, including Mr.Clinton and Mr. Gates, that circumcision does not prevent AIDS. Both these men are too smart not to know the truth but in Africa polls show that 15% of respondents believe that circumcision affords complete protection (like a vaccine).
In your future protests and initiatives I shall be there too, an invisible brother, a computer comrade in arms. Vaya con Díos, amigo.
Thanks Anthony and my fellow intactivists for allowing me to join you guys in this protest. Would love to continue this fight with your group. See my story of that evening here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvkSWUvTQXs
Kudos to you brave men for speaking out! I have so much respect and admiration for you.
Of course you know the money trail and academic recognition are cardinal here, but did you know the three primary investigators were extreme circumcision advocates for years, pushing and whining for grant money. Avuert is a friend of Gates, Bailey, an anthropology degree from Harvard, now at U of Illinois. The last one is an academic Jewish man and a mohel. The studies were stopped early when numbers favored themselves and the pro circumcision correctness.
Its a scandal on so many levels and Hillary Clinton profited , even getting NIH and CDC to recommend male circumcisions. The American press largely as expected ignored this. However NPR, funded by Gates, did NOT and praised the efforts to end HIV/AIDS through genital surgery. A real eye opener except in USA pro circumcision country