Los Angeles Times Festival of Books - Two New Books Focused on Circumcision & New Awareness Campaign Launches

Two New Memoirs at Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Will Change How America Thinks About Circumcision

“This Penis Business” and “Please Don’t Cut the Baby!” Question Why the Healthcare System Persists in Promoting Circumcision -- A Medically Unnecessary Procedure

ATLANTA, April 15, 2024 -- Although Georganne Chapin and Marilyn Fayre Milos have lived very different lives, their extraordinary experiences have led them both to devote their lives to ending the routine circumcision of baby boys. Together, their impact on the human rights movement known as intactivism is immeasurable. Now, Lucid House Publishing brings these activists’ remarkable stories to life by publishing their riveting memoirs.

Chapin says, “Marilyn and I want our memoirs to explain how and why parents have been misled by medical professionals, and why we oppose circumcision so vehemently. We know that the more people know about this abusive practice, the more likely they are to oppose it.”

The two memoirs are:

“This Penis Business: A Memoir,” by Georganne Chapin with Echo Montgomery Garrett, which describes how life events shaped Chapin’s innate sense of justice and how each step she took -- as a student at Barnard College, as a budding anthropologist in Latin America, as CEO of an iconoclastic non-profit health plan, and as a lawyer and bioethics lecturer -- led her to intactivism.

Today, Chapin is the founding executive director of Intact America, the world's largest professional anti-circumcision advocacy group.

“Please Don’t Cut the Baby! A Nurse's Memoir," by Marilyn Fayre Milos with Judy Kirkwood, tells the intriguing story of Milos’ early life as a friend of Jerry Garcia, assistant to Lenny Bruce, a mother who regretted allowing her three boys to be circumcised, and a nursing student, who at the age of 39, attended her first circumcision and tried (but failed) to comfort the hysterical baby boy. Afterward, the attending doctor told her, “There is no medical reason for doing this.” She was aghast.

In 1985, Milos founded NOCIRC, the first clearinghouse of circumcision information (later renamed Genital Autonomy-America). Now retired, Milos is a board member of Intact America.

Research: 68% of Georgia Parents Allow Their Sons to Be Circumcised
No medical society in the world, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, states that circumcision is medically necessary. Yet, most boys in Georgia are circumcised. A survey conducted by Intact America found that 68 percent of Georgia parents said they allowed their sons to be circumcised. However the circumcisions were not without complications: 62 percent of parents who allowed the procedure reported circumcision problems, including pain, bleeding, infection, failure to breastfeed adequately, and the need for additional surgeries. See below for national survey results.

New Campaign Shows That ‘Circumcision Cuts Through Us All’
Chapin and Milos are telling their life stories as part of a new advocacy campaign, “Skin in the Game: Circumcision Cuts Through Us All.” This national effort, designed by Intact America, demonstrates through photographic images and personal stories of dozens of participants how circumcision affects the entire community, including the babies whose genitals are cut, the men they become, and the mothers, friends, and lovers who suffer along with them.

“With the Skin in the Game campaign, we’re making circumcision personal,” says Chapin. “Together with our books, Skin in the Game shines a light on the huge numbers of circumcision victims. It’s a wake-up call for parents in the U.S., who don’t understand how harmful circumcision is and what the surgical procedure actually entails.”

The Skin in the Game campaign will debut at the Atlanta book launch event with stunning photographic images of people harmed and appalled by circumcision.

National Survey Highlights
In September 2023, Intact America conducted a nationwide survey regarding infant male circumcision. The results showed that people know surprisingly little about this surgery, which is performed on 1.4 million baby boys each year. Other findings include:
39% of those surveyed said that they don’t know what happens during circumcision. 91% know only some of what happens during the procedure.
46% said they were not aware that newborn circumcision can result in complications.
31% of those surveyed said they would be open to reconsidering their decision to circumcise a future son.
Respondents believed that one-third of all boys are being circumcised for religious reasons, when the actual rate of ritual circumcisions is less than one percent.
55% of respondents said they did not research circumcision because they had already decided to circumcise their sons.

The Intact America survey was fielded by Qualtrics using the Qualtrics panel. The survey controlled for sex, age, race, and level of education.

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 in the current conversation about newborn male circumcision, visit IntactAmerica.org, Skininthegame.org and CircumcisionDebate.org, and follow Intact America on Facebook, X, and Instagram.

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