Tag: genital integrity

Circumcision: Parent With Purpose Interview

hollymilkowski November 1, 2018

I was recently invited to join a dialogue with Lynda Harlos of the talk show Parent With Purpose.

From the video description:

“Deciding to Circumcise or not doesn’t make you a good or bad parent! Be informed and make your decision wisely. Click on this link to take you to the website to get all of the links regarding their website, and all their resources. […] Parent your own way #ParentWithPurpose […] We can help each other instead of judging each other.”

You can watch Part 1 here with Brittany Gillespie Cromar of Intact Utah.

After viewing that segment, click here for Part 2 in which I speak briefly on behalf of Intact Texas/Intact Houston about different topics that are frequently brought up in regard to infant male circumcision. You can also watch it directly on the website if you would like to take advantage of the plethora of attached resources.

Let me know your thoughts! What do you think is the most important message or knowledge about which to spread awareness, when it comes to routine infant circumcision?

What Vegans Said About Circumcision

hollymilkowski May 28, 2018

I know some of you roll your eyes when I say “Circumcision isn’t vegan.” But hear me out.

On a recent weekend, I represented Intact Vegan Network at Texas Vegan MayFest, a spring festival hosted by Rowdy Girl Sanctuary. If you haven’t heard of it already, it’s a vegan-owned and operated farm animal sanctuary in the heart of Texas cattle country. In fact, one of the owners used to be a cattle rancher himself before turning vegan.

“Intact Vegan Network is here to talk about… why it isn’t a good thing to cut off your baby’s foreskin,” announced Rowdy Girl Sanctuary founder Renee King-Sonnen during vendor introductions.

Cue me in the back behind my table, waving.

If bodybuilding, skincare, and musical artists can have a presence at vegan events, and we accept that it just makes sense, it can make sense for a circumcision education table to be there too.

Changing Diapers & Changing Minds (About Circumcision)

hollymilkowski April 25, 2018

Cuteness overload “Born Perfect” cloth diaper found here.

The Great Cloth Diaper Change happened this weekend and I spent it educating about circumcision, a surgery that many American baby boys undergo in their early diapering days. I represented Intact Houston at Wellspring Midwifery Care & Birth Center‘s GCDC event, at which attendees attempted to set a new record for the number of babies changed into a cloth diaper simultaneously across the globe.

First, if you’ve ever wondered about how to cloth diaper a baby after circumcision, please read this.

Now I’d like to share some of the interactions we had throughout the day.

Conversations & More: Genital Integrity Awareness Week

hollymilkowski April 7, 2018

I just returned from a trip to Washington D.C. for Genital Integrity Awareness Week, which was March 28th-April 3rd. A week full of seed-planting, countless conversations with principled conclusions, minds changed, futures salvaged… This is my kind of activism!

The mission as stated on the web site is to raise public awareness of:

the basic human right to genital autonomy for all individuals, regardless of sex
the damage inflicted by forced genital cutting, of boys, girls and intersex persons
foreskin restoration options for those impacted by forced genital cutting
research based information on intact subjects to a large body of individuals in Washington D.C. – students, educators, tourists, lawmakers, politicians – who take this information home with them to their own circles of influence
the need for congress and lawmakers to grant boys and intersex minors equal rights under law with protection from forced genital cutting

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Live on Whole Mother Show: The Circumcision Decision

hollymilkowski March 26, 2018

Houston midwife Pat Jones interviewed myself and Amber Clark for the Whole Mother Radio Show on 90.1 FM KPFT to discuss circumcision. Check out the video above — audio file coming soon!

This was a great way to kick off Genital Integrity Awareness Week (March 28-April 3)!

Please support #GIAW, either by attending, sharing related posts, and/or donating toward the effort.

For more info:

Intact Houston / Intact Texas on Facebook
Saving Our Sons
The Intact Network
GIAW

Don’t Wait To Take a Stand For Genital Autonomy

hollymilkowski May 9, 2017

A white truck slowed as it rolled by. The same driver swung back around three more times, honking with each pass. This was no coincidence or deja vu.

One of us carried an oversized white posterboard with the words “Honk if you ❤ foreskin” drawn across both sides.

The other eight of us fulfilled some task related to our cause — hoisting other signs, hauling info cards and materials to distribute, capturing the proceedings on camera, or merely accompanying for purpose of solidarity or, in the case of one individual, by chance meeting. Read More

Isn’t the Ghost Inside a Single Onesie More Than Enough? (My Experience at GIAW 2017)

hollymilkowski April 9, 2017

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Image courtesy Saving Our Sons

Here we gathered, sixty four of us. All affected by circumcision in one way or another, the lucky among us protected from the worst of its damage. Sixty four of us prepared to deliver the message that natural bodies are normal, healthy, and beneficial; to leave the alteration for medical necessity or personal consent.

We were here for Genital Integrity Awareness Week — which, in the great fortune of the 2017 calendar — happened to fall on the same week that female genital cutting was outlawed in the U.S. twenty years ago.

For the past two decades, baby girls have been protected from threat to their genital integrity, but their brothers, sons, nephews and grandsons are still routinely cut in barbaric fashion. Some die, and the rest bear the telltale scar forever.

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Image courtesy Saving Our Sons

If I Could Tell People Only 10 Things About Circumcision…

hollymilkowski October 6, 2016

We changed minds last weekend. I actually saw the process happen.

Sometimes like this: a pregnant mother walks up, admits she hasn’t researched circumcision and has no opinion on it, is told there’s no medical indication for routine circumcision, and walks off with her eyes glued to a handful of information she just received.

And sometimes like this: a mother of circumcised boys walks up, her attention caught by “117+ boys die” written on a frame, says “I didn’t know any of this when my boys were born,” is told “I’m so sorry,” and assures us “Don’t be sorry! You are doing a good thing. Tell EVERYONE.”

It was clear our message was supported, even by many of those who were hearing it for the very first time.

We wanted people to know about babies. That all babies want to remain whole. That babies of both sexes are equally “too cute to cut.” We wanted people to know about foreskin. That foreskin is normal. That its absence is a big deal.

We had a message about parents, too. We want to help you. We support you. We have answers.

‘Bad Moms’ & Circumcision

hollymilkowski August 14, 2016

Several people I know raised concerns about what was said in the ‘Bad Moms’ movie after having seen the trailer with their intact sons within hearing distance — kids old enough to be aware that their perfectly normal private parts were the butt of the ‘joke,’ but too young to understand the illogical reason why. Read More

Peaceful Parenting From The Sidewalk

hollymilkowski May 2, 2016

This weekend, I joined with advocates from across the nation to Chalk The Walk with our favorite peaceful parenting messages.

As always, this is a family-friendly event and all ages are welcome to participate. Perfect for us — especially this time with a 1.5-day-old baby and a 3.5-year-old kiddo in tow!

A variety of peaceful parenting topics were on display: Informed birth choice, breastfeeding, nighttime parenting (no CIO), cloth diapering, babywearing, gentle ‘discipline’, genital autonomy…

12 Questions We Don’t Think To Ask About Circumcision

hollymilkowski December 20, 2015

Here are twelve questions we don’t often think to ask about circumcision.

Most Viewed Genital Autonomy Images of the Year (Original at Intact Houston)

hollymilkowski December 9, 2015

One of the things I do for Intact Houston (local affiliate of the volunteer-based grassroots organization, The Intact Network/Saving Our Sons) is not only advocate for genital autonomy by sharing thought-provoking images, but by creating original ones too.

Above is the most recent graphic I made for the chapter. I expect it to be my last original graphic of 2015.

So in honor of the year’s baby-saving successes with Intact Houston, I’m listing the top 21 most popular original images I created and posted on the chapter page in 2015.

(Each image is prefaced with the text and links that accompanied it when it was first published).

8 Ways I Educated About Genital Autonomy Without Saying “Don’t Circumcise”

hollymilkowski November 15, 2015

Last weekend I hosted a Peaceful Parenting table for Intact Houston/Intact Texas, local chapters for Saving Our Sons (the not-for-profit organization Peaceful Parenting/Dr. Momma‘s focus on circumcision).

My challenge was to include genital autonomy as one crucial component of the peaceful parenting lifestyle … without calling it by name.

I had spoken with a marketing director at my local Babies ‘R’ Us about setting up inside the store to hand out information. After browsing the Dr. Momma web site, she said she’d love to have us there. In fact, as a company they’re very welcoming toward many of the topics mentioned, she explained. Ones like co-sleeping, breastfeeding (they hold regular classes there for newbies) and child-led weaning, babywearing (regular classes at Babies ‘R’ Us for this too), encouragement of gentle discipline and alternatives to punitive parenting (i.e. spanking and crying-it-out) and so on.

But…(there’s always a but, isn’t there?)

We Breastfed In Public For As Much Attention As Possible This Weekend

hollymilkowski August 3, 2015

We were all proud. We have been proud, actually. So we showed up ready to nurse.

We did it modestly, though not one of us bothered to “cover up.” We did it with discretion, being that we nursed exclusively among supporters — though we wanted to be seen and heard. So we shared our experiences on every format far and wide with a movement of hashtags and brelfies and nurse-ins to prove that breastfeeding can work (more on that in a bit).

We wanted to count; in fact, we made sure we were being counted.

And we broke the standing world record: 14,889 children (simultaneously!) latched on to nurse for at least one full minute on Friday and Saturday all over the world for the Global Big Latch On. I attended one of the Houston events as a local representative for peaceful parenting/Dr. Momma. There, 73 moms and 82 children were officially latched on!

This event kicked off World Breastfeeding Week, for which the year’s theme is “Breastfeeding and Work: Let’s Make it Work!” The idea is to draw attention to issues faced by working mothers who want to breastfeed.

It also reminds of all the things that hope so badly for breastfeeding to not work.

Celebrating Autonomy of the Heart; Educating About Autonomy of All Parts

hollymilkowski July 7, 2015

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to legalize gay marriage gave men and women who desire same-sex partnership the right to autonomy of their hearts.

Well-deserved, the celebration owed to this phenomenal development should last at least as long as the history of gay injustice. Still we cannot help but see this historical moment as a telling reminder: we’ve only just taken the first steps toward ending a collection of outdated oppressions targeting LGBT people in America.

The protection of a particular other human right is still withheld from a significant portion of the gay community (and their straight supporters and non-supporters alike).

650 million males currently living worldwide are victims of genital cutting (compared to 100 million victims of female genital cutting). In the United States, more than a million boys are cut every year; about 3,000 every day. Based on the (probably low) estimate that about 10% of the population identifies with being primarily homosexual, that means 65 million gay males have been circumcised.