Let’s Talk About Infant Circumcision: Branding Children

Of all the things that run through my head, circumcision is not typically one of them.

Circumcision is an old practice mostly known by the Judaic tradition where young boys get the snip. If you search “female circumcision” on Wikipedia, you get directed to the page titled “Female genital mutilation“. Clearly this is a touchy subject.

And recently, Germany passed a ban on circumcision on infants. Lots of people are upset, Israel primarily, saying this is typical Anti-Semitic hate speech and an infringement on religious freedom and liberty. To quote the article:

Pinchas Goldschmidt, the chief rabbi of Moscow and the president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said the court’s decision was part of what he saw as growing infringement upon religious freedom in Europe.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

I’m not an expert in genital mutilation. I’m not one of those guys who goes out and argues that male circumcision is wrong because it’s some awful mutilation.

But, if we really want to talk about religious freedom, let’s talk about branding children.

Children are not Christians. They are not atheists. They are not Jews, Muslims, or any member of any religion. I imagine most people don’t decide what type of spiritual affiliation they have until they’re in their late teens (and plenty switch after that). Circumcision, or any other type of practice that would physically brand a child in the name of religion, is the exact opposite of religious freedom. You are altering an infant’s body in the name of a religion they don’t have.

I mean, when people who want to cut their infants and refuse medical care for their children and throw acid in the eyes of women and want to restrict the liberties of queers and women talk about religious freedom, I just don’t get it. How is reciting the pledge of allegiance everyday at school about religious liberty when you are socially coercing people who don’t believe to participate and call our defined-as-secular nation as being “under God”? People tell me that me having the legal privileges of civil marriage would inflict on their religious freedom. A lot of folks in the atheist community here call that Christian Privilege. Which it is. It’s also just plain bullshit.

“Why I’m Gay”, or “Inspections of the Fractured Identity”

{Rant alert. You’ve been warned.}

According to the punk over at Bad Catholic, gay men ( or as he terms them, men with same-sex attraction. I‘m going to avoid that term, because it’s basically pathologizing homosexuality) are  objectified.

Blah blah blah. Here are some key quotes from his post:

The Activists are forever encouraging men with SSA to “accept your identity!”, “come out!”, and to otherwise claim the title of Gay Man. It’s just another brilliant form of objectification.

Because the last time I checked, the unique identity of man is not defined by where he wants to put his penis. Identity is not gained, nor will it ever fulfill, if it is no more than a great narrowing of the human person to a single characteristic — in this case his sexual characteristic. Gay Man? Really? No one demands heterosexuals to “accept their identity” and define themselves as Straight Men. Such a thing would be a grave insult to the fantastic complexity of their being. Yet this is the modus operandi of the Activist, and the end goal given to the high-school kid with same-sex attraction — to come out of the closet and love himself for Who He Is.

…

According to Hollywood, gay men are not allowed to be screw-ups. Gay men are, well, just fabulous.

…

Sex lives ignored, the Media obliges their “Gay Men” to behave like Mormons on a Boy Scout trip, or — to ditch the hyperbole — like pets. The reality — and this might be a shock to some people — is that men with same-sex attraction are men. They are men who yearn for infinite satisfaction to the cry of their hearts. They are men who — quite often — dress like crap.

Just. What.

Marc Barnes does make a few good points. But they’re old. Yeah, not all gay men are fabulous. Welcome to the 21st Century. We’ve had plenty of films from Hollywood that establish that stereotypes are stupid. In fact, in lots of past genres of film, art, and literature, the gay man was usually portrayed as a failure or insane. Maybe Kurt from Glee is fabulous, but there are gay men on that show that aren’t.

And what’s with this men dress like crap business? Criticize one stereotype just to promote another? Cool.

I think, though, the number one thing that bugs me about this guy, and probably every other Catholic blogger that I somehow get refered to, is that they think it’s a shame that gay men call themselves gay men. They throw up this straw man of the homosexual who thinks the label of Gay Man is the poster of his identity.

But, excuse me for 4 hot minutes here, but being gay is a crucial part of my identity. I was teased as a kid and bullied in high school. The state I’m living in is currently in its umpteenth month of debating whether my relationship is valid. I had to go through a painful coming out process, one that was alleviated by an amazing family and great friends. There are famous cultural artifacts telling stories of GLBT individuals being beat and killed for just being LGBT. So, shut the front door and take off your shoes, I didn’t choose to make being gay an identity–the greater part of the culture that exists in the United States of America did that. My relationship is viewed as inherently different, people look at me different, members of my family have emailed me telling me they will not “condone” my behavior. It doesn’t matter whether I accept being a “Gay Man” or not, this is something shoved down my throat every day. It doesn’t matter if I’m normal because I will never be allowed to be normal.  So when I say being a gay man is a crucial part of my identity, it’s because it has shaped my life too significantly to not be.

So do not wittle being gay down to “a single sexual characteristic”. Being gay, or being any sort of queer, results in an individual being forced to interact with the rest of the world through an inherently alien set of politics. Yes, every person’s identity is complex, but when society chooses to label me gay through their gaze and their interactions with me, my identity is fractured and caricatured. How dare any sort of Catholic condemn the objectification of gay men when the Catholic church is one of the primary culprits of putting the “man with same sex attraction” into a box characterized by a supposedly failed upbringing and separation from a God that doesn’t exist to fit into a form of Nature that is “disordered”??

You want to stop objectifying gay men? Stop pathologizing us with this “man with same-sex attraction” crap. Stop calling us disordered. Stop advocating legislation to turn us into second-class citizens. Stop blaming us for the downfall of the American family when divorce is clearly a bigger threat. Stop saying you love us but you hate our sin, and that it’d be perfectly fine for us to be celibate. Stop comparing our loving relationship to pedophilia and bestiality.

Stop theorizing us. Stop talking about us. Allow us to be citizens on the same level as everyone else, then leave us alone.

I receive email

Technically, my email is public. I have no qualms publishing the dirt I get. I reserve every right to name who sends me emails, but mostly I don’t think it’s important. Check out this gem:

Fox News is already cowering down to the President…

In response to President Obama’s complaint that FOX News doesn’t show enough Black and Hispanic people on their network, FOX has announced that they will now air “America’s Most Wanted” TWICE a week.

I don’t care who you are, that’s funny!

This made me want to vomit. Literally.