Date: Thu, 01 May 1997 12:12:54 -0400 From: Riki Anne Wilchins Subject: HERMAPHRODITES WITH ATTITUDE TO PICKET TOP HOSPITAL MEDIA ADVISORY - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Riki Anne Wilchins (MENACE) (212)645-1753 Riki@Pipeline.COM Kira Triea (HWA) (410) 235-5146 Triea@qis.net HERMAPHRODITES WITH ATTITUDE TO PICKET TOP NYC HOSPITAL OVER INTERSEX GENITAL MUTILATION (IGM) ============================================= [NEW YORK, NY - May 2, 1997] A JOINT demonstration outside the world-renowned Columbia Presbyterian medical complex has been called by Hermaphrodites With Attitude (HWA) and the Transexual Menace, to protest the institution's continuing involvement in Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM). The picketing, called for Friday, May 2nd, is expected to be largely an orderly affair due to the proximity of the hospital and the needs of patients going in and out. Response to "The Boy With No Penis" Story ------------------------------------------ Intersex concerns have recently come to public attention in a series of articles in national publications about the so-called "boy with no penis." Said Cheryl Chase, Executive Director of the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA), a national intersex advocacy organization, "Many hermaphrodites -- including me and several of us who will be at the demonstration -- were genitally cut and clitorectomized as infants at Columbia. "In addition to suffering intense psychological trauma, many of us also lost much of our genital sensation." Continued Ms. Chase, "Articles like those in the New York Times, Time Magazine, and Newsweek are supposedly about finding a child's 'right' gender and then cutting their genitals to fit. To us, such articles are about the barbarity of cutting any child's genitals simply to conform to cosmetic norms. Despite Congress' passage in 1996 of Public Law 104-208 forbidding clitoridectomy or genital mutilation in this country, both practices are still alive and well in US hospitals as IGM." Five Infants a Day in US Hospitals ---------------------------------- In spite of last fall's Congressional legislation outlawing Female Genital Mutiliation -- a practice commonly associated with some African cultures -- IGM continues to be widely practiced in US hospitals, including Columbia-Presbyterian and Johns Hopkins. Nearly every major city in the US has a hospital which is designated as a "center of specialty" to perform such surgeries. Data collected by Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling, Professor of Medical Science at Brown University, indicate that up to 5 intersex infants a day undergo IGM in US hospitals. The Columbia action follows HWA's first protest over IGM on October 26th, 1996, outside the American Academy of Pediatricians' annual convention in Boston, MA. At that time, the Academy issued a statement acknowledging that intersex genital surgeries are performed for cosmetic reasons. WHERE: 168th& Broadway, NYC WHEN: Friday May 2, 2:30-3:30 pm ### (c) 1997 InYourFace An on-line, news-only service for gender activism from GenderPAC. When re-posting, please credit InYourFace.