The Pioneers

These people were truly the "cutting edge" (pardon the pun) when they started speaking out against circumcision, in some cases very publicly, in the 1970s, '80s, and early '90s. Generally, each of these early activists started by doing their own thing, since they were separated by long distances and connected together only by phone and letters.

• Jim Bigelow, Ph.D.
  Author of the book The Joy of Uncircumcising (1992), one of the first books on the topic of foreskin restoration. Established a resource organization (UNCIRC), which later became incorporated under NORM.
• Dan Bollinger
  Director of the International Coalition for Genital Integrity (ICGI), and remains active in the movement through various volunteer and outreach activities. Read more at Intact America's profile on him. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.
• R. Wayne Griffiths
  (1933-2017) Co-founder of the first known foreskin restoration support group (1990) with Tim Hammond, eventually the group became known as the National Organization of Restoring Men (NORM). Read more at Intact America's profile on him. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.
• Tim Hammond
  Co-founder of the first known foreskin restoration support group (1990) with Wayne Griffiths, eventually the group became known as the National Organization of Restoring Men (NORM). Founded a spin-off, the National Organization to Halt the Abuse and Routine Mutilation of Males (NOHARMM) to handle the activism tasks so NORM could remain focused on the personal support mission. Founder of the Global Survey of Circumcision Harm, originally published in BJU International in 1993, and re-launched in its current online version in 2011. He presented the updated findings at the Genital Autonomy Conference, Frankfurt, May 2015. Executive Producer of the video documentary, Whose Body, Whose Rights (1995). Read more at Intact America's profile on him. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.
• Brother K
  Started lobbying against circumcision in 1975, and began writing a manuscript, "The Circumcision Instinct," which he completed in 1980 as he formed one of the first intactivist organizations, "Citizens Against Ritual Violence" (CARV) with Carol Ann Babyak. The two were among the earliest public protesters against circumcision, doing a series of protests at several locations including the California State Capital, which attracted newspaper (1) attention (2), and was picked up by the Associated Press to be distributed across the nation. They went "inactive" for quite a number of years while raising their daughter. But in 2012, when the American Academy of Pediatrics updated its Circumcision Policy Statement, they were so off-base that Brother could not stay on the sidelines any longer. After several months of getting back into the movement, he formed the Bloodstained Men (FB page), a non-profit activist organization where he is still Co-Director and CFO. (Carol Ann has come back also, and the two of them are quite the formidable duo.) With the BSM organization, he has protested in cities from coast to coast, often in weeks-long, multi-state journeys, several of them per year. Brother is very active (daily, even hourly) on social media to spread the intactivism message and save babies, and will even go "Facebook Live" for several minutes during some of the protest stops, including at the Super Bowl stadiums as fans are entering for the game. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.
• Van & Ben Lewis (brothers)
  These two were possibly the very first public protesters (of record at least) against circumcision. Van and his brother Ben were both arrested and jailed Dec 17, 1970 for peacefully demonstrating on the public sidewalk outside Tallahasee Memorial Hospital in Florida where they had been born and subsequently circumcised. Read more at Intact America's profile on Van. Here are video interviews by James Loewen, one of Ben, and also one & two of Van.
• Marilyn Fayre Milos, R.N.
  Kindly regarded as "the mother of the intactivist movement." As an RN, she was brought face-to-face with the brutality of circumcision in 1979 when she had to assist with one. This very dramatic episode opened her eyes and she began advising parents against circumcision (for which she was fired from her job), and founded the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC), which was recently re-framed as Genital Autonomy America (GA-America) (FB page). Read more at Intact America's profile on her. Here is a video interview, and another, by James Loewen.
• Elizabeth Noble
  Writer and educator. Author of the book, The Joy of Being a Boy (1994, out of print), with the goal of helping intact boys understand and feel comfortable with their bodies -- it prominently featured photos of a happily intact boy and created quite the controversy. Read more at Intact America's profile on her. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.
• Rosemary Romberg
  Author of Circumcision: The Painful Dilemma (1985) and the website Peaceful Beginnings from Rosemary. As a writer, most of her activism is done online, and you will see her almost daily responding to various threads on a multitude of intactivist pages. She has also been known to show up at public protests too, so keep an eye open for her. Read more at Intact America's profile on her. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.
• David Wilson
  Started protesting circumcision - alone - on the steps of the U.S. Capital in 1993, and is the founder and Director of the Stop Infant Circumcision (S.I.C.) Society (FB page). These days, fellow intactivists travel from all across the country to join together in Washington D.C. in what has now become known as Genital Integrity Awareness Week (GIAW) (FB page). The date of this annual campaign - the last week of March - was not chosen randomly; the U.S. Federal Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Law became effective on March 29, 1997. Read more at Intact America's profile on him. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.

Other Key Leaders

The mid-1990s saw the beginning of the Internet, with its email and very rudimentary websites and newsgroups. As this media platform developed, it provided nearly instant availability of information, and brought people together in ways that were previously just imagination. An "intactivist movement" began to take shape with better collaboration, and coordinated messages going to a much broader audience. Building on the early progress made by the pioneers, new advocates began to make great strides in getting the message out. It is hard to pinpoint exactly when, but sometime around 2008-2010, as online social media began to take hold, the movement reached a critical turning point with new developments, new connections, new stories, and new outreach opportunities happening almost weekly. There are so many individuals who have made important contributions it is impossible to list them all, but here are a few of the more notable:

• Georganne Chapin, M.A., M.Phil., J.D.
  The founding (2009) and current Executive Director of Intact America (FB page), using her background in anthropology and law. She is frequently quoted in the press, and has been interviewed on television, radio and the Web, in the United States and abroad, about circumcision as well as other social justice and bioethical issues. Read more on her bio page on the IA Website. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.
• Jonathon Conte
  (1981-2016) A member of the Bay Area Intactivists (San Francisco, CA), he demonstrated at many events locally and nationally, even on random days on his own through the streets and parks of San Francisco. He helped collect signatures to include the MGM bill initiative in the San Francisco ballot in 2011, and was events editor at IntactNews (FB page). At the AAP convention of 2012 in New Orleans, Conte was the first American intactivist to wear the bloodstained suit (first ever was Richard Duncker, in London). The very dramatic, very effective spectacle of Conte (and others who joined him) in the bloodstained suit later became the iconic image of the Bloodstained Men (FB page) (an organization led by Brother K). The tremendous weight of Jonathon's involvement in this movement and his internal struggle with his own circumcision (about which he rarely discussed openly) is suspected to be a major part of his decision to take his own life, peacefully and quietly in his own apartment on May 9, 2016. His death shocked the entire intactivist community, put a spotlight on just how crushing the life-long effects of circumcision can be, and inspired all of us to redouble our efforts, in his honor, to continue the mission of saving children from the horrors of circumcision. Here is a video interview by James Loewen in 2011.
• George C. Denniston, MD, MPH
  University of Washington Medical School Professor, Founded Doctors Opposing Circumcision (DOC) (FB page), and has co-authored several books and articles on the subject. Here is a video message from him, recorded by James Loewen.
• Brian D. Earp
  Research Associate with the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics, and a Consultant working with the Institute for Science and Ethics at Oxford's Martin School. Has published several articles in scientific journals regarding the ethics of circumcision, including "The AAP report on circumcision: Bad science + bad ethics = bad medicine" (2012) in the Oxford University Practical Ethics Blog, and "The Ethics of Infant Male Circumcision" (2013) in the BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics, and "Do the Benefits of Male Circumcision Outweigh the Risks? A Critique of the Proposed CDC Guidelines" (2015) in the journal Frontiers in Pediatrics.
• Dr. Dean Edell
  A physician and media personality, he was the first physician to host his own daily network television show (on NBC) and did an entire segment on circumcision in 1991. He has regularly spoken out on radio, TV, and other media against infant circumcision, and is the primary presenter in the video "Circumcision - Make the Informed Decision." Read more at Intact America's profile on him.
• Dr. Paul Fleiss
  (1933-2014) Author of the Mothering Magazine article, "The Case Against Circumcision" (1997). Co-author (with Frederick Hodges) of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Circumcision: Untold Facts on America’s Most Widely Performed – and Most Unnecessary – Surgery (2002). Read more at Intact America's  profile on him.
• Morten Frisch M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.
  Danish epidemiologist whose research focuses on the epidemiology of sexual health, cancers and autoimmune diseases. He is very outspoken against circumcision and co-authored the article "Cultural Bias in the AAP’s 2012 Technical Report and Policy Statement on Male Circumcision" (2013) published in the AAP's own Journal, Pediatrics. Also wrote an excellent article in the Huffington Post, "Time for U.S. Parents to Reconsider the Acceptability of Infant Male Circumcision," (2015). Read more at Intact America's profile on him. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.
• John Geisheker, J.D., LL.M.
  Executive Director and General Counsel of Doctors Opposing Circumcision (DOC) (FB page), an international non-profit organization based in Seattle, Washington. Read more at Intact America's profile on him. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.
• Leonard B. Glick, M.D., Ph.D.,
  A cultural anthropologist and scholar with a medical degree, author of Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America (2005), and one of the most outspoken intactivists, giving lectures on, among other things, the history of circumcision and Judaism. Read more at Intact America's profile on him. Here is a video interview by James Loewen. 
• Ron Goldman, PhD.
  Author of Circumcision: The Hidden Trauma and Questioning Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective. Ron is a researcher, educator, writer, the Executive Director of the Circumcision Resource Center in Boston and the Executive Director of the Jewish Circumcision Resource Center. Read more at Intact America's  profile on him. Here is a video of his presentation "The Psychology of Circumcision Communication & Social Change" recorded by James Loewen.
• Christopher Guest, MD.
  Founder of the Children’s Health and Human Rights Partnership (FB page) in Canada. Presenter of the video "Circumcision: The Whole Story." Read more at Intact America's profile on him. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.
• Frederick Mansfield Hodges
  Co-authored several books and articles on the harms of male circumcision.
• James Loewen
  By now you have seen his name many times over on this page, and you will continue to see it as you scroll down, attached to nearly every entry. James is an independent photographer and filmmaker from Vancouver, Canada who has become our unofficial documentarian. Besides having interviewed just about every leader in the movement to give their story a chance to be heard the world over, James has also traveled to countless intactivist gatherings to capture the raw emotion "on the front lines" of this effort. Through his camera, we can see not only the pain of men deeply impacted by their circumcision and the sorrows of parents who regret making the decision, but we can also see the joy and elation of success stories and new babies being saved. Read more at Intact America's profile on him. To see all of his videos, check out his YouTube Channel.
• Anthony Losquadro
  Founder of Intaction (FB page) and Healthy Natural Baby, and created an innovative outreach "Mobile Education Unit" - a modified billboard truck that drives/parks around NYC and other locations with various interpretive displays about circumcision, new "exhibits" are added fairly regularly to their repertoire. Read more at Intact America's profile on him. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.
• Brendon Marotta
  Freelance film editor, Director of an upcoming feature documentary, American Circumcision (FB page), currently in post-production stage and estimated to be released this coming winter. From the trailers, and the buzz surrounding the test-screening sessions, this looks like it will be an amazing resource, unmatched in its scope of coverage and ability to hammer home all of the key talking points. Here is a video interview series by James Loewen.
• Ryan McAllister
  Assistant Research Professor at Georgetown University, where he created the video presentation Child Circumcision: an Elephant in the Hospital (YouTube). Creator and director of NotJustSkin.org.
• Dr. Mark Reiss
  A retired Jewish physician who started "Celebrants of Brit Shalom," a database of rabbis and other lay Jewish leaders who are willing and able to officiate at non-cutting naming ceremonies for baby boys, Vice President of Doctors Opposing Circumcision (DOC) (FB Page), and a member of Intact America's (FB Page) Board of Health Professionals. Read more at Intact America's profile on him. Here is a video interview (part 1) (part 2) by James Loewen.
• Dr. Alexandre Rotta
  While attending the annual convention of the American Academy of Pediatrics in San Diego, Dr. Rotta met and talked with Brother K and a group of other intactivists protesting circumcision in front of the convention. After a few months of contemplation and further discussions, and in protest of the AAP's support for the routine circumcision of baby boys, Dr. Rotta renounced his membership (including his prominent editorial board participation) in the AAP. Read more at Intact America's profile on him. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.
• J. Steven Svoboda
  Founder of Attorneys for the Rights of the Child (FB Page), author and co-author of more than 30 academic articles on the legal and ethical issues surrounding child circumcision. Read more at Intact America's profile on him. Here is a video interview and another (part 1) (part 2) by James Loewen.
• Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon
  A writer, director, cinematographer and photographer, produced the documentary film, Cut: Slicing Through the Myths of Circumcision (2007), which examines the subject of male circumcision from a religious, scientific and ethical perspective. Read more at Intact America's profile on him. Here is a video interview by James Loewen.
• Dr. Robert Van Howe
  Pediatrician and advocate for children's rights, holds a Master's degree in statistics and public health, an expert on circumcision, and has published numerous articles and studies on the topic, including how circumcision will not stop the HIV epidemic in Africa nor anywhere. Read more at Intact America's profile on him. 

You???

Every one of the activists listed above - and many others - were once in your position, questioning whether or not to get involved. They found the courage to take their first step, and look what they have accomplished! Hopefully reading about some of the achievements has inspired you to take a more active role in bringing awareness to the issue, and be the voice that saves a child from the pain.

More circumcision history: http://www.circumstitions.com/Chronology.html