Each circumcision impact story is a priceless gift when shared with others who may be going through something similar. No matter what role circumcision has played in your life, your experiences matter, which is why we created the “Voices” series. Your experience, your story shared with the public, will help America to reach a tipping point.
Personal experiences bring the issue into focus: the parents who questioned medical practice and prevailed (or, perhaps, did not); the midwife who used to perform circumcisions, but stopped; circumcised men or their partners dealing with sexual problems resulting from an involuntary surgery that took place decades ago; the regret mom who rejected advice of friends to spare her son from the procedure, or who consented to her son’s circumcision out of concern for her husband’s feelings.
Our writers wonder what does circumcision mean, what does uncircumcised mean, how much is a foreskin worth, and what happens after circumcision?
Perhaps it is a story about how the circumcision debate disrupted family relationships, or actually brought people closer together. Or maybe you’ve questioned circumcision for a long time, but just recently started speaking out and want to talk about how it’s going. All of their voices should be heard.
Interested in telling your story? Send an email to [email protected] giving us a brief summary of what you would like to write about. Each story is about 500 words. You can write it, or with the help of our Voices editor Sally Parker.
Voices — Kay Zugar
There's a piece of my body missing. That's a big deal. You wouldn't have known this growing up in my family. Circumcision was a laughable topic and only regarded as a joke; never in a serious tone, and certainly never condescended upon. Like if we were having hotdogs...
Voices — Luke Davis
When I was born in the early 1990s, my mother chose not to have me circumcised. She did the same for my older brother. She's a nurse, and she knew it wasn't medically beneficial the way everyone makes it out to be. But we were unusual for American boys. And even...
Voices — Tom Kallas
I am a circumcised gay male, and one of my earliest sexual relationships was with someone who was intact. That was when I found out what a foreskin was and first heard of circumcision. This was all new to me. Growing up in the U.S., we never learned about the foreskin...
Voices — Wallace Muenzenberger
The 23rd of December 1947 is a day I'll never forget. That is when I first learned, to my horror, what a circumcision was. I was raised Roman Catholic and attended 12 years of parochial school. That day marked the last class before Christmas break, and the teacher (a...
Voices — Wiktoria Szczepanik
I found out about circumcision quite by accident while watching a Turkish show with my mother. I heard a new word that I didn't understand: "circumcision." I asked my mother what that meant. She answered that it meant cutting off a piece of the penis. I was shocked to...