Intactivist goals for 2008

[baybee]

Now that we're looking into a New Year, let's share what our goals are for
2008. What would a big breakthrough look like in your part of the world? What actions will be taken in your community?

Here in British Columbia, Canada, we will have a concerted effort put towards having the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Ministry of Health shut down the private cutters. Letter writing, telephoning, public info nights. It's time to get it done here and demonstrate to the rest of N. America that it can be done.

[Night_Nurse]

My personal goal for the new year is to sponsor either a billboard or something like a bus ad campain, something on a large type scale.
I have messages out to people for info on how to do this, but as of now, I'm still waiting for replies.
I did check into aerial advertising. People always pay attention to those banners behind planes. Man, was that expenisive! So unless I meet a pilot willing to donate his/her own time, I'll skip that idea.

[kimkabob5]

My personal goal is to get a petition written and signed and submitted to the insurance company I work at that covers circumcisions up to the age of 30 days and charges it onto the mother's claim. I am a customer care advocate that works with the above 65 population. I actually have the insurance through my dh's work, and it's a big one. If we can get this one to deep six it then we will be making progress. It's Empire Blue Cross.

They are all about "medical necessity". I dealt with a man who called about his 93 yo father who was being denied payment to his nursing home for lack of medical necessity. Okay, this man was falling down, threatening to kill himself, had dementia and could obviously not care for himself...but because the proper forms were not filled out by the proper people, he was being denied medically necessary care. The ER was where he was shipped.

I come across this all the time. Medical management is so anal about making sure any and all procedures are medically necessary, but when it comes to newborn circumcision.....completely covered under the mother's plan.

And I work for this company!

I need to do something from knowing what I know but from where I won't be identified....I know the ins and outs......I have members calling in tears because they are legally blind and haven't been sent the right diabetic monitoring supplies to fit their needs because medical management has deemed it unnecessary.....or claims rejected because the anesthesiologist was not in par so then I just have to reprossess the claim and it will go through, or docs sending bloods to labs that we don't cover....they give a stink but I can push the claims back through and Empire will cover them...the member has no choice of anesthesiologists or labs docs send bloods to...so they are reasonable and rational...in everything except

newborn circumcision

If I didn't exclusively work with the over 65 population I would have to quit on grounds of integrity. But I am nearly at that point now. It's still the same ins company.

How do I draw up a petition? How do I get people to sign it?

Getting Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield to stop paying for surgery that is not medically necessary is my intactivist goal of the year.

Hell, some woman was scared that Empire wouldn't pay for her after cataract laser procedure (not cosmedic, for sight). HELLO????? "No problem, we'll cut your newborn son's penis, but if after your cataract surgery you need the YAG procedure to remove the cloudy capsule then you will have to submit to medical management for precert."

It's all starting to make me feel insane so I'd better stop talking about it.

I am wishing you all a happy and hopeful end of the year. Let's all conglomerate at that point and see whom can help who.

[ananas]

My personal goal is just to save as many foreskins as possible on a "One at a time" basis. I'm having some success on some other mainstream boards, and may move on to other methods later in the year.

[Organicavocado]

I'm keeping up on a personal level as well, spreading the word as the opportunities come up, and busting butt on a higher level as opportunities come up. I feel like I still need to gather information before I can start my own "campaign", but within the next five years I'd like to start a website packed with the most material I can find and try to get involved in mainstream media to spread the word. I would *LOVE* to write a book on DH's experience with restoring, if he'll cowrite it with me

And you know, giving birth to my intact son. That too. That will be fun

[baybee]

Thanks for sharing everyone. I'm giving this a bump seeing that we're really coming on to the first of the new year.

Does anyone have a goal to find a partner in intactivism? It really multiplies the effectiveness if you have someone either in your city or online who you can buddy up with for support. When I first started getting active, I connected with Jen (pdxmothernurture) on this forum and her and I have done some amazing stuff together and we even met in person last year in Seattle. Two can easily do what's so hard to be done by one.

[pdx.mothernurture]

I'm not sure what's on the agenda for me this next year, except that I'm redoing my CNA training this next month because I let my certification lapse and will probably be going back to work at least part-time. Intactivism-wise, I plan on continuing to work on my blog and host the intact care board on another parenting site. Not sure what else, yet!

Jen

[perspective]

Well after reading this board, I came up with a plan for next year. Women tend to not have a strongly pro circ opinion until their husbands start telling them how great it is. Also, I think a guy is going to be less defensive about the issue when its being talked about abstractly and not in relation to a future son. Since I am still younger the parenting age, I want to start talking to my friends about the issue, and at the very least remove all those circumcision and foreskin myths from their minds now, before they are locked in stone by parenthood.

I also want to be more comfortable talking about the issue, because as of now I am not, because I am afraid people are just going to think I hate my penis, and that their is something wrong with me. (while in reality I dont hate my penis at all, I am happy with it, I just wish I culture had more respect for the integrity of the male body. Maybe if that belief existed in our culture, then doctors would have been spending decades previous to my birth making better corrections to penis problems, instead of the "just slap it together so he can pee" solution.)

[KBecks]

I'm going to do things personally, talk to the pregnant moms in my network, and also continue talking to my doctors. I need to talk to my OB and think I want to write letters to his partners asking them to stop offering circ. Yet, I want to write custom letters and it will take some time to put together, so it's not high on the list compared to daily life of caring for my family. I want to write to the hospitals also where I delivered the boys and bring up the issue with them.

I just sent something to a relative who is expecting a boy and will gently approach 2 pregnant co-workers next week, so I'm happy to just start conversing about circ.

I'm also talking to a few moms online who have approached me for info.

[perspective]

Originally Posted by Night_Nurse

My personal goal for the new year is to sponsor either a billboard or something like a bus ad campain, something on a large type scale.
I have messages out to people for info on how to do this, but as of now, I'm still waiting for replies.
I did check into aerial advertising. People always pay attention to those banners behind planes. Man, was that expenisive! So unless I meet a pilot willing to donate his/her own time, I'll skip that idea.

Thats a great idea. No one is going to educate themselves if they think nothing is wrong. If there was just one national TV ad that was played on multiple channels for a month or so, you could turn so many heads. At least educate the whole country that circumcision is an issue that people are discussing and is NOT something that is just accepted.

It should be something that is informative, but something that does not come on too strong, you just want to bait people.

My idea would be having a bunch of males of all ages, but especially a larger number of boys. They would all be standing in front of a white with bluish light tinted background. They would be all shown indivdually, or in small groups. Have them all completing and repeating parts of the sentence "circumcision goes against my rights". The purpose of the large range of males would be so everyone would say hey "wait, that one person looked like my son/friend/boyfriend/brother/father/cousin/nephew etc.." and then they might think "has his human rights been violated?" End it with a man in his early 30's holding a baby boy, and he would say a short statement about the intactivist movement, and give a very short "his body, his rights" speech.

I have thought too much about this... heh

[KBecks]

It could be made and distributed on YouTube and via email. The Dove Pro Age campaign model would be good to follow.

[Night_Nurse]

Originally Posted by perspective

Thats a great idea. No one is going to educate themselves if they think nothing is wrong. If there was just one national TV ad that was played on multiple channels for a month or so, you could turn so many heads. At least educate the whole country that circumcision is an issue that people are discussing and is NOT something that is just accepted.

It should be something that is informative, but something that does not come on too strong, you just want to bait people.

My idea would be having a bunch of males of all ages, but especially a larger number of boys. They would all be standing in front of a white with bluish light tinted background. They would be all shown indivdually, or in small groups. Have them all completing and repeating parts of the sentence "circumcision goes against my rights". The purpose of the large range of males would be so everyone would say hey "wait, that one person looked like my son/friend/boyfriend/brother/father/cousin/nephew etc.." and then they might think "has his human rights been violated?" End it with a man in his early 30's holding a baby boy, and he would say a short statement about the intactivist movement, and give a very short "his body, his rights" speech.

I have thought too much about this... heh

Well, this would be wonderful except I don't have enough $$$ to sponsor a tv ad. Well, I have no idea how much cable tv vs regular tv commericals cost but I'm sure there's great expense in just the production of a tv commercial.
Now, I'm serious about this, if I ever win the lotto, the majority of the winnings would go for NoCirc ad campains and helping animals too, but since I don't regularly buy lotto tickets, I doubt I'll hit the jackpot...

I did mail off my $ for a billboard, I just have to get all my ducks in a row now. I'm both nervous and excited about this.
I also mailed a half-dozen circ education packets today, left 3 or 4 pamphlets in a hospital waiting room (I was there visiting a relative) and, eh hum, "left" a couple of bumper stickers where they might be viewed in various locations today. So hopefully that helped some.

Back to a tv commercial or YouTube production. Maybe someone here who knows someone in film/tv production or knows of college students who need to do a project for radio/tv degree or class, maybe this is something they could tackle. Maybe I could help offset some expenses. But something tells me a regular tv commercial would be upwards $15,000 - $20,000 just to produce and show once on CBS or something, no??? I really don't know.
But in college my dh knew a radion/tv/film major. After college he worked on a local hospital commerical. All the actors and lighting guys and everyone had to be from the actors union. They had to provide craft services and all that. I think it was pretty pricey and it was only ever shown on cable tv. I think I saw it twice.

[Papai]

I would love for all the HIV/Circ garbage to be debunked in 08. Quite a lofty goal but I think I'd be over the moon if that happened.

[Redifer]

Originally Posted by Papai

I would love for all the HIV/Circ garbage to be debunked in 08. Quite a lofty goal but I think I'd be over the moon if that happened.

I believe I just read a headline somewhere last week that it was found not to affect U.S men.


Ahh yes, Reuters. Headline: Circumcision does not affect HIV in U.S. men: study


At least that's a start.


As for personal goals; keep getting the info out there. Talk to as many people as possible about it. Even if that includes putting it on Craigslist Rants&Raves, like I've already done

[Papai]

Originally Posted by Redifer

I believe I just read a headline somewhere last week that it was found not to affect U.S men.


Ahh yes, Reuters. Headline: Circumcision does not affect HIV in U.S. men: study


At least that's a start.


As for personal goals; keep getting the info out there. Talk to as many people as possible about it. Even if that includes putting it on Craigslist Rants&Raves, like I've already done

Oh, I know. But I want the WHO and the UN to remove their support behind the procedure. That's what is really killing me.

[A&A]

put my head in the sand. :

[vaughnmama]

My goals

• Letter writing
• Always carrying literature with me (to pass on or leave around town)
• Broaching the subject with a new friend (due soon)
• Protecting my newborn (due in April)
• Creating time capsules of various info for my 4yr old & 2yr old sons (unfortunately & regrettably cut when we were ignorant)

I did then what I knew how to do. When you know better, you do better. ~ Maya Angelou

[kldliam]

am I a dreamer or what?!!??

2007 Primetime 30-second ad rates
during Sunday Night Football:

$342,000K!

If 6,840 People chipped in $50 ea , we'd be able to do this!
OR
If 3,420 People chipped in $100 ea, we'd be able to do this!
OR
If 1,710 People chipped in $200 ea., we'd be able to do this!
OR
If 1,140 people chipped in $300 ea. we'd be able to do this!


If my math is ok here, we should start a fund going!

crosspost:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=820865

[Ron_Low]

Originally Posted by kldliam

2007 Primetime 30-second ad rates
during Sunday Night Football:
$342,000K!

We can do it for a lot less.

Just make the ad "over the top" with direct shots of the brutality of infant circ and shots of the results in damaged men.

The network will have to turn down the "adult-oriented" ad, but we call every news outlet and claim that something done to infants is the business of everyone from infancy on up.

Much free publicity ensues.

[perspective]

Originally Posted by Ron_Low

We can do it for a lot less.

Just make the ad "over the top" with direct shots of the brutality of infant circ and shots of the results in damaged men.

The network will have to turn down the "adult-oriented" ad, but we call every news outlet and claim that something done to infants is the business of everyone from infancy on up.

Much free publicity ensues.

Thats nice, but we are in a circ friendly/circ neutral country. If you throw out an ad like that, it wont get picked up, not to mention it will just turn more people off to the issue then on to it, because many men have either accepted, or actually like their circ status (for whatever reason).

Its the same that happens when anti abortionists have protests waving around brutal pictures of third trimester aborted fetus that have been all mashed up. People will just think your extremists. This happens because people outside of movements dont see the issue in the same way. That does not mean they cant, but if you want to make people intactivists its possible. Its just you have to bring people in, in a way that it seems personal and/or inviting.