I’m sure we’re all thrilled that the Oregon constitutional challenge lawsuit has moved on to the next stage.  However, we can’t put all our eggs in just the Oregon basket.  We need lawsuits in more states and that means we need more plaintiffs.  Intact Global and GALDEF have been hoping that the next lawsuits will be in Colorado and Illinois.

Here in Colorado we need plaintiffs who were cut in Colorado after the state passed its FGM law in 1999.

I volunteered to find people under the age of 26 who were subjected to penile circumcision. We’re seeking anyone – including cisgender males, transgender females and intersex individuals –  who were assigned or presumed to be male at birth and subjected to circumcision.

Other potentially eligible plaintiffs would be intact boys under age 18, represented by their parents or guardians, who could still be at risk of circumcision in some very common scenarios. Those specific scenarios are listed on GALDEF’s Equal Protect Lawsuit page.

So, where would I go to look for plaintiffs?  A college campus!

Before retiring to Colorado 10 years ago, I spent 10 years demonstrating almost every weekday at the University of Chicago campus in a very heavily pedestrian-trafficked area of the  campus — right outside the U of Chicago Medical Center and directly across the street from the main college classrooms.  During those 10 years, I spoke with thousands of  students (college and graduate), faculty, staff, and visitors to the university.  So, I have a lot of experience talking to young people about Genital Autonomy.

I must say that I’m having a lot of fun talking to young people again after living in a retirement community for the last 10 years.  I don’t know if it’s fair to compare a private university in Chicago with a state university in Colorado, but I’m very pleasantly surprised that the students I’m meeting now are much more willing to talk about sexual issues and human rights than the students I talked to 10-20 years ago.  With very few exceptions (e.g., some ultra conservative fundamentalist Christians) everyone with whom I’ve spoken readily agrees that it’s wrong to cut the genitals of healthy children. Several Muslim students have even told me that they completely agree that both boys and girls should be kept intact.

On the other hand, asking a young adult to put themselves out publicly as someone who was harmed by circumcision is a much bigger ask than I originally thought.

So far, about two dozen people have told me they would consider being a plaintiff, yet half were beyond the statute of limitations and/or were not circumcised in Colorado. Many of the older students served in the military and are now in college because the G.I. pays their tuition. They are sometimes extremely disappointed that they can’t be a plaintiff.

Even though no one has yet followed through by contacting Intact Global about being a plaintiff, I still have hope.  While I would certainly like to find some plaintiffs, I must admit that I’m doing some useful intactivism and getting people to talk about the issue with their friends.

Intact Global needs all of us to help find plaintiffs.  Those of you with good social media skills/connections could help by letting online groups know that we need plaintiffs.  Potential plaintiffs can get more information by visiting GALDEF’s Equal Protect Lawsuit page. Interested plaintiffs can apply on the Intact Global Plaintiff Submission page.