What is  BoysToo.com? 

<BoysToo.com> is the website for NoCircND, the North Dakota affiliate of NOCIRC (the National Organization for Circumcision Information Recourse Centers), a tax exempt, 501.c.3, organization dedicated to providing information for professionals, policy makers and officials concerned about the welfare of children as well as the general public. This information has generally not been available. The reasons for this are many (see the >Circumstition List), since it is difficult to face the sad truth that infant and childhood male genital mutilation (MGM) has no more medical justification than does >female genital mutilation (FGM).

<BoysToo.com> is a non-commercial web site. It represents the efforts of individuals and groups who are working to end the genital harming of infants and children for commercial, cultural and social reasons. The dot-com tag was selected because it is easy to remember it as an abbreviation for: Boys Too Com(plete). We want to ensure that all minors genitals remain complete, boys as well as girls'. We urge you to carefully look over this information and share it with others. Information is not always enough to stop the cutting, so we are also working to have the existing child protection laws enforced and applied without gender bias to prevent this abuse of children.

The pain and diminishment of one's bodily integrity, the known loss of full sexual function which diminishes with age, the loss of freedom for an individual to choose for himself whether he wants to live with a fully intact, God-given body are too much for most people to face. The shame of the last hundred years, resulting from the 19th Century's Victorian fear of sexuality which saw the painful amputation of the foreskin as one way to discourage >masturbation and all the supposed ills from pimples to hysteria, it caused. Today it is still touted as  preventing AIDS and cancer, a very socially irresponsible stance to take.

<BoysToo.com> speaks especially to North Dakotans by North Dakotans urging us to face the mistakes of the past and stop the harmful cutting of healthy genitals. We are proud North Dakota was the first state to pass any law specifically protecting the genitals of minors. But the original gender-neutral bill we proposed in 1995 was unfortunately altered, restricted to apply only to female minors. The bill that became law is a violation of the >U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment that provides equal protection for all. We brought a suit to challenge its constitutionality, but so far have been denied the opportunity for a hearing on the merits of the issue.

Because we are raising an ethical issue (this is NOT a medical issue) we are challenging the actions of physicians in our society who have had the privilege of society's respect for years, so we find it necessary to present not only the facts, but also ourselves, to let you see us in the context of our life's work. We look forward to the day when all children are protected, when each child can grow up making his own decision whether to amputate part of his body. While most find it unsettling, if not illegal, when people tattoo infants, or fondle their genitals; they avert eyes and ears, however, when parts of baby's healthy genitals are torn and cut off. We find this, as one obstetric nurse intactivist said: >Sick and Wrong.

Jody McLaughlin and Duane Voskuil, PhD, are the founding members of NoCircND. Jody has lived all her life in North Dakota and has two daughters. She was a >La Leche League leader for ten years, has worked with Michel Odent, MD, founder of the Primal Health Research Centre, London, and is the editor of the >Compleat Mother magazine.   

Duane, born in South Dakota, has lived 28 years in North Dakota raising five children and one step-son. He has taught several subjects at every level from fifth grade to college graduates, including several years as Chairman of the Philosophy Department at the University of North Dakota. He also has a BFA in visual arts and has been an arts administrator and juror. He has founded two North Dakota businesses, first as a designer and contractor of solar-heated, earth-homes (Solearth Corp.) and presently as a builder and repairer of violin-family instruments (Voskuil Violins) Resume. 

Duane taught philosophy as well as logic and ethics for 9 years at Bismarck State College. A week after a press conference in Fargo where court papers were filed challenging the constitutionality of the state of North Dakota's Female-Only Genital Protection law, he received a letter saying his teaching contract with Bismarck State College, where he had received excellent evaluations, would not be renewed. He has continued his philosophical writing as well as seeking to have professionals and state agencies address genital integrity for all minors.

Silence is the usual response from those whose responsibility it is to raise the ethical issue of nonconsensual male genital mutilation (MGM) in educational, legal and law enforcement settings. No one wants to accept responsibility even to discuss the issue: Physicians have refused to debate the issue; colleges' legal, philosophical, sociological, psychological and medical departments can't seem to find a place to address this issue so relevant to all these college departments; government agencies (particularly the North Dakota Board of Medical Examiners) and courts, all with legal mandates to address the issue, if not prevent the abuse of infants and children, say nothing or insist it is someone else's job.

Voltaire once said, "It is dangerous to be right on a subject on which the established authorities are wrong," but we have heard the screams and know about the long-term losses and cannot turn away. Unlike many things that cause suffering, this suffering is completely preventable. We want to focus energy that exists in this state on bringing the tragic wrongs, forced on so many innocent newborns of the last century, to a halt.

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Jody, in a letter answering a query, has summarized our efforts so far:
"The year before the Federal FGM law was passed in 1996, North Dakota's legislature passed into law the first restrictions in the United States against cutting genitals. Duane Voskuil, Bismarck and I co-wrote the bill to protect all children. However, during the legislative process, the word "female" was inserted. This version of the bill passed into law by unanimous vote in both the North Dakota Senate and the House of Representatives. Governor Ed Schaefer signed it three days later.

The present law, North Dakota Century Code 12.1-36-01 is in conflict with the Federal Constitution as well as North Dakota's Constitution. The circumcision of male minors violates their right to equal protection as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution and the Constitution of the state of North Dakota.

Article 1, Sections 21, 22 of the Constitution of the state of North Dakota, guarantee equal protection of the laws: Article I, Section 21, reads: "No special privileges or immunities shall ever be granted which may not be altered, revoked or repealed by the legislative assembly; nor shall any citizen or class of citizens be granted privileges or immunities which upon the same terms shall not be granted to all citizens."

Article I, Section 22 of the North Dakota Constitution, reads: "All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation." In addition, Article I, Section 9 of the North Dakota Constitution: "All courts shall be open, and every man for any injury done him in his lands, goods, person or reputation shall have remedy by due process of law, and right and justice administered without sale, denial or delay. Suits may be brought against the state in such manner, in such courts, and in such cases, as the legislative assembly may, by law, direct."

Article I, Section 12, of the North Dakota Constitution which guarantees due process: "No person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law."

We have filed cases with both the ND Supreme Court and the Eighth District Court of Appeals. So far we have not been granted a hearing on the [un-] constitutionality of North Dakota's law which provides for the protection of the Genital Integrity of our daughters, but not our sons.

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