‘A horrible human rights violation’: Bloodstained Men bring anti-circumcision protest to Greenfield

GREENFIELD — With faux bloodstains on the crotches of their white pants, members of the California-based nonprofit Bloodstained Men took to the intersection of Mohawk Trail (Route 2) and Colrain Road to call for an end to infant circumcision.

About 10 protesters stood on the sidewalk and in the median near the McDonald’s and Starbucks on Monday afternoon to protest the process of surgically removing the foreskin of a male’s penis, usually in a boy’s infancy. According to the Mayo Clinic, circumcision is common in some parts of the world, including the United States, and is a religious or cultural tradition for many Jewish and Islamic families, as well as certain Indigenous peoples.

Representatives of the Bloodstained Men, however, say the procedure is cruel, unnecessary, and should not be done before boys are old enough to consent.

“We do not want future generations to suffer the same act of violence that was inflicted on us when we were too young to defend ourselves,” activist David Atkinson said. “The foreskin is a normal, healthy, valuable part of the human body. … We’re here to warn parents that their children are in danger in hospitals shortly after birth, and to give parents the information and confidence they need to protect their children.”

The foreskin is a double-layered fold of skin that covers the rounded tip of the penis and naturally separates and becomes retractable over time, usually by the time a boy reaches puberty. According to the Mayo Clinic, during circumcision, infants are held down and restrained, the area is cleansed, an anesthetic is given, and then a clamp or ring is attached to the penis and the foreskin is removed.

“This entire structure is destroyed when it’s amputated, so that’s a valuable body part totally lost,” Atkinson said. “And then for the head to be an exposed organ, instead of being warm and moist and protected, now it’s exposed to the air. It’s rubbing up against underwear all the time, it gets covered with a layer of keratin, which is like a callous. So you lose that sensation in the body.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, doctors may recommend the procedure due to medical necessity, such as the foreskin being too tight around the penis, or for easier hygiene and prevention of urinary tract infections (UTI) or sexually transmitted infections. The website notes that risks associated with not being circumcised are rare and can be lowered with proper care.

The Mayo Clinic also adds that the procedure is commonly done on infants because the recovery process is longer and has a greater risk of complication at older ages.

Cynthia Maloney works as a doula and has been protesting with the Bloodstained Men since 2014. She said she was the first woman to wear the faux bloodstained pants and joined the cause after seeing the impact that circumcision had on babies she worked with.

“I would see baby boys when they were born, and they would make eye contact with their mother, and they were very bright-eyed and ready for looking at the world, and then they’d go back into this room, and they’d come back, and their eyes would be blank and dead, and they wouldn’t make eye contact with their mother anymore,” Maloney said. “I’ve met so many men through this work who say that their penis doesn’t feel any different than their arm because of the loss of sensation. There are so many men I’ve met who are totally uninterested in sex because they don’t feel anything at all.

“This is atrocious,” Maloney continued. “We’re making a society of very angry men.”

Atkinson said that there are thousands of nerve endings in the foreskin, and removing it can alter the feeling of sensation in male genitals and impact sexual activity.

The Mayo Clinic states that circumcision is “not thought to lessen or improve sexual pleasure for men or their partners.”

Thomas Mooney joined the Bloodstained Men from Ireland. He said that when he tells people in Ireland that Americans cut the tips of their baby’s penises off, they often don’t believe him because the procedure sounds cruel.

“I tell people it’s done here and they don’t believe me. They think I’m joking because it’s cruelty, it’s torture. Unless it’s necessary, then why would you do that?” Mooney said. “I tell my friends and family, and they genuinely think I’m joking. … It’s not a thing in Europe unless you’re Jewish or Muslim.”

The group’s protest in Greenfield on Monday was part of a 10-day tour of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Atkinson said they do these protest tours across the country, aiming to bring their message of ending circumcision around the nation. Earlier on Monday, the group protested in Springfield and Northampton, and they plan to continue their protests throughout the week in Boston, Cambridge and Brighton.

The Bloodstained Men was founded in 2012 to protest at the American Academy of Pediatrics convention in New Orleans. Founder Brother K said he first began advocating for an end to circumcision when he became sexually active as a young man and experienced genital discomfort afterward, a sensation that he believes was caused by his circumcision.

The movement, K explained, first gained media attention when a group of anti-circumcision protesters he led in 1980 was handcuffed and detained by police in Eureka, California. Since then, K said he and the Bloodstained Men have traveled to 49 of the 50 states to protest circumcision.

Atkinson said that even if anesthesia is used and the procedure is painless, it should not be conducted on infants who are unable to consent.

“Even if it’s totally painless,” Atkinson said, “it’s still a horrible human rights violation to cut off part of someone’s genitals without his consent.”

Staff writer Anthony Cammalleri contributed reporting.