Changes

My own enlightenment began in 2012, when I was entering my final year of college. I travelled to Berlin for an internship at a contemporary art museum, unaware of the discussions happening throughout Germany in the wake of the [[Cologne circumcision court judgment| Cologne ruling]] in which the [[amputation]] of a boy’s [[foreskin]] was determined to constitute bodily harm. So, I was rather taken aback when a museum patron asked me for my opinion on [[circumcision]]. I was too guarded to admit it during the ensuing conversation, but despite being nominally aware that, like most Jewish American boys, I was [[circumcised]], I didn’t really know what circumcision was. I simply thought of it as a benign, normal part of birth, like clipping the umbilical cord. When I subsequently began to research the matter, however, I realized that quite a lot of [[Foreskin#Physiological_functions| functional tissue]] had been removed from my body without my consent and for no apparent purpose. I felt shocked and harmed and I quickly discovered that many others do as well, and that some of them were actively fighting for the protection of children’s right to bodily autonomy. I, like many others, was drawn to this movement after recognizing the needless harm that was done to my own body. This recognition led naturally to a powerful drive to protect others from harm being done to them.