Your Whole Baby Equity Commitment
Your Whole Baby’s mission is to provide gentle education to parents-to-be and healthcare providers about the functions and care of foreskin, and the harms and risks of neonatal circumcision of the penis, carried out on minors too young to provide consent. We support the rights of all boys and men, and of all children and adults, to be free from the physical, mental, and emotional harms of forced genital cutting. We also seek to support the well-being of circumcision survivors.
Inherent in our mission is the call to reach all people who need support in order to protect children from the harms of circumcision. We recognize the far-reaching negative effects of discrimination — including racism, antisemitism, anti-Islam and anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination, ableism, sexism, classism, and ageism — as well as ways multiple forms of oppression can intersect to create layered inequities. Discrimination also affects people’s access to support on the subject of infant circumcision.
We recognize that as an organization, we don’t have all the answers. We have made inequitable missteps in the past, and we know we won’t always get things right on the first try going forward. Nonetheless, we are committed to the continued work of building an organization with equitable access for underrepresented communities who need this information, and equitable representation of those underrepresented groups at all levels of our organization.
Here we describe ongoing work in several areas where a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion is integral to our mission.
Note: We acknowledge that this document is United States-centric, and that discrimination issues in other parts of the world can both overlap and be unique to different cultures. Our organization is based in the U.S. and focuses primarily on infant circumcision that happens frequently in hospitals and doctors’ offices across the nation. We also support people around the world who need information about foreskin and circumcision, and appreciate those working everywhere to protect children from genital cutting.
Antisemitism
As a secular organization where members of the Jewish ethno-religious community are underrepresented on our volunteer team, we recognize that we are not in the most culturally competent or humble position to provide education regarding circumcision as it relates to Jewish faith and culture. There are many Jewish people working to curtail the practice of circumcision and make families aware of options that support children’s autonomy. Our goals are to amplify those voices within Judaism already working for change, to point Jewish parents seeking information and support towards resources that will best suit their needs, and to work toward equitable Jewish representation within Your Whole Baby.
Antisemitism is dangerous. Hateful beliefs, statements, and actions harm Jewish people and set us all back in our work, and are not tolerated in YWB spaces.
Read “Statement Opposing Antisemitism Within The Genital Autonomy Movement” from Beyond the Bris, co-signed by Your Whole Baby
Visit Bruchim, a Jewish-led organization that encourages non-circumcising Jews to get involved with Jewish groups (if they’re not already) and helps them locate groups that are accepting; provides resources to educate Jewish institutions about the presence of non-circumcising Jews and their unique concerns; and suggests concrete ways that groups of all kinds can extend an open and meaningful welcome.
Anti-Islam discrimination
As a secular organization currently without Muslim representatives, we do not consider ourselves in an appropriate position to provide education regarding circumcision within the context of the Islamic faith and culture. We support the rights of all children to their healthy, whole bodies, and we recognize that there is potential to do harm in advocacy work that is not religiously and culturally sensitive, competent, and humble, especially when dangerous anti-Islam prejudice and discrimination are widespread in the U.S. In keeping with our mission to educate gently in order to protect children from genital cutting, our goals are to amplify Muslim voices already working for change, to point Muslim families toward religiously and culturally relevant and respectful information, and to increase Muslim representation within Your Whole Baby. Anti-Islam language and behaviors are not tolerated in YWB spaces.
Racism
As an organization with an overrepresentation of white volunteers/staff, we have much continued work to do to equitably represent and reach communities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).
Black birthing parents in the U.S. die at three to four times the rate of their white counterparts, and Black infants at twice the rate of white infants. Research shows that this gap persists when controlling for factors including economic standing and education level, meaning racism is a root cause. This places responsibility on white people and systems to work for change, and to support and amplify the many Black voices already doing this work.
Anti-racism work is an integral part of genital autonomy advocacy. It is never a “distraction” or an optional add-on. Without ongoing efforts to dismantle racism in the genital autonomy movement, BIPOC will have less access to necessary information, and children of color will be more likely to experience the harms of circumcision.
Birthing parents of color are less likely to have access to adequate health care, including appropriate counseling on risks and harms of circumcision. If a failure to move towards equitable representation and reach within our organization contributes to poorer health outcomes or death for even one child, we’re not doing our job. Compassionate and racism-informed genital autonomy advocacy is a necessary component in combating these disparities and protecting children of color from genital cutting.
Your Whole Baby strives to make all our environments respectful and safe for our BIPOC community members and visitors. Racist language and behaviors are not permitted in YWB spaces. We are committed to continued learning, increasing BIPOC representation at all levels of our organization, and amplifying the voices of genital autonomy advocates of color.
Anti-LBGTQIA+ discrimination
We recognize and respect that every individual has the right to determine for themselves their sex, gender, gender expression, and sexual orientation. We also recognize and respect that not all people with penises identify as male, that not all people with vulvas identify as female, and that sex and gender are not binary. We acknowledge that people with intersex characteristics are often rendered invisible in discussions of human sexuality and genital cutting, and we support organizations working to end unnecessary surgeries for children with intersex characteristics.
Every person and family looks different and all those who take part in our communities deserve compassionate, affirming information and support. We strive for inclusivity in all our resources. This includes an ongoing project to update our older/non-inclusive graphics and articles. While some of our materials include male terminology and pronouns (particularly personal experience stories), we use gender-neutral language wherever possible, sometimes replacing and sometimes alongside gendered language.
Discriminatory language and behaviors towards LGBTQIA+ community members are not permitted in YWB environments. We ask community members in our online groups to avoid assuming the gender and sexual orientation of other group members unless this information has been openly shared, and to respect the pronouns of other users and users’ children. We seek to maintain an LGBTQIA+-affirming environment, with staff diversity that reflects that of the communities we serve and the general population.
Ableism
Your Whole Baby promotes accessibility and strives to provide resources that can be used by adults and children with any range of abilities. This includes image descriptions, closed captioning, and transcripts of audio materials. Our goal is that Your Whole Baby environments are accessible to and welcoming for disabled people, with developmental, physical, emotional, and/or psychological disabilities, as well as neurodivergent people, both as volunteers and community participants. We recognize that disabled people deserve the right to the healthy, functional body parts they were born with. Ableism is not permitted in YWB spaces.
Sexism
Your Whole Baby’s primary mission is using gentle education to end the sexist practice of penile genital cutting in the U.S. Currently, whether or not a child in the U.S. is legally protected from genital cutting is dependent upon what set of genitals they were born with.
Sexism is a pervasive and multifaceted issue. Sexism against women and mothers harms individuals, whole families, and our entire society. It hinders the goal of the genital autonomy movement to educate parents and protect children. In keeping with our mission of respectful education, we do not tolerate the harassment, bullying, or intimidation of women, parents, or any person, nor do we support the co-opting of other human rights causes in the name of genital autonomy advocacy. Sex- and gender-based stereotyping is also not permitted.
Body type & size discrimination
We recognize that people with penises in the U.S. are frequently shamed either for having foreskin, or for speaking out about how circumcision has negatively affected them. We do not tolerate body shaming or bullying of people with penises, intact or circumcised.
We’re committed to supporting people with bodies of all types and sizes. Positive body image messaging is central to what we do — this extends to celebrating and supporting bodies of all weights and prohibiting fatphobic comments and behaviors.
Ageism
We recognize children as full human beings with full human rights as laid forth in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This includes the right to be free from the harms of genital cutting. We recognize that ageist stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination have negative effects on people in various age groups, including society’s youngest and eldest members, and we prohibit ageism in Your Whole Baby environments.
We will be updating this Equity Commitment as we continue our work towards equitable representation and reach of oppressed communities with information about the harms of circumcision.
Date Published: April 2, 2021
Updated: Nov. 9, 2022