New York City Seeks To Promote Circumcision Among Gay Men

Following up on a story Mad Professah discussed last week and recommendations from the World Health Organization about the beneficial prevention effects of adult male cicumcision, controversial New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden announced today that he is interested in his department promoting the practice, the New York Times reported.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg and others called for caution in endorsing the measure. The current Mayor (and possible 2008 Presidential candidate?) was quoted saying:

“Whether it’s something that the government should be involved in, or just giving advice and making sure that people get educated, education in the end is the real tool to stop the spread of AIDS in our society. That may or may not be true elsewheres."

Founder of Treatment Action Group, AIDS activist Peter Staley said “Should we proceed when we don’t have hard data yet on the population here?” he asked. “On the other hand, if we wait the three years it would take to answer that question, how many will be infected in the meantime?”

Staley also pointed out the obvious cultural implications of several, predominantly white officials telling black and brown gay men that they should have surgery on their genitals. “I’m white, Frieden’s white,” he said. “It’s going to sound like white guys telling black and Hispanic guys to do something that would affect their manhood.”

Tokes Osubu, executive director of Gay Men of African Descent, agreed and declared that circumcision is "not the answer to our problems" and doubted that it would reduce alarmingly high HIV infection rates among gay men of color in New York City, currently estimated at at least 20%.