Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Dr. Demento: Dix P. Poppas and his Cruel and Horrifyingly Usual Sexually Violent and Violating Perpetration of Girls and Intersex Children, and the U.S. History of A Few Atrocities against Women of Color

Dix P. Poppas, MD
[image is from here]

The professional version:

Dix P. Poppas, M.D. is Chief of Pediatric Urology at Children's Hospital of New York Presbyterian - Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He is the Richard Rodgers Associate Professor of Pediatric Urology in the James Buchanan Brady Department of Urology at Weill Medical College. Dr. Poppas holds joint appointments as Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Professor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Weill Medical College. His practice is limited to pediatric urology with special interest in genital reconstruction, laparoscopic and robotic surgery, intersex disorders and minimally invasive procedures for treating vesicoureteral reflux. Dr. Poppas has extensive experience in minimally invasive surgery and pediatric laparoscopy. He was chosen as one of the "Top One Hundred Minimally Invasive Surgeons in New York" and was the only pediatric urologist to be selected.

He serves as co-director of the Laboratory for Minimally Invasive Urologic Surgery where his efforts are focused on developing advanced laparoscopic and Robotic surgical techniques for tissue reconstruction using novel tissue sealants to replace sutures and staples during surgery, as well as investigating the mechanisms and potential treatments for inhibiting and reversing fibrosis in the obstructed kidney using antibodies and gene therapy strategies.

Dr. Poppas is a diplomate of The American Board of Urology, Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He has been awarded The E. Darracott Vaughan Young Investigator Award by the National Kidney Foundation, The Edwin Beer Award of The New York Academy of Medicine, and was selected as an American Foundation for Urologic Disease/National Kidney Foundation Research Scholar.

*          *           *

I recently learned of something happening in my country that is so vile that it makes me wonder which medial and political officials, and what other WHM's practices and laws, support such activity, and why the perpetrating doctor isn't immediately arrested. It's not that the overall policies of this country would prevent sexual violence against women and intersex people of all ages, sizes, colors, ethnicities, and sexualities. I'm not surprised that doctors in this country are doing that is grossly harmful and violatingly abusive to girls and intersex children. I am nonetheless horrified, however. The doctor is part of Cornell University, in a medical school in NYC. But before we get to him, let's familiarise ourselves with the history of white men's crimes against women's bodies, particularly against women of color.
 

The political version:

Forced Sterilization in America: It Inspired the Nazis and Went on Longer

The very first nation to take an official and organized approach to eugenics, involving forced sterilization of "undesirables," was the United States of America. Starting with Michigan in 1897, forced sterilization in the US lasted into the 1960's and was given Supreme Court approval in Buck v. Bell in 1927. More than 60,000 people considered undesirable, including the mentally ill, the "promiscuous," the poor, Native Americans and the physically disabled, were compulsorily sterilized under official policy in the United States. The very last state-sanctioned, forced sterilization program in the US was in Oregon, only ending in 1981.
According to the anthropological study of Judaism called Unsettled (reviewed here), the Nazi eugenics program in 1930's and 1940's Germany was inspired by and specifically modeled on America's eugenics program. Our shame was their inspiration.

America is certainly not alone in having as part of its history the forced sterilization of citizens based on junk science, but our programs were among the earliest and lasted the longest, though Nazi Germany easily surpassed us in terms of both numbers and enthusiasm.

Each forces sterilization has a face and a story going with it, and thanks to BBC news one woman is going very public regarding her secret and forced sterilization in the 1960's by official US policy...or, more specifically, official North Carolina policy. [The rest is here.]
See also, here at the organisation Libertad Latina. And here for an article on abuses in North America. And here at the Assata Shakur forum website, for an article on the illegal sterilisation of Black women in North Carolina.

I live in a country that tries its best--or worst--to make it seem like "atrocities" don't happen here. Not between our shores. The news media is complicit in demonising so many people who are not the ruling class here.

I have posted before about Columbus and Co. and their abuses of girls and women in the Americas. Note that "the Americas" implies more than one and that means the U.S. DOES NOT EQUAL "America". Our ruling class's arrogance does mean to have the world believe this. But "America" is a place that has rejected capitalism, if we're talking about many countries in South America. And "America" has national health care and a very low gun murder rate, if we're talking about Canada. The U.S. of A. is the most violent and predatory nation on Earth, but holds itself as the BEST.

What makes it NOT THE BEST is the harmful and oppressive practices it has made a bad habit of perpetrating.  Primarily this falls into two categories: men's abuses and subordination of women, and whites' abuses and subordination of people of color. Taken together, this means that white men rule and women of color resist. White het men rule over everyone but that's a dirty little secret men like Jeff would rather ignore. "Pay no attention to the WHM behind the curtain", is basically Jeff's message. And like in The Wizard of Oz, WHM are both much larger and much smaller than they make themselves out to be. This group seems to have the least grasp of the power it holds, collectively, and the responsibility it has to use that power to eradicate, rather than more deeply embed their historic atrocities against people they oppress.

What women of color have had to resist is both the same as and different than what white women here, and what men of color here, have had to fight against for survival. Noting this does not minimise the entirely disgusting things white het men find to do to white women and to men of color. From marital rape to lynching, white men in the U.S. have a long history of committing crimes against humanity. But women of color are not immune to any dreaded activity WHM conceive of to terrorise people for their race and gender.

Here is the post I did on the Savage Rapist Columbus.

Below is other information on what white het men have done to women of color inside the U.S.:
During the late 1960s and the early 1970s, a policy of involuntary surgical sterilization was imposed upon Native American women in the United States, usually without their knowledge or consent, by the federally funded Indian Health Service (IHS), then run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). It is alleged that the existence of the sterilization program was discovered by members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) during its occupation of the BIA headquarters in 1972. A 1974 study by Women of All Red Nations (WARN), concluded that as many as 42 percent of all American Indian women of childbearing age had, by that point, been sterilized without their consent. A subsequent investigation was conducted by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), though it was restricted to only four of the many IHS facilities nationwide and examined only the years 1973 to 1976. The GAO study showed that 3,406 involuntary sterilizations were performed in these four IHS hospitals during this three-year period. Consequently, the IHS was transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services in 1978.

During this and earlier periods, similar involuntary sterilization programs were being performed on other women of color, among them Chicanas of the Los Angeles area (Acuña 2004). It is estimated that by 1966, one-third of the women of childbearing age on the island of Puerto Rico had been sterilized without their "informed consent." In addition, MULANEH (Mujeres Lationoamericanas de New Haven), a mainland Puerto Rican women’s organization, discovered that 44 percent of Puertorriqueñas in New Haven, Connecticut, had been sterilized by 1979. In Hartford, Connecticut, the figure stood at 51 percent. Women in Puerto Rico were also part of experimentation studies of the early birth control pill before it was released on the U.S. mainland. [The rest is here.]
With the above as the context, we now move to the current atrocity. I want to thank Melissa at The Feminist Texican [here] for posting about this nightmare, which was where I first learned about it. From there, I checked a blog I link to on Intersex people's human rights, here.

What follows is from the same blog, Intersex News:
June 18, 2010
A couple of days ago, Alice Dreger and Ellen K. Feder jointly posted a brief article (Bad Vibrations) on the Bioethics Forum of the Hastings Center’s website.

The piece picked up on an earlier article, Nerve Sparing Ventral Clitoroplasty: Analysis of Clitoral Sensitivity and ViabilityPDF here – published in 2007 by Jennifer Yang (a pediatric urologist), Diane Felsen (a pharmacologist) and Dix P. Poppas, M.D in The Journal of Urology.

Dreger and Feder’s piece focuses attention on Dr Poppas, a pediatric urologist at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Medical College of Cornell University whose “special interest in genital reconstruction [and] surgical aspects of disorders of sexual development” has apparently led him to carry out a program of research on 51 girls aged between 4 months and 24 years old (mean age ± SD 4.6 ± 6.8 years) in which he performed nerve sparing ventral clitoroplasty, which included “followup testing of clitoral viability and sensation after clitoroplasty“. [Read the complete article here]


I honestly do not want to know more than this information tells me. I know about the many horrors men visit on children and adults. Having girls', intersex children's, and women's privacy invaded, bodies violated, and sexual organs medically traumatised is not something that ought to be a focus on a white man's blog in graphic detail, in my opinion. Beyond this post, I am not likely to discuss this again, other than to update the reader on what happens to Dr. Poppas.

Happy 40th Annual Queer Pride Month! A U.S. Festivities Sampler: West Coast, Central, and East Coast



GLF at Christopher Street Liberation Day 1971
[image of the Gay Liberation Front, NYC is from here]

Lesbian and Gay Pride, LGBT Pride, Queer Pride events have been happening for 40 years in many places in the U.S. this year. Here's a sampling of some events in 2010. I won't get into the whole political history except to say that I wish the Gay Liberation Front was still alive and well. That would've been my group, as they were gay men who stood in alliance with lesbian-feminist values and activism.

CLICK HERE FOR MAIN STAGE LINE-UP


The two day Celebration takes place in Civic Center Plaza in downtown San Francisco.



SF Pride Celebration in Civic Center
    Saturday, June 26, 2010
    Noon to 6:00 p.m. – Civic Center [MAP]


    Sunday, June 27, 2010
    Noon to 7:00 p.m. – Civic Center [MAP]
 

About the San Francisco Pride Celebration
Photo Credit: Jane Cleland
    San Francisco Pride has been said to be "one of the last remaining pride events that can truly be called a rite of passage." 2010 marks the 40th anniversary of the San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade.
    The event will be held over the weekend of June 26 and 27, 2010 in the Civic Center of downtown San Francisco.
    With over 200 parade contingents, 300 exhibitors, and 19 stages and venues, the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration and Parade is the largest LGBT gathering in the nation.
    The San Francisco Pride Celebration is packed with a wide variety of exhibitors, artists, music of all kinds, performers, dance stages and venues, and fun. There really is something here for everyone.
    The Celebration at Civic Center is host to our Main Stage where in 2009 Asian pop sensation BoA wowed Pride-goers with new beats alongside Solange Knowles and the Cliks and where in 2008, attendees saw Lady Gaga, Margaret Cho, Kat DeLuna, Inaya Day, Crystal Waters, speakers from the marriage equality movement, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, among others.

2010 Event Theme
Photo Credit:
Juan Carlos Pometta Betancourt
    The event theme for the 40th annual San Francisco Pride Celebration & Parade was selected by Pride's Membership.  Acknowledging the need for celebration in the wake of Prop 8, the membership selected "Forty and Fabulous" from a slate of 51 potential themes, each submitted by community members and members of Pride.  Member Richard Kravitz, who submitted the winning theme, explained his submission, "I thought that we needed something fun.  Last year, I told Executive Director Lindsey Jones that the theme for next year should be ‘Forty and Fabulous.’ She said to submit it, and so I did."
FREE Admission
    The San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee takes very seriously its commitment to maintaining an event that is open to people of all economic backgrounds.
    Your generosity at the entrances to the Celebration in the form of donations helps keep San Francisco Pride free to all members of the community and provides crucial support to this important community event.
    Our donations program also helps to support over eighty Bay Area non-profit organizations through our Community Partners Program. Donations from the celebration have helped San Francisco Pride to give back more than $1.6 million in grants since 1997.
   With your help, we can do even better this year and invest in our community's future.
    Join us for two days of music, food and fun... all for FREE! No tickets are needed and no one is ever turned away for lack of funds.

Past San Francisco Pride Themes
1970 No theme selected
1971 No event held
1972 No theme selected
1973 A Celebration of the Gay Experience
1974 Gay Freedom by '76
1975 Join Us, The More Visible We Are, The Stronger We Become
1976 United for Freedom, Diversity is our Strength
1977 Gay Frontiers: Past, Present, Future
1978 Come Out with Joy, Speak out for Justice
1979 Our Time has Come
1980 Liberty and Justice for All
1981 Front Line of Freedom
1982 Out of Many...One
1983 Strengthen the Ties, Break the Chains
1984 Unity & More in '84
1985 Honor our Past, Secure our Future
1986 Forward Together, No Turning Back
1987 Proud, Strong, United
1988 Rightfully Proud
1989 Stonewall 20: A Generation of Pride
1990 The Future Is Ours
1991 Hand in Hand Together
1992 A Simple Matter of Justice
1993 Year of The Queer
1994 San Francisco to Stonewall: Pride & Protest
1995 A World Without Borders
1996 Equality & Justice For All
1997 One Community Many Faces
1998 Shakin' It Up
1999 Proud Heritage, Powerful Future
2000 It's About Freedom
2001 Queerific
2002 Be Yourself, Change the World
2003 You've Gotta Give Them Hope
2004 Out 4 Justice
2005 Stand Up, Stand Out, Stand Proud
2006 Commemorate, Educate, Liberate — Celebrate!
2007 Pride, Not Prejudice
2008 United by Pride, Bound for Equality
2009 "In Order to Form a More Perfect Union..."
2010 Forty and Fabulous




Gay Pride Parade 2010
Sunday, June 27 at 12:00pm.
More >
For PRIDEChicago information contact Richard Pfeiffer (Parade Coordinator) at PrideChgo@aol.com or (773) 348-8243.

Photo credit: Male Image Photography

June Pride Month

Each year, parade entrants, as well as groups sponsoring Pride Month events, have the option of using an international theme, or using a theme or slogan of their own choice. The 2010 international theme suggested by InterPride, the international Pride organization, is "One Heart, One World, One Pride." Regardless of how an individual wants to commemorate and celebrate Pride, there is an event or function that can fit the needs of most people.

Every year in Chicago, June Pride Month features dozens of social, cultural, athletic and political events. These events, that take place in different areas of the metro Chicago area, are organized by various community organizations and individuals.

Each year these events are compiled to create the June Pride Month Calendar. The calendar is featured on this web site; in the annual Pride Guide booklet; and in local publications. If there is an event that an organization, group or individual wants to schedule during June Pride Month, all they have to do is to organize it, and it can be added to the calendar.

However, our primary responsibility is to coordinate the Annual Pride Parade in East Lakeview. The parade is scheduled each year for the last Sunday in June.

Packets containing information concerning listing an event on the June Pride Month calendar; parade registration; the Pride Guide booklet; and barricades and portable restrooms are sent out every year during the first week of March to our mailing list. To be added to the mailing list to receive the packet in early March send your address to PrideChgo@aol.com .


THE ATLANTA PRIDE COMMITTEE, INC.
2300 HENDERSON MILL RD
SUITE 125
ATLANTA, GA 30345
770-491-8633 (O)
770-491-8636 (F)


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: JP Sheffield, Executive Director
Phone:  770-491-8633
Email:  jsheffield@atlantapride.org
Atlanta Pride announces Stonewall Week Events
2010 Line up includes partnerships with a variety of community organizations
(ATLANTA – May 25th, 2010)  The Atlanta Pride Committee is pleased to announce the 2010 roster of events for Stonewall Week.  The schedule includes established annual events, such as the East Point Possums Show and Georgia Equality’s Evening for Equality, as well as new events, such as the Sylvia Rivera Stonewall Community Brunch.  Event partners include The East Point Possums, Atlanta Lesbian Health Initiative, StoryCorps, Georgia Equality, Out on Film, Juxtaposed Center for Transformation, and Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth (TILTT).

“While our festival is now held in October, it is important to Atlanta Pride to commemorate the Stonewall Riots through events that build community,” said Atlanta Pride Executive Director, JP Sheffield.  Sheffield continued by acknowledging, “It took us a bit longer this year to release the event schedule, because we wanted to establish keystone activities that can become annual events.  I believe we have accomplished that with the Sylvia Rivera Brunch and the rally that will follow.”

The Sylvia Rivera Stonewall Community Brunch, set for Saturday, June 26th, was inspired by the work done in 2009 by Human Rights Atlanta (HRA) during Stonewall Week, as well as the annual Trans Day of Remembrance (TDOR) and Bayard Rustin-Audre Lorde Community Breakfast.  HRA’s strong focus on Trans issues and significance to Stonewall will be carried through in the theme of the brunch, which will include a speaker’s panel featuring Tracee McDaniel and Cheryl Courtney Evans.  This event is free, but there is a suggested donation of $5.  All donations collected will go to the planning committees for the 2010 TDOR event and the 2011 Rustin-Lorde Breakfast.

Immediately following the Brunch, Atlanta Pride will host the “Be Visible, Make a Statement” Rally & Community Photo Shoot at the State Capitol.  Community members are encourage to come and make their own statement about what is important to them through creative means.

Sheffield explained, “If we look at where the movement has taken us since Stonewall, we can see the growth of a variety of causes championed by the Queer community.  The causes are as rich and diverse as the community itself.  This rally is an opportunity for individuals to be seen and make their own statement, maybe by holding a sign in support of marriage equality, maybe by showing up in military apparel, or maybe by wearing a “Do I look illegal?” shirt.  There are endless possibilities.”

Atlanta Pride Photographers and Media Partners will be on hand to take numerous pictures of people “making their statements.”  These images will then by used by a group of local artists to create a community art project to be displayed at the 2010 Atlanta Pride Festival.  Photographers or Artists that are interested in taking part in this project should contact JP Sheffield in the Atlanta Pride office.

The current Atlanta Pride Stonewall Week Calendar includes the following events:

06/19/10:  The East Point Possums Show, 8pm-11pm
  • Annual drag show benefiting the Atlanta Pride Committee & the Atlanta Lesbian Health Initiative
  • Downtown East Point, On the Commons across from City Hall
  • FREE – Donations welcome & appreciated
For more info: www.eastpointpossums.com
Contact: East Point Possums, Rick Westbrook – 404-226-6843 or gagayactivist@yahoo.com

06/23/10:  Out and OutLoud: Stories of Love and Community, 7pm-9pm
  • Hosted by WABE’s John Lemley, featuring StoryCorps stories recorded by LGBTQ individuals.
  • Radial Café, 1530 Dekalb Avenue NE, Atlanta
  • FREE
For more info: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120948321273400
Contact:  StoryCorps, Amanda Plumb – 678-686-0388 or aplumb@storycorps.org
06/24/10:  Evening for Equality, 6:30pm
  • Annual Georgia Equality fundraiser featuring the Equality Awards & Silent Auction
  • Hilton Garden Inn, 275 Baker Street, Atlanta
  • Tickets start at $75 (on sale 5/26/10)
For more info: www.georgiaequality.org
Contact:  Georgia Equality, Melinda Morgan – 404-523-3070 ext 1 or Melinda@georgiaequality.org
06/25/10:  Out on Film Screening: Stonewall Uprising, tentative times 7pm & 9pm
  • Told by patrons, reporters and the cop who led the raid, the film recalls the social and political climate surrounding the events of the Stonewall Riots.
  • Midtown Art Cinema, 931 Monroe Drive, Atlanta
  • Ticket price TBA
For more info: www.outonfilm.org
For more info on film: http://firstrunfeatures.com/stonewalluprising.html
Contact:  Out on Film, Jim Farmer – 678-237-7206 or jim.farmer@outonfilm.org
06/26/10:  Sylvia Rivera Stonewall Community Brunch, 11:45am-1:45pm
  • Community gathering co-produced by Juxtaposed Center for Transformation, Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth (TILTT), and Atlanta Pride
  • Event will highlight the Transgender community’s involvement Stonewall Riots and draw particular attention to those Trans people of color that were at the forefront of the movement.
  • Central Presbyterian Church, 201 Washington Street SW, Atlanta
  • FREE – $5 suggested donation
  • Donations collected will be go to the planning committees for the 2010 Trans Day of Remembrance and 2011 Rustin/ Lorde Community Breakfast
For more info: www.atlantapride.org
Contact:  Atlanta Pride, JP Sheffield – 770-491-8633 or jsheffield@atlantapride.org
06/26/10:  “Be Visible, Make a Statement” Rally & Community Photo Shoot, 2pm-3:30pm
  • Rally at the State Capitol featuring speakers and an opportunity for members of the community to “make a statement” creatively
  • Pride Photographers & Media Partners will be on hand to take pictures of attendees, which will then be passed along to local artist to create a community art project to be displayed at the 2010 Atlanta Pride Festival
  • State Capitol, 100 Washington Street SW, Atlanta
  • FREE – patrons are encouraged to bring promoting their own “statement”
For more info: www.atlantapride.org
Contact: Atlanta Pride, JP Sheffield – 770-491-8633 or jsheffield@atlantapride.org

####


The Atlanta Pride Festival, organized by the non-profit Atlanta Pride Committee, promotes unity, visibility and self-esteem among lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender persons. The 2010 celebration opens Oct. 9 in Piedmont Park.  Atlanta Pride Sponsors include Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Bud Light, Georgia Aquarium, Grady Medical and many others.