On Thursday, July 19, 2012, members of Bay Area Intactivists gathered in front of the German Consulate General in San Francisco to demonstrate support for Germany restricting circumcision to consenting adults. A Cologne court, ruling in the case of a Muslim boy who suffered severe complications following his circumcision, said that circumcision performed on a minor without medical indication violates that individual’s fundamental right to bodily integrity.

Routine infant circumcision is not recommended by any national medical organization in the world nor is it commonly practiced outside the United States. In 2011, human rights advocates gathered more than 12,000 signatures from San Francisco voters in support of the San Francisco Male Genital Mutilation Bill to restrict circumcision to consenting adults. Religious and political leaders succeeded in having the initiative removed from the ballot denying voters their voice.