Tennessee Bans Circumcision, Communion, Confirmation Before 18, (jk)

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We all know how awful Tennessee has been portrayed in the light of intelligence and equality recently. The coverage of Tennessee banning drag queen performance and post like ‘Tennessee Bans Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Youth‘ makes you wonder what children are Tennessee Lawmakers trying to protect? There are some simple steps that could be taken by Tennessee Lawmakers to gain back some of the state’s ground in equal treatment of its citizens in order for it to be considered a fair and righteous state. It should be about treating all citizens the same way. We need to call for Tennessee Lawmakers to protect ALL of its children in the same way, protect all children from “mutilation” and indoctrination.

Here is what should happen if Tennessee Lawmakers decided to go down the “Protect All Children The Same Invasive Way” – of course, this post is an opinion piece. 

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If Tennessee Lawmakers feel that parents are allowing their children or even making the decisions for the children to mutilate their bodies through reassignment surgery and medications, why aren’t Tennessee Lawmakers going after parents that are circumcising their children? Most Western nations do not feel that female circumcision should occur and the numbers are very low in the US. Many in the US have never heard of it or are baffled, astonished, and grossed out by having knowledge of female circumcision. But for males, we here in the United States look the other way when parents decide to violate and mutilate their boys by allowing circumcision to occur. Shouldn’t Tennessee step in and say this mutilation is incorrect and parents do not know what is right for their children when making this decision when the children can’t even speak for themselves let alone feed themselves let alone walk. But Tennessee Lawmakers have the ability to attack parents that have had very lengthy discussions and conversations with their children about gender, sexuality, being transgender, what the next steps should be. The state of Tennessee feels they know better than families that have discussed what options exist. The state of Tennessee knows that parents should not “mutilate” their children. But when it comes to circumcision, a ridiculous American fable where parents are allowed to implement this archaic “hygiene-forward” practice, shouldn’t the state as well step in? Shouldn’t the state of Tennessee know better than the parents that this type of mutilation should not occur for these children too? Especially these ones that cannot think, talk, walk, discuss what is going to happen to them? Or … to flip the anti-woke book into the air even further, maybe Tennessee should make the rule that ALL MALES need to be circumcised because of hygiene concerns. Lob all the foreskins off in Tennessee! ‘Merika! I am sure Tennessee Lawmakers will make the correct decision about all the foreskins in Tennessee moving forward.

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On a personal note – number 1.  I had a niece, now nephew, that transitioned about two years ago. Now Alex, this individual is truly in an individual. Before transitioning, they were reserved, withdrawn, secluded, a shell of an individual. After starting the transition, which I know was a very long thought-out process that involved both parents, this individual, my new nephew, speaks, interacts, and has a personality that we all want to know more about. The transition was truly a transition left and right and up and down in every which direction. I’m so happy and grateful that those conversations happened, that this family figure it out together what needed to happen for this person to finally be alive, to become themselves, to be human. I can’t imagine the government coming in and saying, “Sorry family, you don’t know what to do with your own child, you cannot do this with your own child, you should not be able to do this with your own child because we made a law in some room hundreds of miles away without even knowing what goes on daily in your home.” The audacity, the ignorance, the inability to put yourselves in someone else’s shoes and to treat others as human in a humane way does not exist in the Tennessee Congresss.

Making life decisions and making life choices apparently is not something that parents and children can do in Tennessee when a child is under the age of 18. Taking this information and thinking back to my own childhood and being raised Roman Catholic, what the hell happened? I went through the Sacrament of Communion, apparently eating the body of this dead man and I went through the Sacrament of Confirmation, stating that this is my religion for the rest of my life and I will follow these mandates and this book and practice the beliefs that this church has decided is right for all. How can a family do that? How can a family make these decisions for these children and allow them to go down this path of believing in this book of fairy tales that was thrown together from multiple other pagan religions?

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Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

On a personal note – number 2. I’m far from religious now and I really never was. Even being brought to the church every single Sunday, going to Sunday school every single Sunday, saying grace at the table every single evening meal, I know religion was not for me. I also knew I was gay at the age of 7 in the 3rd grade. Religion was even more not for me after I studied and eventually taught eastern and western civilization as a history teacher and discussed multiple religions of the world with my students. But it is what my family did, it is what we went through weekly, daily. No, my parents did not have a cross in every room or bibles on display in the house, but they just practice humanity, caring, love, respect. I’m grateful that my parents are wonderful human beings and are accepting of me being their gay son, grateful that they accept their transgender grandson. They’re not the Bible thumping Catholics that we are all afraid of and do not wish to deal with. But under their roof, I was lead down the path the religion lays out for its youth. A path that is expected, that is mandated. I was groomed to follow this path of Confirmation and Communion. There was no real choice for me. My parents made this decision for me. I knew it was not the way I desired to go, but there was no alternative. I’ll say again, I was groomed to go into the church as that was my parents’ decision for me.

But if I was able to wait until I was 18 to go through the Sacraments of Confirmation and Communion, I would not. As an educated person, knowing the social construct of religion for what it is, a choice to follow, a smattering of 2 to 3 to 4 to 5,000 years of different teachings and fables humans passed on, something to groom followers into believing and practicing, it was a choice that did not fit well with something I did not choose, me being gay.

So Tennessee Lawmakers, if you’re ready to show that you can practice equality and treat all of Tennessee’s children equal, protecting them against grooming, against “mutilation”, against the inability of parents to make life decisions with their children, it is time to put an end to Circumcision, Confirmation, and Communion until the age of 18.


This post is the sole opinion of this writer and does not reflect the views of Instinct Magazine or other writers. 

3 thoughts on “Tennessee Bans Circumcision, Communion, Confirmation Before 18, (jk)”

  1. Thank God there is no such thing as a circumcised Christian (Gal 5:2-4) and circumcision is a violation of Catholic Moral Law (CCC #2297). Shouldn’t circumcision be a felony in Tennessee, anyway (Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-505)?

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  2. It’s illegal to cut off a girl’s prepuce, or to make any incision on a girl’s genitals, even if no tissue is removed. Even a pinprick is banned. Why don’t boys get the same protection? Except in very rare medical circumstances, everyone should be able to decide for themselves whether or not they want parts of their genitals cut off. It’s *their* body.

    Three national medical organizations (Iceland, Sweden and Germany) have called for elective infant male circumcision to be *banned*, and two others (Denmark and the Netherlands) have said they’d support a ban if they didn’t think it would drive the practice underground.

    “Routine” circumcision *is* banned in public hospitals in Australia (almost all the men responsible for this policy will be circumcised themselves, as the male circumcision rate in Australia in 1950 was about 90%).

    If it weren’t a religious thing, elective circumcision of boys would have been banned in lots of countries decades ago, same as it was for girls.

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