Tim Hammond - Curriculum Vitae

Tim Hammond (born Tim Sally) is a grassroots human rights activist who has been involved in numerous social change movements. As a teenager conscientiously opposed to fighting in Vietnam, he wrote copious letters to Congress urging an immediate end to the war.

Tim has been committed to Congressional passage of the U.S. Peace Tax Fund Bill, which would re-direct the military portion of one's taxes (currently 50% of every dollar spent by the U.S. government) toward life-sustaining human services. He was active in raising public consciousness about women's rights and the need for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

In 1987 Tim was among hundreds of men and women arrested on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to protest its decision to uphold states' rights to legislate private sexual behavior among consenting adults in their own home (a decision the Court ultimately reversed in 2003).

He was a member of the Children's Rights Network of Amnesty International/USA and a member of the National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization (now MaleSurvivor.org).

Human Rights Activist - Genital Autonomy Pioneer - Organizer - Filmmaker - Researcher - Writer - Archivist

Why the name change? In the late 1980s, when Tim (under his birth name) began publicly denouncing infant male circumcision as a human rights violation, those who vehemently disagreed would search for his phone number and address in the San Francisco telephone book (remember those?). They constantly phoned and wrote to harass him with unfounded charges that he was "antisemitic" or a "pervert" for being "interested in little boys' penises." Tim adopted the surname of his first partner to shield his personal life from such reactionaries.

1976 to 1983:
Member of Dignity-Integrity/Rochester (NY), a ministry to local Catholic and Episcopal gays, lesbians, their families and friends. He served in various volunteer capacities ranging from administrative assistant, newsletter editor, fundraiser, hotline volunteer and special events coordinator.

1979:
Joined an estimated 200,000 participants at the National March on Washington for Lesbian & Gay Rights.

1980:
Interviewed on 'AM Rochester' by television host Matt Rinaldi, along with Sue Cowell, to discuss challenges facing Rochester's lesbian and gay community.

Interviewed by Rochester radio stations about gays and the church (WPXY on 8-18-80 and WEZO on 09-21-80).

1981:
Co-Founder of Families & Friends of Gays/Rochester, the local chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).

1982:
Organizer of the first annual Day of Remembrance of gay/lesbian victims of the Holocaust in Rochester (NY).

1983:
Co-Founder of AIDS/Rochester, a service agency providing AIDS education and support services.

Founding task force member of CREATE:Justice, a project of the Presbytery of the Genesee Valley to promote social justice issues affecting lesbians and gay men.

Recipient of the Vinnie Cup, awarded annually by the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley for outstanding service to the Rochester (NY) lesbian and gay community.

1984-1987:
Administrative Assistant of the AIDS Health Project, an agency of the University of California/San Francisco providing psychosocial support to those with AIDS and at-risk of infection.

1987:
Joined an estimated 500,000 participants at the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights; volunteered as a quilt handler at the Inaugural Display of the Names Project AIDS Quilt on the Washington Mall; and was arrested with over 600 others in an act of civil disobedience by about 2,000 people on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to protest its 1986 ruling on a Georgia anti-sodomy law (Bowers v. Hardwick).

1989:
Co-founder of the National Organization of Restoring Men (NORM), an international network of groups offering moral and technical support to men seeking foreskin restoration.

1992:
Founder of the National Organization to Halt the Abuse and Routine Mutilation of Males (NOHARMM), a non-violent, educational and direct-action network of men working together to end routine infant circumcision through a model of education and empowerment of other men.

Worked closely with author Hanny Lightfoot Klein (Prisoners of Ritual, PDF) and philanthropist Laurance S. Rockefeller to secure funding for various educational projects to protect girls and boys from genital cutting customs.

1993:
Survey Coordinator of Awakenings: A Preliminary Poll of Circumcised Men, an ongoing grassroots investigation of the long-term adverse physical, sexual and psychological outcomes to men of infant circumcision. Full Report PDF | Symposium Paper 1997 | BJU International article 1999

1993:
Attended the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights while wearing NOHARMM t-shirts and sweatshirts to heighten visibility of children's genital autonomy.

1994:
Interviewed by Jean Feraca on Wisconsin Public Radio about NOHARMM's "Preliminary Poll of Men Circumcised in Infancy or Childhood."

Presenter of Revealing the Harm, Healing the Wounds: Surveying Long-Term Effects of Infant Circumcision at the Third International Symposium on Circumcision [Washington, DC].

Recipient at the Third International Symposium on Circumcision of the Human Rights Award for creating invaluable educational tools and a national support nework for men working against infant circumcision.

1995:
Executive Producer of Whose Body, Whose Rights?, a 56-minute social issue documentary examining the effects of childhood sexual mutilation on men's lives, as well as the positive steps men are taking to heal themselves, to educate others, and to guarantee fundamental human rights of body ownership and self-determination for future generations of children. Accepted into the U.S. Library of Congress and the American Archives of Public Broadcasting.

Co-presenter of Recognizing and Healing the Wounds of Sexual Mutilation at the Sixth Interdisciplinary Conference on Male Sexual Victimization, hosted by the National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization, Columbus, OH in October, 1995.

1996:
Ongoing member of a team of Male Urological Teaching Associates, instructing medical students at the University of California/San Francisco School of Medicine and Stanford University School of Medicine the importance of, and proper techniques for, Male Breast and Pelvic Examination of their future patients.

Presenter of updated findings from Awakenings, as well as the European premier of Whose Body, Whose Rights?, at the Fourth International Symposium on Sexual Mutilations (Lausanne, Switzerland).

Presenter, Routine Circumcision of Male Minors: Human Rights Implications, Second International Conference on Health & Human Rights, Harvard University, 4 October 1996.

1997:
Graduate of Sex Educator Training at San Francisco Sex Information (SFSI), which has trained men and women for the past 25 years to become qualified sex educators for SFSI's nationwide sex information hotline.

Co-Presenter, Male Sexual Mutilation: Communities of Men Reveal the Harm and Heal the Wounds, Seventh Interdisciplinary Conference on Male Sexual Victimization, National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization, JFK University/Orinda, CA in September, 1997.

1998:
Co-Presenter, Long-Term Effects of Circumcision, West Coast Retreat of the National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization. September, 1998.

Organizer of poster presentation on male and female genital mutilation at the Western Regional Meeting of Amnesty International, San Francisco. March, 1998. Worked with AI Bermuda Section to write a 1997report and a 1998 report on male genital mutilation submitted to Amnesty International "Bodily Integrity for Both." The 1997 report included a letter of endorsement from the London Black Women's Health Action Project condemning male genital mutilation. " History of attempts from 1981 to 2007 to get Amnesty International to recognize genital cutting as a human rights issue (PDF with active hyperlinks to supporting documents).

1999:
Author, A Preliminary Poll of Men Circumcised in Infancy or Childhood. British Journal of Urology International (83, Suppl. 1) January 1999, pp. 85-92

2000:
Co-authored with Ron Goldman the section titled "Male Genital Mutilation" in the chapter titled "Genital Surgery on Children Below the Age of Consent" in the textbook Psychological Perspectives on Human Sexuality published by Barry University. Read

Received acknowledgement from David L. Gollaher, author of Circumcision: A History of the World's Most Controversial Surgery, quoted and discussed [p.180]. Amazon.com

2012:
Co-founded the Children's Health & Human Rights Partnership (CHHRP) with Kira Antinuk, BsN, Christopher Guest, M.D. and David Saving. CHHRP is Canada's first non-profit organization to deal exclusively with genital cutting of male, female and intersex children.

2012:
Open letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Bundestag discussing the potential global effect of pending circumcision legislation in Germany. Video

2012:
Presented findings from the 2011 Global Survey of Circumcision Harm (GSCH) at the 12th International Symposium on Genital Autonomy and Children's Rights in Helsinki, Finland. The Global Survey of Circumcision Harm (GSCH) is an online survey of more than 1,000 men who answered an extensive questionnaire and uploaded photographic evidence and video testimony documenting the long-term adverse physical, sexual, self-esteem and psychological consequences from circumcisions imposed on them at a time when they could understand or consent. The GSCH exposes the long-term circumcision harm to men that the medical community still refuses to investigate.

2013:
Interviewed in the documentary Shoulders to Stand On: The LGBT History of Rochester (NY), which traces that history from the 1940s to the present. Tim appears in Chapter 12: Rochester Responds to AIDS.

Open letter to the Canadian Paediatric Society about the Global Survey of Circumcision Harm (GSCH) findings of long-term adverse consequences to men from infant circumcision. Video

2014:
Interview included in the chapter titled 'His Body, His Choice' in the book 'Lost' Causes: Agenda Vetting in Global Issue Networks and the Shaping of Human Security.

2015:
Presented findings from the 2011 Global Survey of Circumcision Harm (GSCH) at the Symposium on Genital Autonomy: Myths and Multiple Standards in Frankfurt, Germany. Vimeo and YouTube

2016:
Presented findings from the 2011 Global Survey of Circumcision Harm (GSCH) at the 2016 International Conference on Men's Issues in London, England. Watch video of presentation on Vimeo and YouTube View post-conference Interview#1 and Interview#2

Convenor of the International NGO Coalition on Genital Autonomy, produced a core report and country-specific supplementary reports to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child regarding each country's compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child with regard to the bodily integrity of boys. 2019 video update | INGOCGA website | News release about issuance of the core report

2017:
Findings from the 2011 Global Survey of Circumcision Harm were formally published. Lead author, Long-term adverse outcomes from neonatal circumcision reported in a survey of 1,008 men: an overview of health and human rights implications. International Journal of Human Rights March 2017, 21(02), pp. 189-218.

Guest of LA Talk Radio's 'Sheena Metal Experience' (April 24). Interview begins at 1:08:00.

"No place for personal sexual tastes in struggle for genital autonomy". Empty Closet newspaper (September) Opinion

Interviewed by Certified Sex Therapist Dan Rosen (Rochester, NY) about circumcision harm. Video Part 1 | Video Part 2

2018:
Recipient of the Anthony Mascioli Rainbow Dialogues Humanities Archival Recognition for documenting Rocheser (NY) LGBTQ history.

2020:
Published two-part interview with ethicist Brian D. Earp discussing the intersectionality of genital autonomy for girls/boys/intersex children and the LGBTQI movement. Part One (May) | Part Two (Jun) | Combined (May and Jun)

With the assistance of LGBTQ+ archivist Evelyn Bailey, the Tim Sally LGBTQ+ Archives: Gay Rights & Intactivism Collection was established at the Rochester (NY) Public Library. Synopsis | RPL website (see pages 17-20)

Established the Tim Hammond Genital Autonomy Advocacy Archives, part of the Special Collection section at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. [Materials donated in 2022; Finding Aid made available online in 2024; see linked entry below]

2021:
Named Honorary Member of the Brussels Collaboration on Bodily Integrity. Read

Book review of 'Circumcision Scar' published in JOPPPAH, the journal of the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health. PDF

Presented preliminary findings from "Foreskin Restorers: Insights into Motivations, Successes, Challenges and Experiences with Medical and Mental Health Professionals" as a video poster presentation at the 25th Congress of the World Association for Sexual Health. Formal findings to be published in 2022. Video Poster Presentation | Post-Conference Video Interview

2022:
Founder and president of the Genital Autonomy Legal Defense and Education Fund to organize and train legal professionals to become more successful with impact litigation to secure the rights of children, particulary boys in the U.S., to bodily integrity and genital autonomy. GALDEF website

Presented an introduction to GALDEF at the 16th International Conference on Child Genital Cutting sponsored by Intact America (Aug 27, 28 - Atlanta, GA). GALDEF Power Point

2023:

Findings from the 2021 'landmark survey' of almost 1800 foreskin restorers from 60 nations were published in the International Journal of Impotence Research. "Foreskin restorers: insights into motivations, successes, challenges, and experiences with medical and mental health professionals – An abridged summary of key findings." View

2024:

Tim Hammond Genital Autonomy Advocacy Archives established at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. The Finding Aid lists decades of materials documenting the history of Hammond's involvement with social change movements, ranging from historical photographs, audio recordings, videos, correspondence, conference papers, and media interviews to educational brochures, t-shirts, buttons, bumper decals and protest signs from 1971 to 2023, with new contributions planned on an annual basis. Materials will be available to researchers and historians through in-person visits, with online access from anywhere in the world expected to be available during Summer 2024. Finding Aid

2025:

Tim Hammond and GALDEF create 3-video series about penile anatomy, circumcision harm and therapeutic approaches for clinicians at World Association for Sexual Health YouTube

Video interview listing:

1980: Interviewed on 'AM Rochester' by television host Matt Rinaldi, along with Sue Cowell, to discuss challenges facing Rochester's lesbian and gay community. Video

2012: Open letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Bundestag on pending circumcision legislation in Germany. Video

2013: Open letter to the Canadian Paediatric Society about the Global Survey of Circumcision Harm findings of long-term adverse consequences to men from infant circumcision. Video

2015: Presentation of findings from the Global Survey of Circumcision Harm at the Genital Autonomy conference in Frankfurt, Germany. Vimeo and YouTube

2016: Presentation of findings from the Global Survey of Circumcision Harm at the International Conference on Men's Issues in London, England. View on YouTube (with post-conference interview).