The 2026 Intact Global Conference took place on April 17-19, 2026 in downtown Los Angeles. This was a truly incredible, breathtaking event that excited and enlightened us all. The estimated 110 attendees were very diverse in almost every meaningful sense. Intact Global did a fantastic organizational job in a lovely space they are leasing.
My talk, entitled, “Circumcision Gender Equity,” was received with great attention and with flatteringly enthusiastic applause. I discussed the growing world recognition in legal cases and commentaries (amidst resistance which I also summarized) to protecting all children’s genital and bodily autonomy. I reviewed in detail the two cases decided sixteen years apart by the same judge, one relating to FGM and the other to MGM. Several African commentators have agreed that the current world approach of opposing FGM and tolerating MGM cannot continue and shows a developed world bias to tolerate the practice “we” perform and outlaw the others. (Previously we posted to this list a longer abstract of my talk that can be accessed here.)
At one point there were technical difficulties and I was asked to briefly pause my presentation. With nothing better to do, I started dancing on stage and gave everyone a welcome break from the serious topics the conference covered. (In case anyone doubts we are telling the truth about this, we are including several video stills captured and forwarded to us by Trina Mason.)
In order to get a long, detailed report with numerous photos and several first-hand reports out about this highly successful and landmark event as soon as possible, we are planning to put out a special issue of the ARC Newsletter as soon as we can prepare it, hopefully in May. Feature articles are planned featuring several fresh new faces in intactivism.
Steven Svoboda
Attorneys for the Rights of the Child