Did Eliyhau Ungar-Sargon Defame The Genital Autonomy Symposia By Falsely Claiming Foreskin Man Creator Spoke At Conference?
Matthew Hess did not speak at the symposium.
In his article “How to Deradicalize a Movement” Bruchim founder Eliyhau Ungar-Sargon claims that organizers of 2014 International Symposium on Genital Autonomy and Children's Rights “gave a speaking spot to Matthew Hess to discuss his comics, despite the strong objections of some Jewish intactivists.”
Matthew Hess did not speak at the symposium. Hess’s name is not mentioned anywhere on the 2014 Symposia program. All attendees who responded to Conte News have no recollection of him speaking at the event.
Matthew Hess is the author of “Foreskin Man,” an anti-circumcision superhero comic. The character "Monster Mohel" from "Foreskin Man" was criticized as antisemitic during the San Francisco Male Genital Mutilation Bill (SF MGM Bill), which aimed to make infant circumcision illegal in San Francisco. Hess was also the author of the MGM Bill.
Some activists who responded to Conte News suggested there was a behind the scenes discussion among conference organizers as to whether or not to include Hess, but all confirm that he did not speak at the conference. Ungar-Sargon’s comments could be interpreted be referring to an “invitation to speak” that was either rejected or later retracted, rather than an actual speech. However, Conte News has been unable to confirm any details regarding this rumored behind the scenes conflict.
Ungar-Sargon’s article includes multiple disputed claims, including that an intactivist leader in a mixed-race marriage is actually a “racial separatist,” that Intact America founder Georganne Chapin’s speech at the 2014 conference invited antisemitism into the movement, and that the intactivist movement is full of “white, aggrieved men” who “have always been the bull’s eye for fascists.”
Ungar-Sargon states that this non-existent speech by Matthew Hess was one of the events that began a “process of radicalization” that led him to publicly attack the intactivist movement.
Organizers for the 2014 International Symposium on Genital Autonomy and Children's Rights did not respond to requests for comment.
Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon was invited to speak at the latest Intact 2022 event, despite saying that the organizers were responsible for antisemitism in the movement.