Andrew Gross May 1, 2018
Kenneth Hopkins is a pathological liar.
A pathological liar is someone who exhibits habitual lying, typically by telling stories that present himself as the hero or victim. The pathological liar fibs so often that it becomes second nature. The founder of the Blood Stained Men who calls himself “Brother K” has repeatedly lied about himself, about circumcision, and about other people - including me.
For instance, we've documented how Hopkins has asked parents to post or send photos of their young sons’ genitals. Rather than take responsibility and explain himself, he denied making his perverted requests and accused us of photo-shopping his comments. In 2015 on a satellite radio talk how, Hopkins responded to a caller’s accusations by falsely claiming that that he’s never referred to circumcision as rape or mutilation. He told the caller that members of his group could not have called her a “baby rapist” or “mutilator” because his group doesn’t have members. [1] And yet last year he bragged to a North Dakota newspaper that his group has more than 15,000 members. [2]
On Monday Hopkins increased his level of deceit exponentially. He accused a friend and me of trying to disrupt his anti-circumcision protest outside a medical conference in Austin, Texas. The post was replete with fabrication and projection.
I've never threatened Kenneth Hopkins or his family. In November 2014 I made a donation in his honor to the American Academy of Pediatrics. He retaliated by posting my name and residential home address on his page.
My opposition to the intactivist movement is based on the malicious harassment of parents, doctors, and circumcised men, as well as the spreading of hysteria and false information about circumcision. The man who calls me "obsessed" leads 60 anti-circumcision protests each year and publishes up to 50 Facebook posts a day about circumcision. By comparison Circumcision Choice has held one protest a year, and I publish perhaps one circumcision-related post in a year on my own page. I leave it to readers to decide which one of us is obsessed.
At Circumcision Choice, we oppose all genital mutilation. If intactivists actually cared about girls they would work with us to end bona fide genital mutilation right here in the United States. But Hopkins and his intactivist minions don’t give a damn about the more than 500,000 girls in the U.S. who are at risk for FGM.
Melanie Lindwall Schaab, an admin at Circumcision Facts and Science, joined me in Austin to support the American Congress of Obstetricians & Gynecologists outside their annual meeting. We were there because the ACOG heroes deserve praise for devoting their careers to the advancement of women's health - not verbal abuse.
When Melanie and I arrived outside the convention center on Sunday morning, the intactivists had spread themselves along 4th Street on the north side of the convention center. Once word spread of our presence, they quickly congregated at our corner. We were on one side of the entrance and most of them were on the other side.
Hopkins immediately came over and growled that we were trying to disrupt their protest and demanded that we leave. I explained that we had a constitutional right to share our message on a public sidewalk. After growling several more times, he strode over and stood directly in front of me with his back to me. He used his sign to block my Google sign in a pathetic attempt to prevent the ACOG members from viewing my sign. I quickly moved to the right, whereupon he moved to again block me. This 70 year-old man continued to act in a childish manner for several minutes.
When he got frustrated with that game, Hopkins tried another maneuver. He started to walk away, and then suddenly he spun around and strode right past me, brushing by me while loudly saying, “Excuse me!” He was trying to initiate physical contact, apparently with the expectation that I would respond - so that he could claim that I was assaulting him. He continued to bark at us throughout the day. This behavior was in stark contrast to his reactions in San Francisco in 2016 and Chicago in 2017, in which he tried to ignore us.
Finally a police officer who was working security at the convention appeared. I explained the situation to the officer. Then Hopkins went up and told him that we were troublemakers who followed them around the country and that we were trying to disrupt their protest. The officer informed him that we have a right to be there.
In his post Hopkins claims that Melanie asked me what she should tell the doctors who passed us as the entered or exited the convention center. Anyone who has any knowledge of my background and Melanie’s background would find the idea laughably absurd that she would ask me for advice on speaking with medical professionals.
Dozens of Ob-Gyns came out to tell us how deeply appreciative they were to see us. We had insightful conversations with several of them. (Meanwhile the intactivists were yelling at the doctors that they were talking to “child mutilators” and “baby rapists” and “circumfetishists.”) Many ACOG members took photos of our signs, several posing with us. They even brought us bottles of cold water, to help us handle the 84F/29C heat. We distributed more than a hundred Circumcision Choice postcards.
Late in the morning, upon learning that one of the doctors was also a mohel, Hopkins ranted about the idea that a doctor can be a mohel. So I asked him "What's wrong with a doctor being a mohel? Are you biased against Jews? Are you saying that Jews shouldn't be doctors?" He responded by announcing to everyone within earshot that I had brought religion into the debate. Little did he realize that I was prepared expose his fixation on religion.
At noon Melanie and I walked a couple of blocks to a Tex-Mex restaurant for lunch and an air-conditioned break from the sun. After lunch Hopkins tried to taunt me again, so I produced a paper in which I had copied several of his posts from the previous week in which he complained that Jews were influencing circumcision policies in the U.S. and abroad. One of the posts featured a photo of the 2012 AAP Task Force chair with a newspaper quote indicating that a rabbi had officiated at her wedding.
I said that it was ironic that he accused me of bringing religion into the discussion, and I started to read the screen shots. He seemed off balance, but then responded by accusing me of being so obsessed with him that I memorized his posts. I held up the paper to show that I had copied his posts; I hadn’t memorized them. And I reminded him that he was the one accusing Jews of religious bias, and that he had published these posts in just the past several days. He kept repeating that I was memorizing his posts, while I continued to ask if he was biased against Jews and if Jews shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion on circumcision.
Leaving the convention center, far from being dejected I felt a sense of euphoria and sincere accomplishment. It’s an amazing feeling to stand up to these freaks face-to-face. I’m a shy person and I hate confrontations, but Melanie and I stood up to 18 of them, and we never backed down. The best part was seeing the joy and gratitude on the faces of the doctors, who are the real heroes.
Kenneth Hopkins may have changed his name, but he can't shed his character. He may trust that his cult followers will blindly accept whatever he tells them. But reasonable people will recognize the truth. Kathleen is a local resident who has engaged me in Facebook debates on various political topics. We had never before met, but she stopped by on Sunday to welcome us to Austin and to offer us lunch. And with that act of kindness, she experienced first-hand the true nature of intactivism. [3]
[1] The Sam Roberts Show; SiriusXM Radio channel 103; October 5, 2015 (9:00 - 12:16) [2] Grady McGregor, “Protesters go for 'shock treatment' in startling stop in Dickinson against circumcision”; The Dickinson Press; August 3, 2017. "Brother K joined the first circumcision protest outside an AAP conference in New Orleans and started the Facebook group Bloodstained Men And Their Friends. The group has now grown to over 15,000 members..."
[3] Kathleen published her post at 2:31 PM Central Time, which corresponds to 12:31 PM Pacific Time.