Tim Sally Papers

Born and raised in Rochester, Tim Sally was active in the 1970s and 1980s with Dignity-Integrity, and was a co-founding member of PFLAG/Rochester and AIDS/ Rochester. In 1983 he moved to San Francisco to work for AIDS organizations and since 1985, under the pseudonym of Tim Hammond, he has researched circumcision customs and advocated for protecting childrens genital autonomy. He conducted two groundbreaking surveys of long-term harm to men from infant circumcision, co-founded the National Organization of Restoring Men, and produced Whose Body, Whose Rights? (a PBS documentary on circumcision), and co-founded the Childrens Health and Human Rights Partnership of Canada, as well as an activist group in Palm Springs, California, where he now lives.

Tim Hammond 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).

From 2000 to 2007, Tim along with his long-time domestic partner Bernhard Vey advocated for the passage of the Permanent Partners Immigration Act (later renamed the Uniting American Families Act) to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1954 to allow Americans to sponsor their foreign-born same-sex partners for immigration benefits.

1976-1983 - Member of Dignity-Integrity/Rochester, New York, 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 - 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.

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-founded 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.

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.

1995 - Produced Whose Body, Whose Rights? A PBS documentary.

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.

2012 - Co-founded the Childrens Health and Human Rights Partnership of Canada 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.

2013 - Interviewed in the documentary Shoulders to Stand On: The LGBT History of Rochester (NY), which traces that history from the 1940s to the 2010s. 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.

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.

2016 - Presented findings from the 2011 Global Survey of Circumcision Harm (GSCH) at the 2016 International Conference on Men's Issues in London, England. 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.

2017 - 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.

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

2020 - Author, A cut by any other name: a deep-dive interview with ethicist Brian D. Earp. Published two-part interview with ethicist Brian D. Earp discussing the intersectionality of genital autonomy for girls/boys/intersex children and the LGBTQI movement. Empty Closet (May 2020.

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

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.

2023 - Lead author, Foreskin restorers: insights into motivations, successes, challenges, and experiences with medical and mental health professionals An abridged summary of key findings. International Journal of Impotence Research. Vol. 35, no. 3, pp 1-14.