The Blaze
New passport questionnaire demands to know if you’ve been circumcised
Libertarian website Reason.org calls the new form “disturbing,“ and in its headline covering the story further describes it as ”impossible to answer“ and ”creepy.“ Author Radley Balko theorizes it could be a ”tool to allow the State Department to turn down a passport when they can’t find a more legitimate reason.”
And it’s not just conservative sites that are raising alarm. The uber-liberal Village Voice mocks the form’s question asking if the applicant was circumcised (yes, that’s a real question).
According to the document, the answering the questionnaire is “voluntary,“ ”but failure to provide the information requested may result in processing delays or the denial of your U.S. passport application.”
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If only Obama would fill that thing out, we might actually learn something about him.
WoosterOh on April 26, 2011 at 11:56 PM
Answer: They tried and tried but no knife was strong enough.
You don’t answer insane questions seriously.
profitsbeard on April 26, 2011 at 11:58 PM
This is for people who can’t produce a birth certificate, a basic document. If we are serious about ferreting out fraud, who cares? It’s not like they’re asking you to attach a photo of the circumcision.
byepartisan on April 26, 2011 at 11:58 PM
Is this a trick question for Muslim women?
profitsbeard on April 26, 2011 at 11:58 PM
He just might have to.
Mark1971 on April 26, 2011 at 11:58 PM
COME FIND OUT
blatantblue on April 26, 2011 at 11:59 PM
Do they ask women if they are circumcised too?
Mark1971 on April 27, 2011 at 12:00 AM
Sounds as dumb as the census.
Schadenfreude on April 27, 2011 at 12:01 AM
Why not just run applicants through a full-body scanner at the application counter?
Shy Guy on April 27, 2011 at 12:09 AM
I think we should take this to the opposite end and also ask who’s got hemorrhoids.
Shy Guy on April 27, 2011 at 12:12 AM
It’s a transitional process. In the future they’ll just download it from the chip in your head.
RBMN on April 27, 2011 at 12:22 AM
It makes me look bigger — if that were possible.
John the Libertarian on April 27, 2011 at 12:26 AM
And suddenly the State Department is a Seinfeld episode.
Emperor Norton on April 27, 2011 at 12:31 AM
No one in the United States has trouble producing a birth certificate. Even Obama has one. Many don’t like it, but apparently he has a passport.
So these “passport” questions aren’t meant for people born in the US.
But if these questions are for someone who can’t produce a birth certificate… someone born somewhere else… like south of our border… why are they applying for an American passport? I mean they had to have pretty tight documentation when they were naturalized, right? Naturalized, you know legally, requiring lots of paperwork from the native country… paper work, like a birth certificate, affidavit or some such…
This is a back room way for an undocumented person to become documented, without all that Naturalization messiness.
And really? They have a staff of people talking to whoever you claim your mother worked for when you were born… say 30 years ago, born in the United States of course, of course… and you can prove it because you have the name Fred Smith of Fred’s thrift store in Anytown USA, your mother worked there, really. Okay then, prove she didn’t with all that extra man power.
What could possibly be the incentive to make up a whole life in order to get an American passport?
petunia on April 27, 2011 at 12:33 AM
Opps, sorry I guess I’m channeling Glenn Beck tonight.
petunia on April 27, 2011 at 12:35 AM
I don’t have a problem with the question. If someone steals my passport and tries to use it, in the course of a “cavity search” if that person does not have the same … uhm … “status” that I do … that might be a pretty good indication that the person is an impostor.
It is an identifier like asking about tattoos, birthmarks, and other ways of identifying you.
crosspatch on April 27, 2011 at 12:48 AM
Best answer: don’t know.
OldEnglish on April 27, 2011 at 12:53 AM
Why would they need to look for a reason to deny your passport if there is no legal reason to do so?
jawkneemusic on April 27, 2011 at 12:57 AM
In fairness, it’s only to be used if you can’t produce a birth certificate. For the most part it’s attempting to recreate the birth certificate you can’t provide.
amerpundit on April 27, 2011 at 12:58 AM
LOL! What if you’re a woman? I only ask because when I was applying for mine a few weeks ago a woman was applying at the same time and couldn’t provide a birth certificate.
jawkneemusic on April 27, 2011 at 1:04 AM
Normally you don’t have to provide that kind of information unless you’re being booked at a precinct office somewhere.
gryphon202 on April 27, 2011 at 1:11 AM
“I’m not Jewish” (since that’s what it’s asking)
Jeddite on April 27, 2011 at 1:16 AM
I don’t think this is for physical identification purposes. I believe when Jews perform a circumcision a certificate is issued and this can be used to offer proof of where and when somebody was born.
Mark1971 on April 27, 2011 at 1:20 AM
But I’m a circumcised gentile. So that goes clear out the door.
gryphon202 on April 27, 2011 at 1:23 AM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1376715/Arizona-passes-birther-Donald-Trump-questions-Obamas-birth-certificate.html
The AZ “birther bill” would have accepted a circumcision certificate.
Mark1971 on April 27, 2011 at 1:26 AM
I bet Jan Brewer feels like a chump now.
MayBee on April 27, 2011 at 1:30 AM
That’s what I was thinking too.
forest on April 27, 2011 at 1:31 AM
Since female circumcision (while cruel) is also possible, the answer would generally be “no”.
amerpundit on April 27, 2011 at 1:35 AM
“Why don’t you ask the TSA and their Scan-My-Junk 3000? If that doesn’t provide conclusive evidence, then the enhanced pat-down would.”
Left Coast Right Mind on April 27, 2011 at 1:37 AM
I am sorry but I just had a hilarious thought. I can imagine a form written by a bureaucrat:
“Are you now or have you ever been circumcised?”
crosspatch on April 27, 2011 at 2:11 AM
“… or Muslim”
Never heard of such a thing. Born, circumcised and raised in the USA. I have a regular birth certificate – apparently more than what the President of the US has.
Our boys were all born, circumcised and raised in Israel. They have regular Israeli birth certificates. There is no mention or even place to mention whether circumcised or not.
I can see this being a possibility for men who have converted to Judaism, in order to assist in validating a proper conversion. But even that should be redundant because there would be a formal document issued by a Jewish Bet Din (court) confirming the conversion, which cannot occur without the circumcision being performed as an integral part of the procedure.
Anything else sounds just like some memento of the event and nothing more, suitable for framing.
Shy Guy on April 27, 2011 at 2:52 AM
Let’s ask Rabbi Tuckman.
Left Coast Right Mind on April 27, 2011 at 3:03 AM
Won’t be an issue in San Francisco. There is a ballot measure afoot that would ban circumcision in that city:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=87788
Circumcision ban a step closer to the ballot
crosspatch on April 27, 2011 at 3:09 AM
Part of me wonders if the reason they might ask this question of women, especially women of African descent, is to keep an eye out for US citizen families who want to take their daughters to the “motherland” to be circumcised. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if some naturalized Africans are doing that with their daughters. I actually met a women who had that experience.
NorthernCross on April 27, 2011 at 7:00 AM
The purpose of a US passport is to give you safe entrance back into the US, NOT to prevent you from travel.
In Cuba, leaving the country is punishable by death.
The only reason a passport should be denied is if you are facing criminal charges and are awaiting due process. Otherwise, this is a bad, bad sign.
Saltysam on April 27, 2011 at 7:02 AM
Then it’s NOT voluntary! But I am sure crr6 can give us some legal mumbo jumbo that says it is.
BierManVA on April 27, 2011 at 7:08 AM
This is turning into a hard week. Between this passport thing, the NLRB action against Boeing, and the feds’ action against AZ and SD, I’m becoming alarmed.
petefrt on April 27, 2011 at 8:06 AM
This information would help prevent the kind of conspiracies that the Birthers imagine. It would be rational for Birthers to support the new passport questionnaire. Thus, we know that the Birthers will shriek hysterically about it, since Birthers are devoted to being irrational.
thuja on April 27, 2011 at 8:10 AM
Barry did say we’d have to put some skin in the game.
SouthernGent on April 27, 2011 at 8:16 AM
In summary: rule by man, not by law.
Count to 10 on April 27, 2011 at 8:25 AM
While I can supply a birth certificate I couldn’t answer those questions and at 87 I doubt my mother could answer the questions about herself. This is total insanity.
chemman on April 27, 2011 at 8:30 AM
Just change the wording:
“Helmet or anteater?”
Wander on April 27, 2011 at 8:36 AM
Answer: You’re welcome to figure it out yourself.
Vashta.Nerada on April 27, 2011 at 8:58 AM
No. It’s trying to identify Joooooos!
Seriously, after college I had a job in upstate NY. I moved every 6 months or so. I cannot remember all those addresses. Nor do I remember who was my supervisor at the Wendy’s I worked at one summer during college. These are 20+ years ago. No one remembers that stuff. This is designed simply to deny you the ability to travel outside of the country. It’s fascism.
rbj on April 27, 2011 at 9:25 AM
Seriously? I have my French birth certificate from the hospital where I was born, but it doesn’t provide any info about the attending doctor so why do people who don’t have a certificate have to provide info others can’t provide? I I have no way of knowing what my parent’s address was (other than the city they lived in). I couldn’t even tell you my exact address when my son was born less than 20 years ago.
But hey, let’s ask Hillary Clinton to provide this info for us in less than 45 minutes: Name the address her mother and father lived one year prior to her birth, tell us whether her mother received pre-natal care (no doubt this was a topic of discussion, as she sat on her mother’s lap – everyone talks about this stuff, dontcha know), and so forth. Maybe tell us whether her brothers were circumcised for good measure. If she can’t do it she should fracking resign.
Buy Danish on April 27, 2011 at 9:53 AM