Your anger is understandable, people, but death threats never help the cause—any cause. A note from Alice Dreger:

MEMO TO ANGRY MOB: PLEASE STOP

Since Dan Savage's post heard round the world about what's been going on at Cornell University in the clinic of pediatric urologist Dix Poppas, there has been a huge outpouring of anger.

My colleague Ellen Feder and I get that. We broke this story because we were just as upset as many of you. But we are really disturbed by reading comments at Facebook and elsewhere calling for violence against Dr. Poppas.

Our goal is to change the medical system so that children with atypical sex development (and their families) are treated well. We believe the way to respond to bad and unethical practices is with rationality and ethics. (And, when necessary, calls to the Feds.) Calls for violence are not only sickening to us, they will counteract our efforts to change this system. We are not interested in making a martyr of Dr. Poppas, and that's what some of you are doing rhetorically within the medical system.

So please express your concerns in a non-violent manner. And if you want to donate to a group that is working on changing the medical system to observe the evidence-based, ethical approach that more and more physicians support, please give to Accord Alliance.—Alice Dreger

When you make death threats—from the safety and anonymity of your laptops—you allow someone like Poppas to pretend that he's the victim here, not the girls whose clitorises he's mutilating. Argue with him, complain about him, support the good guys. But threats of violence are hugely counterproductive. And "counterproductive" here means more girls will be mutilated. So knock it the fuck off.