NAM/NAAM Day 17: More on Michigan. Read Rudi Owens' Legislative Review

Although I’ve written twice this NAM/NAAM month on the current Michigan OBC campaign (here and here), I didn’t get to watch the public hearing online to elaborate on what went down.

Rudi Owens, author of the memoir You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are and a Michigan adoptee rights activist, has published a good account of the November 8 public hearing and passage of the bills the next day in the House, For those of you who missed the hearing, please read Update on New Legislation to End Discrimination on Rudi’s blog.

I knew what our side’s testimony would be, so I appreciate Rudi’s summary of the irrational discriminatory and adopteephobic testimony presented by Michigan Catholic Charities lobbyist Rebecca Mastee (gee! surprise! Don’t they ever give up?) and attorney Heath Lowry, representing the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence. Both presented archaic claims of secrecy, anonymity, state promises,” and adoptee stalkers that were disproved decades ago. Rudi writes:

Mastee concluded that such non-existing secrecy claims, that have never been documented by written documentation in legislative settings, require that the state continue to deny adult adopted persons equal treatment by law in accessing their birth records, as is the case in Michigan today.

As for Lowry:

He used the canard of “sexual violence and rape” that has been shared repeatedly in adoptee rights discussions before lawmakers to claim victims of sexual violence would be traumatized to have contact with their child.

Honestly, these canards were never true and went the way of the buggy whip, except for those individuals and institutions that consider adopted people damaged, dangerous, or ungrateful. Or i the case of Catholic Charities, blow their cover if adopted people and their bios parents get together.

Is this the best they can come up with? It’s really embarrassing. Bill Pierce used to yark on about the same “dangers”–only he threw in the threat of honor killings. I’m surprised somebody the other day didn’t accuse adoptees of porch pissing or axing our bios on a surprise Christmas morning visit.

Thankfully or surprisingly, the committee and later the full House didn’t listen to this frankly weird shit and instead acknowledged that Michigan adoptees have been done a great wrong and our rights need to be restored.

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