On May 27, Texas House Bill 984, submitted by Support Texas Adoptee Rights (S.T.A.R.), failed to be brought to a vote on the Senate floor after passage in the House, thereby killing the bill.
HB 984 would have provided adult adoptees with access to an unaltered copy of their birth certificate upon request.
Unfortunately, it also contained a contact veto disguised as a “contact preference form” (CPF) that exchanged the traditional CPF language of “prefer” for the regressive “authorize,” If passed HB 984 would have enacted a discriminatory restraining order scheme against adoptees, based solely on their adopted status, for contacting birthparents without consent; thus violating adoptees right to due process and equal protection of the law
The proposed legislation contained additional problematic and conflicting provisions regarding the administration of the system, enactment dates and eligibility, legal definitions, and ability to change a filed contact veto.
Bastard Nation actively opposed the bill through the issuance of action alerts and in-person lobbying of legislators and the Lieutenant Governor at the statehouse in Austin. Bastard Nation, the largest adoptee rights group in the US, with almost a thousand Texas members and supporters, along with like-minded adoptee civil rights activists, look forward to proposing a clean adoptee rights bill next session.
