Category Archives: Adoptee Rights

Why is Adoptee Rights Still an Issue? the 20/20 question

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National Adoption Month 2013 opened with a bang today.  Clicked on a link to “Bethany Christian Services” and “NAM” and got a live sex site. (No, I won’t put up the link) Then there’s the real porn.  ABC/s 20/20 Facebook question: Do you think all adoptive children should have access to their biological parents? Excuse me?   Some production intern, without much thought or grammatical skills, must have posted the question. I’m not even sure what the question even means: Does it refer to actual children, open adoption, the right of adult adoptees to their own original birth certificates? Or what? For the last 80 years, for their own specific  and sometimes unrelated reasons,  the state and its  politicians, along with social engineers, private industry, therapists, churches, and social do-gooders across the political spectrum have moderated the public and private lives of adoptees and their families.  Nowhere is the entwining of the personal and the political so grotesquely practiced as in adoption in the United States today.  Nowhere is the conflation of adults with children in public policy and public imagination so blatant.. Hence, even those deeply involved in bastard rights, don’t know for sure what the clumsy 20/20– post even Continue Reading →

Original Birth Certificates aren’t the only thing they lock up in New York

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Nice guerrilla action in New York this weekend.  Not about adoption  but close. The National Women’s Liberation Army hit five pharmacies in the Union Square area Saturday  in search of Plan B (emergency contraception).   According to Reality Check, some drug stores not only hide the Morning After Pill behind the counter, but keep it in a locked box! From Realitly Check: (emphasis (mine) During the action, group leaders would loudly announce to the store that the brigade was looking for the morning-after pill. Group members then would disperse, asking where the emergency contraception was and handing shoppers a letter to the pharmacy’s CEO. “The morning-after pill is locked in a box? You have to carry the box around the store?” protesters would say to each other. “Sure, so the whole store knows you had sex last night. That’s like wearing a dunce cap!” Indeed, many stores either keep Plan B behind the pharmacy counter, don’t stock more than two pills at a time, or keep the pill in a locked box that has to be opened by a store employee at the counter. Furthermore, employees are often confused about who has permission to open the box. NWL’s letter to pharmacy CEOs Continue Reading →

The Sheraton: Bastardette Not Banned or Arrested

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Long time readers will remember when They Whose Names Must Not Be Spoken, in a fit of snit, claimed that Bastard Nation and Bastaradette had been banned from the Sheraton hotel chain for life. The current AAC conference, in fact, is at the Sheraton Grand Hotel on J Street. When I entered no sirens, whistles and beeps went off, and so far I’ve not been followed around by hotel security to monitor attitude and intent. I’m only attending sessions that interest me, which naturally limit what I’m doing here. (I forgot my Klennix box!) I’ve spent a lot of time walking around town, so here are some pictures. Note, that I prefer things over people. Our CalOpen get-together at PF Chang’s drew over a dozen people.

SPRINGFIELD SHENNIGHANS: Illinois Adoptees Hustled and Shuffled

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Tuesday, I wrote that Amendment 1 to HB 4623, would be heard by the Illinois House Adoption Reform Committee the next day. This amendment would add limited records access language to the CI fix-it bill which had already passed Rules. I was told by sponsor Rep. Sara Feigenholtz’s office that this hearing was for language approval only. If approved, the amended bill would be published on the Illinois legislative site probably on Friday. I posted that information in good faith, wondering how it would really play out. Now we know. Late yesterday afternoon I was forwarded the email below sent by Melisha Mitchell, the putative author of the bill, with the news that HB 4623 had passed out of the Adoption Reform Committee, 8-1. The only opposition came from Illinois Right to Life. Dear All: I am happy to report that HB 4623, Illinois’ obc access bill, waspassed out of the House Adoption Reform Committee today, 8 votes to1. We had letters of support from most of the state’s prominentadoption agencies and adoptive parents’ groups as well as the supportof the Dept. of Public Health, Dept. of Children and Family Services,NASW, and IL Psychiatrists Assn.; in addition, the Chicago Bar Continue Reading →

BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU ASK FOR! NEW JERSEY CATHOLIC CONFERENCE WANTS TO HEAR FIRST MOTHER STORIES!

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For the record, Bastardette and Bastard Nation oppose the tortuously compromised S 611, passed by the New Jersey Senate on Monday 30-7. The bill allows some adoptees to get their original birth certificates while others, slapped with a disclosure veto, get the sanitized white-out version. There are other restrictions, too. I haven’t written about the Jersey situation lately, but my blog Settling for Less Than You Deserve on the 2006 look-alike bill will fill you in. (For more NJ entries just type in to Bastardette’s Blogger search engine). That said, it’s been entertaining in a sick sort of way to watch New Jersey’s adoptee haters, legalized child traffickers, religious conversionists, and identity thieves bloviate over ungrateful adoptees and their rights. To hear the Catholic Church’s affiliate hornswogglers — The Catholic Conference, New Jersey Right to Life,and the Knights of Columbus–talk, even limited government respect for adoptees and their rights will cause the state to break off and fall into the Atlantic. Patrick J. Brannigan, Executive Director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference, for instance, holds the quaint belief that first parents just “move on” after surrender since the state seals their pasts as tight as a tomb, leaving them to Continue Reading →

THE PROBLEM WITH CINDRU: "ANY INTERESTED PARTY CAN SUE TO HAVE THEM (RECORDS) OPENED"

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Tonight ABC News will feature a segment on records access. As a run-up to the show a discussion about adoptee rights is being held on the ABC internet forum. The direct link isn’t punching in, so cut and paste this http://abcnews.go.com/WN/comments?type=story&id=4332269 Everyone so far supports adoptees except one poster: As an adoptive parent who chose to adopt internationally under the UN’s Hague Treaty, I can tell you it is better to do so internationally than to adopt domestically. There is no uniformity to adoption laws in the US and they definetly are NOT written with the interests of the adopting parents in mind. These people are the most important part of a successful adoption yet they have very little legal standing during the adoption process. We wanted a truly closed adoption. In the United States, there is no such thing. No matter how much records are supposedly sealed. Any interested party can sue to have them opened. We wanted none of that.Posted by:Cindru2000 Feb-23 I’m sure that Bastardette’s readers–or adoptee rights activists and adoptees in search–will be comforted to know that “any interested party” can sue to have records opened. Technically, of course, anybody can sue, but I guess all Continue Reading →

ILLINOIS: GRAND OPENING! ILLINOIS OPEN!

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GRAND OPENING PLEASE FORWARD FREELY ILLINOIS OPENhttp://[email protected] MISSION STATEMENT Illinois Open advocates the issuing to all Illinois adult adoptees, upon request an unconditionally, a copy of their unaltered original birth certificate. GOALS Illinois Open is an informational organization. Its goals are to educate the public about sealed records as well as locate grassroots supporters of equal access to the original birth certificate for all adopted men and women in Illinois. Currently, the only way adopted adults in Illinois can receive a copy of their original birth certificate is by petitioning the court and showing good cause, a lengthy, costly, and time consuming process. Illinois Open is asking the State of Illinois to repeal or amend its Adoption Act so that all adopted adults can get their original birth certificate in the same manner as all non-adopted citizens. We want to hear from you. Please write to us at: [email protected] Visit our Myspace Page

MEDIA SHOUT-OUTS FOR ADOPTEE RIGHTS

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Here is a (probably incomplete) compilation of blog comments and media commentary about adoptee rights and NPR that have appeared in the week since the Donaldson report was released. This list does not include the Crary or other articles which appeared upon release of the report or articles I’ve already discussed. If you know of others, please post them here in comments. Remember to check your own local newspapers and TV stations; then stir it up! NOTE: I’ll be adding new citations as they come in, so check back.BLOGSAdopteeAmy: Adoptee Foes vs Adoptee FriendsAs someone who is denied access to her original birth certificate on the basis of her birth, I honestly can’t tell you what I would do if I had that document in my hands. I couldn’t tell you if I would make contact. Still no matter what, it is my right. Baby Love Child: Adam Pertman, please shut up.The crux of his argument was ’see, our RESEARCH shows, open records don’t hurt anybody’. NCFA will be more than glad to provide an ENDLESS parade of those ‘hurt by openness’, in response, I assure you.)…The crux of our argument is the demand that what the government robbed us Continue Reading →

FLORIDA: DAVID BUNDY–GET A LIFE!

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Here’s the letter I wrote to the Orlando Sentinel regarding David Bundy’s claim that the Florida Children’s Home Society promises anonymity to women who place their children for adoption. Please go over to the site (link above) and add your own comments–or write a letter. To the Editor: David Bundy, CEO of the Florida Children’s Home Society claims that parents who place their children are guaranteed anonymity (Nov. 18). Under what authority does Mr. Bundy make this promise? In the 30 year War Against Adoptees, the adoption industry has been force feeding this mythical promise to lawmakers and the public in an effort hide their own misdeeds. They have been unable, however, to present one single document or other evidence that shows these “guarantees.” Original birth records are sealed when an adoption is ordered, not when parental rights are terminated. If the child is not adopted, the birth records remain unsealed. During the relinquishment and adoption process, names and other identifying information about biological parents are often posted in legal ads in newspapers and appear on court documents given to adoptive parents. The not-adopted need not justify why they want their vital records. They have a presumed right to their Continue Reading →

ANONYMITY: THE NEW CONFIDENTIAL–ADOPTION SHILLS SPEAK OUT

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Sunday, two adoption shills, NCFA crony Aaron Britvan and Florida Children’s Home Society David Bundy, crawled out of their cabbage patch to complain about the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute’s “For the Records” report issued last week which recommended the opening of adoption records to all adult adoptees. I obviously have problems with the report, but I’ve also got a problem with adoptacrats who write to newspapers, grinding their fangs because the beneficiaries of their hard work don’t sufficiently appreciate their efforts to disengage us from our identities and rights. And first mothers….it’s a wonder, at least according to these bullies, that the poor “vulnerable” dears answer their phones for fear of what BBB’s (Bastards Behaving Badly) might do. After all, our moms (why don’t these hacks ever mention dads?) were “promised anonymity.” Did they sign the papers in invisible ink? Anonymity? Bastardette must be dense. I thought it was all about “confidentiality” and “privacy” But then, since the advent of legalized baby dumping (what the adoption class nicely calls “Safe Haven laws”) we’ve seen a conflation of these two Axis of Evil favorites with their new favorite “promise”: anonymity. Or maybe these guys think they’re all the same thing.If Continue Reading →