Phil Ratliff is an LD,A. He learned by accident, at the age of 21, on what he calls a “bad day,” that he is adopted. He then buried it to avoid hurting his adoptive parents. When he finally confronted them, 20 years later, they apparently refused to discuss the adoption, Continue Reading →
Daniel totally nails our condition. He links it/us to other marginalized groups and addresses adoption in relation to colonization, neo-imperialism consumerism, white supremacy, privilege, class, economics, misogyny, and our relationship to the state. , The intersections that adoption industrialists and many adopters find inconvenient, threatening, and certainly don’t have anything to with their “forever family” functionality: Continue Reading →
Bill No. 29 clearly holds PEI’s adopted citizens to a greater set of birth record access requirements than the not-adopted who can access their record for the asking, Disclosure and contact vetoes, fines and jails cells all go against best practice adoption standards. These provisions are not only insulting to PEI’s adoptees but are cruel and ugly. They pathologize adoptees and adoption as a social institution. They make adoption and adoptees shameful and suggest to the public that we are dangerous. Continue Reading →
It’s not like there’s isn’t a huge bank of stupid Tweets to choose from. Most of them can be summarized as (1) adoption not abortion (no details) and (2) would you rather have been aborted? If you answer “Yes” you will be judged insane, depraved, selfish. ungrateful, in need help, an object of pity, or you should just go off yourself. Continue Reading →
A couple of times a year people post their Top 10 Favorite Songs. I always check them out, but find most of them pretty weepy and womb-crawling.–like a safe space playlist for your office..So, for the last few days I’ve been checking out my own playlists to come up with adoption-related: pieces. Continue Reading →
After spending part of yesterday and half of today staring at my computer screen, fret- and guilt-ridden, I finally re-designed the Bastard Nation New York State Page. Continue Reading →
The Adoptee Rights Law Center has released an updated FAQ on S3419, the New York law scheduled to go into effect on January 15, 2020. that restores the right of all New York Adoptees to access their Original Birth Certificates. Continue Reading →
Bastard Nation, the Adoptee Rights Organization is delighted that New York governor Andrew Cuomo today signed S3419. This historic bill restores the right, of Original Birth Certificate (OBC) access to all the state’s adoptees without restriction or condition– a right once held by all New York adoptees. It passed both Houses in June, and although we were confident that Gov. Cuomo would sign the bill, it was a long, nail-biting wait. Continue Reading →
You would think that teachers, in the trenches of our current culture wars would recognize this. Apparently, they don’t since Herriot covers everything from schoolyard bullying to family tree and baby photo assignments, to teacher-inculcated adoption gratitude, all of which are familiar to American adoptee eyes and ears. Continue Reading →
As an adoptee, I desperately wanted to know about my family of origin but was not keen on re-joining them. I became quite adequate in snooping through desks, dressers. and closets all to no avail. Many years later it appears that all I had to do was ask and I would have been given what little information my adoptive parents possessed, but what is the fun in that? Continue Reading →