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

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…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: Continue Reading →

NAM/NAAM Say 13. Michigan: On the Winning Track

n November 8, less than a month after the bills were introduced, both bills were voted favorable out of the Committee on Families, Children, and Seniors. The next day, the House passed both bills,  99-8, and it was transmitted to the Senate. The Michigan legislature, for all intents and purposes, is now in recess so we will have to wait until next year to seal the deal. Continue Reading →

NAM/NAAM Day 3. It’s About Time: Adoption Oversight, Protection, Transparency Bill Hits Congress

The Adoption Deserves Oversight Protection, and Transparency Act of 2023  (ADOPT Act), a direct attack on the unlicensed adoption intermediary industry and its “services” hit the House hopper today…Unlawful intermediary practices will be criminalized.  Continue Reading →

I Hate Legislation

I have never made it a secret that I hate legislation. I loathe it. I love politics, but legislation can go to the dogs. I’m not very good at it either. Too many tricks of the trade, I’ve never “gotten.” I wish there were a board of experts I could leave it to, and do my own thing via the movement. Continue Reading →

URGENT! Contact Your Senator Today! Pass the Adoptee Citizenship Act Now!

US international adoptees once more need our help in passing The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2021. It MUST pass this year. The Bill passed the House in February and has been sitting in the Senate since then. With the midterm election and the impending retirement of sponsor Sen. Roy Blount (R-MO), it is imperative to act now. Continue Reading →

Happy Day in Massachusetts: Black Hole is Gone! OBCs Unsealed for All!

Today, HB 2284/S1146 the bill that restores the right of all Massachusetts-born adoptees to obtain their Original Birth Certificates without the restriction, goes into effect. Until today Massachusetts adoptees born between July 17, 1974, and January 1, 2008, were tossed in a black hole by a series of archaic laws that kept their records sealed except by court order. Those born before and after those dates enjoyed full and unrestricted access to them.No reasonable explanation was ever given for this nonsense… Continue Reading →

My Personal Letter to CT. Governor Ned Lamont: Please sign HB 6105

I am pretty sure that none of them would be happy that the Connecticut they founded and codified in the Fundamental Order of 1639 currently denies some of its citizens the right to their own public records, their histories, and identities. Continue Reading →

The Arizona Surprise. HB 2070 Vetoed

Although an identical bill sailed through the Arizona House in 2020, this time it was amended down quickly with the consent and support of the fake adoptee advocacy group, Heritage Arizona (aka HA! ) and the sponsor Rep. Bret Roberts to cover only those born in 2022 and beyond; thus, leaving the majority of Arizona-born adoptees behind. In practical terms, the HB 2070 law could not have been utilized by Arizona adoptees until 2040! Continue Reading →

Bastardette’s speech at the Rally for Adoption Equality, Texas Statehouse, May 21, 2021

We are here today to support SB1877/HB1386. The House version passed with only 1 dissenting vote. We need to get the Senate to unstick the bill, currently stuck in the Jurisprudence Committee, and get on to the floor for a vote. We have the votes there that will free nearly 1 million original birth certificates to the adopted people they belong to when it goes up for a vote. Continue Reading →

Maryland: SB 331 Defeat: Adoptee Rights is “A Bad Idea”

Once it hit the Senate floor, however, adoption imperialist warlords and ladies pushed their panic buttons. They were so aggrieved at us lifting our collective leg on them that they attempted to erase us from our own narratives and records (and thus their own minds) by hacking away with that old rusty saw of “birthmother privacy” and (gasp!) “broken government promises.” As if the government has never broken a real promise or spouted a fake one!

This, Fellow Bastards, is some of the worst dehumanizing and outlandish misinformation about adoption and Class Bastard that I’ve heard in years. Did Bill Pierce, the late founding president of the National Council for Adoption, rise from the dead and channel himself through Senator Michael Hough (R ) and his gang of merry bigoted bipartisan busybodies?  Continue Reading →