As a direct result of our hard work, your unwavering support, and the assistance of other adoptee rights activist groups we can now announce that the bill NYARC supports and assisted in drafting, A55494/S3419 is officially live on the state pages Continue Reading →
As you can see, it’s only the beginning of February, and already there are plenty of screwy bills up and running to screw over adoptees. New York A2691/S2492 (aka the Benedetto bill after House sponsor Michael Benedetto) is by far the screwiest. It mandates unrestricted certified OBC access all right, –but there’s a catch. The OBC would contain the “circumstances of the adoption,” which translated means (according to the bill’s pimps) that the name(s) of your adoptive parent(s) and the date of your adoption would appear on your ORIGINAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE. This fake OBC would include the disclaimer that it could not be used for identification purposes. So, you’ll get a special second fake “Amended Birth Certificate” to add to your original fake Amended Birth Certificate instead of your genuine OBC, adding one more link to the chain of abuse. This scheme, which we are all supposed to be grateful for (again!) not only defaces the OBC, but de-centers adoptees by giving adoptive parents a documentary role in our birth, and upends one of th core principle of the adoptee rights movement–access to a clean, unaltered OBC. Continue Reading →
On January 23, 2018, The Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys (formerly known as the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys–Quad A) did the unthinkable. The traditional adversary of the adoptee rights movement came over to the dark side. It endorsed the right of Class Bastard to our own adoption records. In fact, AAARA went a lot further than OBC access. Taking a page from the Bastard Nation Handbook, it resolved: Continue Reading →
Compared to Uhrlaub, Bill Pierce and the National Council for Adoption in its anti-adoptee heyday were pikers. Uhrlaub claims irrationally that adoptees do not have rights– that adoptee access to OBCs and other state-held adoption documents is not a right at all, but a matter of tweaking adoption procedure and process! The ability to access our OBCs, etc. already exists, he claims straight-faced, and is recognized (for instance via court orders). Access, it seems, has just not been interpreted or utilized correctly by legislators, policy wonks, courts, and bureaucrats –or something like that. Using Uhrlaub’s logic, woman suffrage or the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were about legal tweaking, not voting rights. Continue Reading →
A clean bill was just introduced today in Florida. While we think based on last year’s experience, as well as the presence of the Uhrlaub bill, a clean bill will be a challenge to get through the Florida legislature this year, it is at least an opportunity to educate legislators and to use it to point out the significant flaws in the Stark/Uhrlaub anti-adoptee bill. Continue Reading →
This makes 25 national, state, and international organizations opposed and 0 (zero) organizations that support the bill unless you count the murky anonymously-operated Occupy Florida FB “group” that claims legislators want to hear “rights” connected to adoptees. Occupy, instead, spouts nonsense that the sealing of OBCs and other adoption records are just a matter of “policy” not “rights.” In a November 17, 2017 FB post* Occupy Florida got even sillier: Continue Reading →
The National Center for Adoption Permanency, led by Adam Pertman and the Post-Adoption Center for Education and Research (PACER) has signed on to the Joint Statement in Opposition to Florida HB357/SB576. This makes a total of 24 national, state, and international adoptee rights and adoption reform organizations who oppose Florida HB357/SB576. The only support the bill has received comes from a murky anonymous “adoptee rights” group claiming to represent Florida adoptees, who refuse to make their names public and rejects the idea that OBC and other adoption record access is a right. Continue Reading →
Senator Dennis Baxley recently introduced SB 576 in the Florida Senate. House Companion HB357 was introduced by Richard Stark earlier. Last week SB 576 was referred to the Senate Health Policy Committee The House bill is currently in the House Health Quality Subcommittee but as of this writing no hearings are scheduled.
SB576/HB357 is promoted as an “adoptee rights” bill—one that will restore the right of OBC access to Florida adoptees. Do not be fooled! The confusing and ambiguous bill discriminates against all Florida adoptees by maintaining the status quo for some and placing undue and unreasonable restrictions on others. Continue Reading →
On October 31, 2017, The Donaldson Adoption Institute posted addition comments on Facebook about its opposition to HB357/SB576. The Adoption Institute, along with 21 other organizations. signed a joint statement of opposition to the bills. Below is the Donaldson Facebook addition: Continue Reading →
This law gives adult adoptees (age 18) AND birth parents of adult adoptees unrestricted access to the entire, unredacted court file of the adoption, including a copy of the original birth certificate contained therein, upon request. It is the only state to do so. In fact, we don’t think there is any state or even other jurisdiction (country, province, etc) that gives birthparents this kind of access. The bill goes into effect immediately. (Go to the link above to read the bill, it’s history, and mandates). Continue Reading →