Category Archives: Adoption legislation

Bastard Nation Statement on the Defeat of Texas HB 984

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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 Continue Reading →

Why I Continue to Lobby by Carolyn Evaine Shaw

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What I am fighting for at this point is not for someone to go back in time and change everything for me. That is done. Whether you consider me a victim or a volunteer, it does not matter. I have given up all hope of having a better past. But here is another truth for you: I am compassionate enough to not want anyone else to have to go through the same horrible experiences. I am caring enough to not want anyone else to have to feel “less than”. I want there to not be a need for Bastard Nation (except as a place for us to make our morbid jokes). The way I approach wanting these changes is by educating people every chance I get about how adoptees are treated differently. But I also lobby for legislation that will force people to start thinking about us differently. I do not endorse legislation that helps perpetuate NASTY TRUTH by making it seem as if adoptees might be emotionally imbalanced or inclined to illegal acts – that means any legislation with a contact veto/authorization/preference. I. WILL. NOT.

HB 984 hurts ME by telling people that I might need someone else to decide for me if I should or should not contact my birthmother, whose name I already do not put out in public because I am not stupid and can tell if it is/isn’t a good idea. If you are adopted, HB 984 hurts YOU by telling people that you cannot decide how to handle a family relationship on your own. If it says that ANY adoptee past/present/future needs help making decisions on how to handle family relationships, then it hurts ALL adoptees. If anyone who does not know much about adoption reads that statute and decides that there must be some reason why it is needed – if that is the only information they get about adoptees – then we have failed to help our very own.

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Bastard Nation Cease and Desist Letter – Hard Copy

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You are hereby directed to CEASE AND DESIST ALL DEFAMATION OF BASTARD NATION’S CHARACTER AND REPUTATION. Bastard Nation is a respected, national adoptee rights organization with a documented history of successfully advocating for the rights of adoptees. They have spent almost two decades serving the adoptee community and building a positive reputation. Continue Reading →

Words Have Consequences: A Cease and Desist Letter from Bastard Nation Attorney Michael Zola

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Bastard Nation is a respected, national adoptee rights organization with a documented history of successfully advocating for the rights of adoptees. They have spent almost two decades serving the adoptee community and building a positive reputation. Bastard Nation has learned that you have engaged in spreading false, destructive, and defamatory rumors about them, including false allegations that they are a “front for adoption agencies seeking to keep records closed to adoptees”, and insinuations that they are funded by agencies or individuals who support the continuation of sealed records.

It is unlawful to engage in defamation of another’s character and reputation. Defamation consists of

(1) a statement that tends to injure reputation;
(2) communicated to another; and
(3) that the speaker knew or should have known was false.

Your defamatory statements involve repeated posts on Facebook and other social media, Facebook messages, emails, and conversations with others.

Accordingly, demand is hereby made that you (A) immediately cease and desist your unlawful defamation of Bastard Nation and (B) provide prompt written assurance within ten (10) days that you will cease and desist from further defamation of Bastard Nation’s character and reputation.

If you refuse or fail to comply with this cease and desist demand, Bastard Nation will have an actionable right to and will seek monetary damages and equitable relief as a consequence of any such further defamation.

Be advised that Bastard Nation has authorized this communication to you and that they intend to pursue all available legal remedies, including a judgment against each individual involved in any way for monetary damages, injunctive relief, and court costs and attorney’s fees.
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Bastardette’s Letter to the Texas Senate: HB 984 Vote No!

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The easy way out of this quandary would have been to amend the language of Sections B and C from “authorize” to “prefer.” This would have guaranteed the meaning of equal protection and equal treatment under law and maintain the integrity of adoptee civil rights.

Unfortunately, no such amendment was accepted. Instead, an amendment was added to the bill that places a limitation on the time frame (July 1, 2016) that a natural parent may change her or his mind mind or file a Contact Preference Form and a Medical History Form. After that date, it is in the discretion of the Registrar. Of further concern, for adoptions after July 1, 2016, it is an adoption agency, not the Registrar, that issues and collects the forms. No language in the bill provides the date for compliance and there is no oversight or penalty to an agency that fails to adhere to the law. I can think of no other state that has a CPF on the books that puts that kind of power into the hands of either the registrar or adoption agencies. Continue Reading →

URGENT: Bastard Nation Action Alert–Vote No on Texas HB 984

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HB 984 (Rep. Deshotel/Sen. Creighton) having cleared the Senate State Affairs Committee (6-0), comes now to Second Read on the Texas Senate Floor. While the bill language is clean regarding adoptee access to their own original birth certificate, the accompanying Contact Preference Form is in reality a Contact Veto.

Section 2 and Section 3 of the bill would provide a birthparent a new affirmative right to “authorize” or “not authorize” contact, by their adult adoptee. The language of “prefer”, as utilized in Oregon, Alabama, New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island, was lobbied OUT of this bill. By replacing this single word, the legislation undermines an adoptee’s right to due process and the equal protection of the law. Section 4 of the bill places limitation on the time frame (07.01.16) that a birthparent may change their mind or file a Contact Preference Form and a Medical History Form. After that date, it is in the discretion of the Registrar. Of further concern, for adoptions after 07.01.16, it is an adoption agency, not the Registrar, that issues and collects the forms. No language in the bill provides date for compliance and there is no oversight or penalty to an agency that fails to adhere to the law. Continue Reading →

Bastard Nation Action Alert: Texas HB 984–Amend or Vote No!

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Section 2 and Section 3 of the bill would provide a birthparent a new affirmative right to “authorize” or “not authorize” contact, by their adult adoptee. The language of “prefer”, as utilized in Oregon, Alabama, New Hampshire, and Maine, was lobbied OUT of this bill. By replacing this single word, it changes the intent of adoptee autonomy. Continue Reading →

Adoption Do-Rights Through the Lens of William S. Burroughs: I want to be buried right in the same coffin with you

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Our Adoption Do-Rights are known by various names: deformers, Scooby-Dooers, Do-Bees ,asskissers, and the American Adoption Congress and its hangers-on.The goal of these pristine patsys is to be liked by downtown fat cat tax eaters, adoption industry hacks, and therapists who do their damnedest to suck the life out of Class Bastard dispensing persona bromidal solutions to political and class rot.

As Burroughs so perfectly put it: Continue Reading →

Indiana SB 352: The Non-Access Bill by Guest Blogger Lisa Zatonsky

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On the surface, the bill used the State Registry as an intermediary while allowing the biological parent(s) to add an additional disclosure veto on all information found in the Registry and on pre-adoptive sibling contact information. The disclosure vetoes would remain effective even after the biological parents were deceased. As if the mutual consent aspect of the Registry requiring both the biological parent(s) and the adoptee to be registered before information may be released isn’t a big enough access hurdle? Repeatedly, SB 352 names the disclosure vetoes as a “non-release of contact information form”. A Contact Preference Form, along with its exact wording, is not in the bill. Yet, the terms and their names were interchanged by those presenting the bill to individuals, media, and legislators. Continue Reading →

INDIANA: EMERGENCY ACTION ALERT: Urge Indiana State Senate to Vote No on SB 352 as written

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Indiana has a very bad bill in the hopper and ready for vote in the Senate. Orignally a clean bill it has been deformed into an anti-adoptee piece of legislation that not only includes a Disclosure Veto, but a warped and inaccurately named Contact Veto that allows birthparents to authorize the state to withhold contact information from pre-adoptive sibings even if they are registered with the state’s adoption reunion registry. Indiana Open Access has offered an amendment to remove ant-adoptee language. Continue Reading →