Bastards Against Trump – BAT 2020

I started new FB page Bastards Against Trump–or BAT – 2020.  It is not affiliated with Bastard Nation or any other entity–just me. It’s a place for anyone, especially  (but not limited to ) adoptees and allies who oppose Trump to come together to talk, inform and ridicule. In my wild imagination I’d love to see a Bastard movement against him and Trumpism that scares the Orange Penis so bad he Tweet-demands adoption be boycotted, but I doubt that will happen. Continue Reading →

Gladney Goes Full Georgia Tann

Gladney went full Georgia Tann on Tuesday with their “superkids” Twitter-run profile of Kade, a 5- 1/2 year old they are preparing for the Taiwan-USA pipeline. I am pretty sure he is too young to give his consent to be marketed to American white saviors, but what’s a little bit of privacy-stripping when it comes to forever-homing? Continue Reading →

Framed in Bigotry and Discrimination: A Look at Trump’s Executive Order: Strengthening the Child Welfare System for America’s Children

The emphasis in the Executive Order is not some abstract improvement, but the creation of a robust evangelical-coded “faith-based” equalization in child welfare. The EO promises to increase much-needed child welfare improvement not through government initiative, but through taxpayer-funded tax-exempt so-called “faith-based” partnerships with private religious child welfare organizations and corporations including churches, para-churches, and ministries. Moreover, the EO promises “faith-based “foster and adoption recruitment.” The suggests nonsensically that the lack of “faith-based partnerships” keeps children stuck in state foster care when they could be transferred to the Christian adoption market if that market were more open and available. Continue Reading →

New Adoption Horror: Gender Reveal Parties for Adopters

I’ve always found gender reveal parties creepy.  Of course, I’m old enough to remember when waiting until the baby was born to discover its sex (do gender reveal parties reveal social construct?) was part of the “fun” of new parenthood.   Gender reveal parties sound like an excuse to prove that you had sex with somebody. or in some cases a high tech turkey baster.  But that’s just me.

While these parties are bad enough for bios, I learned today that they are also a thing for PAPs. Continue Reading →

Attention Women! Covid-19ed up? The Justice Foundation wants you to Safe Haven your baby.

The Justice Foundation’s idea of “‘hope” isn’t salary subsidies, mortgage/rent/utility cancelations, stay-at-home jobs, universal health care, referral services, or new/increased government assistance. No. Its idea of hope is to remain pregnant and then “release the baby to the community “ via  Safe Haven after it’s born.  In case you’re wondering, JF opposes contraception (including condom usage) and sex education among a slew of other contemporary anti-family evils plaguing the country. It is funded in large part by Dr. James Leininger, rightwing Texas bagman , whom Molly Ivins called  God’s Sugar Daddy. Continue Reading →

Adoption Business Cards: More adoptee commercialization in the Age of Look at Me

One of the more popular methods of baby swooping is cornering your waitress at a restaurant.  I don’t know how many accounts I’ve read over the years where PAPs insinuate themselves into a pregnant waitress’s personal business, offering to adopt her baby–just in case she’s in the market for a Worthy. (More couth PAPs just leave a note at the table.  “Call me. I’ll  take your baby off your hands  And btw, here’s a 30% tip to help you decide.”)  But now we have actual business cards to take care of those anxious moments when you discover you’ve left your flyers and notepad at home or you’re just a bit shy. If nothing else, the cards may get your waitress to at least “think about the adoption option,” which until she saw your glowing faces she’d found abhorrent. Continue Reading →

Huxley Stauffer: The best gift until you’re not. Short update and more questions

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Newsweek reports that the Delaware County Sheriff has confirmed that Huxley Stauffer has been located.  I love the lede:

YouTuber Myka Stauffer’s ex-son Huxley is not missing, say authorities. This confirmation came after claims that the five-year-old child was unable to be located after he was “rehomed” by Stauffer.

Nobody is saying where, of course since–you know–adoption is confidential.

But the investigation continues, which makes me think the Sheriff is taking this seriously. A welfare check on the bios is expected.

It looks like Huxley was non-bureaucratically re-homed with the current endgame of private placement. The Stauffers are being represented by Columbus adoption attorneys Tom Taneff and Taylor Sayers.I have never heard of Sayers, but Taneff is a very familiar name. I can’t reach into in my memory deep enough to remember why (though it may be obvious) whenever I read or hear his name I get queasy.

But I do remember this:

Twenty years ago I was part of a panel discussion on OBC access during a 2-day adoption law conference on records access and open adoption held at the Capital University Law School Center for Adoption Law and Policy (then the Dave Thomas Center for Adoption Law and Policy). The presentation went really well. The then-director of the law center hated Bill Pierce and NCFA. He refused to invite him to present an opposition argument, so he got a proxy, who actually supported records access, to play the heavy and present the opposition argument. She did the minimum and squirmed a bit.

Eye Roll: Later,Taneff sat behind me and another Ohio activist.  We were confounded and baffled when he informed us that he had no idea that post-1963 OBCs were sealed. And he was Quad A; a leading adoption lawyer in the state! Indeed!.

More questions:

  • Did Taneff get involved with the Stauffers from the beginning, or did he sign on when the frying pan sizzled hot.
  • Did he get pulled in later to make the transfer “legal?”
  • If he was facilitating a legal re-adoption from the get-go, why didn’t the Stauffers say so and refer questions to him?

You’d think if he were involved in the re-homing scheme he would have intervened publicly for the Stauffers early  on to protect his clients from public outrage, shame, embarrassment, and accusation. Sounds like he’s their cleaner. I hope he’s charging them $650/hr.

I wonder how long it will be before the Stauffers hire a white savior PR firm?

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See my previous blog, Huxley Stauffer and the Pattern of Re-Homing. Making Connnections: The best gift until you’re not for more.

 

 

 

Huxley Stauffer and the Pattern of Re-homing. Making connections.

Well, no, Susan, it’s not unusual, and you know it.  Re-homing happens all the time.  Allegedly, about 25% of new adoptees are spammed back into the adoption or foster care system, but no one really has a good count since many re-homings are off-paper…Whatever the number, there are special “adoption agencies”  such as Wasatch International Adoptions /2nd Chance Adoptions, complete with Georgia Tann-like photo listings, to move the little misfits around.  Second-chance products are routinely advertised on Facebook. (Note the number of kids that appear to be international and “minority” retreads). Continue Reading →

Corona Baby: Dump That Pandemic Baby Now!

Exhausted by Corona Virus, social distancing, masks, Trump-tweets, locked down beauty salons, restaurants beaches and bars? Gun-toting cosplayers demanding to practice their Constitutional right to make you sick? Murdered for being Black? Cop riots? And now you’ve got a cranky new baby on your hands. Never fear! There is a solution. Baby Safe Haven. Continue Reading →

Bentonville, Arkansas: 1st Baby Box Dump. Not a time to celebrate

Few details are available yet, but tomorrow the town will host a press conference featuring Safe Haven Baby Box Founder Monica Kelsey flying in from Indiana. where she has already installed 21 Boxes and at least another 26 have been 26 approved or proposed. Invitations have been sent to local business leaders, state representatives, members of Congress, and Governor Asa Hutchinson. Nothing like politicizing a personal tragedy, especially in a big election year. Continue Reading →