Bastard Nation is saddened to learn of the passing of Jean Uhrich, chair of our partner CalOpen—the longest -running adoptee rights organization in the state. Although she didn’t found the organization, she carried it for over 20 years, working behind the scenes, networking, and developing strategy. Whatever was needed. She pushed good bills and decimated bad ones. She was a force of nature, comfortable being up front and loud, but equally comfortable working quietly behind the scenes. Nobody could do stealth like Jean. In other words, she knew how to get things done. She never wavered in her belief in Bastard Power and eventual victory in California or every other state. She carried the Bastard Pledge in her soul: Leave No One Behind.
I knew Jean by reputation from her work in the late 1990s in her birth-state, Alabama, with Alabama AWARE led by Dr David Ansardi and Sandra Pears-Wilson. Their successful SB6 campaign, the first after Oregon’s M58 victory, unsealed OBCs in a state that many said could not be won.
Jean at poster party. Sacramento, January 2002
Although I believe we met in person at the 1998 Bastards at the Bay conference in San Francisco, we met for sure 4 years later during the California AB1349 campaign, which we, in our naivety, thought was a sure shot. (or at least a good one). At that time, Jean was still a hard-working organizer-bee. I lived temporarily in Eugene, Oregon, then, and took the train to Sacto early in 2002, to join the troops for the House Judiciary Committee hearing.
AB1349 Demo. California Statehouse, January 2002
CalOpen sponsored a demo and presser at the state house (sign-making party the night before). We packed a LARGE hearing room with dozens of Bastards and affiliates. How could we lose? By the end of the morning, however, we saw the bill that CalOpen had so carefully crafted and promoted and networked ripped apart by bleeding heart Dem liberals, led by Senator Darrell Steinberg, worried about mythical “privacy rights,” or some other objection d’jour. We—CalOpen and BN—pulled our support when offered a “deal” and walked away. Some wept. Our lead sponsor, Rep Anthony Pascetti, supported us. It was the right thing to do, and we knew it. The amended bill stayed on the books, then died.
As I remember sometime after the SB1349 campaign folded, Jean inherited the leadership. I don’t know if she wanted the job. I doubt she expected she’d spend the rest of her life at it, but she dedicated herself to it, herding California cats and fending off compromise and assorted Bad Guys.
Even when things didn’t seem to be happening, she kept in touch with legislators. In 2005 she created a unique coalition of adoptee rights organizations, L-D-S genealogists, bankers, private investigators and other misfits when politicians, citing alledged “identity theft” attempted to bar the public from accessing the state’s Birth and Death Indices, 1905-1995. The indices had been open for public perusal for 97 years, were posted on Rootsweb (perhaps other sites), and sold by the state to the public on CD-ROM.
Although not totally successful the coalition achieved a major victory. California sold the indices to ancestry.com and they now appear on other family history sites as well. Although names can be removed by ancestry upon request of individuals, the indices remain pretty much intact. Unfortunately, the state stopped sale of the CDs but not before hundreds if not thousands were bought up by interested parties, including genealogists and adoptee rights activists and of course, CalOpen which at one time had quite a few for the asking.
In 2009-10, a gang (mostly) led by out-of-state Benedict Bastards, calling themselves the California Adoption Reform Effort (CARE) arrived, guns a blazin’, bellowing that CalOpen, Bastard Nation and affiliates were failures. We were “grassroots” they complained, not “professionals” as the CARE leadership liked to call itself. Grassroots Bastards & Friends were “emotional” making us antithetical to the legislative process despite our wins in other states. CARE’s first order of business was to ban the language of “constitutional and civil rights” from the California adoptee civil rights movement, replacing them with “statistical and empirical data” rooted in the “legislative process,” that was sure to win over lawmakers. They hustled membership from “adoption professionals,” “healthcare professionals,” lawyers, psychologists, and social workers. Adoptee voices were secondary, censored, and apparently not attuned to reality. We were a hindrance to restoring our own rights. (Sound familiar?) They even claimed that that social workers not adoptees created the adoptee rights movement!
Some of these traitors were movement “names” who knew better. They were not, however, long-gamers. They wanted to be in the room where and when it happened without opening the door.
CARE’s web designer used the Brooklyn Bridge not the Golden Gate for their webpage banner. Oops! The leadership tended to hide legislative information from their rank-and-file followers; other times issued contradictory information, about their work and AB372 which they got in the hopper. Posts disappeared when they realized they’d messed up. Seasoned activists who refused to fall for their scam were degraded and attacked. At the initial (and I believe only) meeting between CalOpen and the Benedicts. CARE’s “professional lobbyist” assaulted Jean in a crazy attempt to grab her infamous 3”-thick red notebook where she kept all of her strategy, drafts, contacts…everything. As movement saviors, CARE felt they had a right to it.–like it were Greenland. There were other disturbing incidents, including random late night phone calls to CalOpen folks. It was nuts.
I’m murky on dates, but the midst of this mess I visited Sacramento and stayed with Jean. We shared the onerous task of attending an informal meeting of some committee, whose name I’ve forgotten, but was probably the House Judiciary, where AB372, sponsored by Asmb Fiona Ma (now California State Treasurer) was discussed. The only thing I remember about it now was that the air conditioner seemed to be off and the BB lobbyist acted zonked out on something and wore red fuck-me pumps sans hose. Tacky Tacky Tacky. The meeting did not go well. Afterwards, Jean took me to a rowdy outdoor crab shack where we drank beer and trash-talked the Benedicts. It felt good.
Needless to say, CARE’s big, beautiful bill was deformed quickly. The traitors lost control of their bill fast with every hideous compromise– worse than anything coming then and now from hardcore opposition. Fortunately, even those amendments as bad as they were, weren’t bad enough for lawmakers, and the bill sat in committee and died in the suspension file. The Benedicts slunk out of town, but the damage they caused is still felt in California. CalOpen persevered. As did Jean. A summary of much of this fiasco is here. (more came later!) If you want the whole story—check out the BN California page for 2009 links. There’s a lot.
I knew that Jean was ill. She was fighting hard and told me that she’d already survived longer than she was “supposed to.” She didn’t want anyone to know. We IM’d a couple of times, aftere that then silence. Her obituary, as far as I know, was published by All Faiths Crematory sometime in mid-November 2025, although she passed away in June. We didn’t know about her passing until the first week of this year.
As I said, Jean Uhrich was a force of nature. Maddeningly so. She could be opinionated en extremis. There were times when I wanted to scream “just shut up,” but didn’t. And, she could be kind and generous. She loved Bastards and loved the fight. She stood for something.
Jean’s work will hot go to waste. One of these days California WILL fall. Jean was a warrior. She stood on the shoulders of Bastard Elders and others will stand on her shoulders. Jean will be missed. Is missed.
Memory Eternal, Jean.
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I’m a little murky on dates and hope I put everything in the right order.