I want to give a shout-out to the Michigan Adoptee Rights Coalition. Valarie Lemieux and her crew are doing great work up there (sorry, I don’t know other names) The organization is out there making itself be seen, working on legislation (getting closer to victory), tabling at community events, and overall giving Michigan adoptees a public face. Their Facebook page features a lot of news stories regarding the adoptee experience and adoptee civil rights in the US and around the world. Importantly, they understand the relationship between adoptee rights and other political and social justice movements.

I admit I nick some of their FB postings for the Bastard Nation website, especially for international news. Unfortunately, this part of the website went by the wayside for quite a while due to time constraints, but I’ve started working on it again. It is alarming and depressing, to say the least, to read how adoptees are weaponized around the world –way beyond trafficking, sleezy adoption agencies. and their 3rd -and 4th-party hangers’-on, and even neo-colonialism–if that is possible. Adoptees are pawns — political bargain chips–of power.

Coalition member Adoptee Advocates of Michigan holds a regular series of Zoom conversations on various adoption topics. The November 9 convo, When Voices Unite: Adoptees, Birth Parents, and the Path Towards Justice, features Renee Gelin, president of Saving Our Sisters ,and Katie Burns . SOS Resource Coordinator and founder of the Family Preservation Project. I have something scheduled for the same time, otherwise, I’d be there.