Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization abhors the decision of the North Carolina Coalition for Adoption Reform to drop its HB 445 equal access records bill and replace it with an amended bill (HB 445 2nd ed) that authorizes adoption agencies, for a hefty fee, to voluntarily act as Confidential Intermediaries. The CI system might have been “progressive” 45 years ago. But this is 2007. Outside of the adoption industry’s extravagant fondness for perpetual control over the lives of its “clients” and love of the fast buck, there is no rationale for privatized child welfare businesses to act as state-mandated go-betweens for adult adoptees and their first families who are perfectly capable of responsible decision-making and relationship-building without their supervision.
HB 445 restored the right of adopted adults to access their own original birth certificates without interference from anyone. HB 445 2nd ed denies that right, by allowing the adoption industry to control and mediate the free flow of information between adults. To add insult to injury, there is still no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Original birth certificates remain sealed and unaccesible. If the National Council for Adoption didn’t think up HB 445 2nd ed, it should have.
Bastard Nation endorsed HB 445 cautiously with the caveat that if the rights of adoptees were compromised away, we would withdraw our support and work to defeat any compromise proposed in its place. We do not support the amended version of HB 445 and request that all references to our support of HB 445 be removed. HB 445 2nd ed is not about rights. It’s not even about reunions. It’s about state power over the lives of adopted adults and their families.
Hi Marley,
Sorry, can’t find your e-mail address. Do you know of any similar organisations in the UK?
For adoptee rights or searching?
Marley,
I wasn’t going to respond. But I have found my voice, and thought that what I am about to write should be heard by all.
You stated in your blog:”that authorizes adoption agencies, for a hefty fee”
I would like to first ask how you know it will be a ‘hefty fee’. Is this just because in other states which have organizations outside of the adoption agencies, they charge these kind of fees? NCCAR will be working closely with the agencies in order to help with any guidelines they may develope.
“The CI system might have been “progressive” 45 years ago. But this is 2007″.
Yes it is 2007, and for over more than 60 years, North Carolina has had the ‘strictest adoption laws’ in the nation. There has never been a state run registry which has made it out of a committee, or a access bill which has made it out of a committee.
This bill HB445 made it out of the Judiciary I committee unanimously, and out of the House the same way.
I know everyone in BN looks at what happened in NC as a step which shouldn’t have been taken. And we could have pulled the bill. However if that had happened, there would not have been anyone to take up the fight here for another 10 years. How do I know that? Because it is the truth. It has been 8 years since the last try, and that was because we wanted to go in with the best bill we could have. We had it. We compromised.
When you are told by your sponsor, that you will NOT get the number of House and Senate votes to pass what you are asking for, you go to the members of the adoption triad within the state, and ask them what you should do.
That is exactly what NCCAR did. We did not make the decision we did without consulting others. In fact, we kept telling people that NOW is the time to step up and say something if they didn’t like it. NO ONE DID!!!!!
“To add insult to injury, there is still no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. “
On the contrary, there may still be a pot of gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow. We do have other items brewing. Items that we unfortunately are not at liberty to talk about at the current moment.
“We do not support the amended version of HB 445 and request that all references to our support of HB 445 be removed. “
We will be happy to remove your endorsement Marley, but what you and BN are doing with North Carolina is the equivalent of what happened with the womens rights movement. Women would have had their rights almost 75 years sooner if there hadn’t been the bickering decension among the troops.
“HB 445 2nd ed is not about rights. It’s not even about reunions.”
You are absolutely right. It is about reunions. But it is also about the right for people to at least be able to get information which may be able to save their life or the life of their child, something they did not have before.
Also, if they should want a reunion, then so be it they can have it.
I know I will never be able to convince you or any of the members of BN that we have not given up and that there is something else in the works. We will be doing everything in our power to go back again within the next year and a half for the OBC. And we will have a much better shot at it then.
I will not underestimate NCFA again, nor anyone else who is against OBC’s or NCCAR.
But for now, I think those members in BN should concentrate on obtaining OBC’s in their own states.
A win in Oregon and a few other States doesn’t make BN the be all end all on adoption reform.
Give other states a chance to prove themselves, before knocking them or what they are doing. North Carolina will not be another Tennessee…. Just watch and see….
Roberta