MASSACHUSETTS: DOWN, UP, DOWN AGAIN, WHERE SHE’LL STOP NOBODY’S KNOWS

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Jean Morrisey has once again locked her MySpace page. My immense network of international internet spies informed me earlier this evening that the new private profile was tagged: Baby Safe Haven New England This Page Is Closed Due To Privacy Invasion By An Extremest Group!!!! That must refer to Bastardette and Adoptee Jane. No doubt reporter Ian Murphy, his editor, and the Lexington Police Department will soon be added to this vast internet privacy- invading conspiracy. As of this writing the private profile tag reads: Baby Safe Haven New England Police Reports ARE NOT Public Information Concerning Minors Medical Information… Wrong Again Bastardette!!! Since I have never posted, nor have even attempted to post, on the Baby Safe Haven New England MySpace page or any Morrisey space (why would I?) this must confuse Ms. Morrisey’s My Space friends. Who is Bastardette and why is Jean saying these things to her? But since the page is privatized, maybe she’s blogging about me and they know all? What high crime and misdemeanors have I committed to engender such notoriety? (1) I posted a complete news article, with link, published by Gatehouse News Service on the recent arrest of Ms. Morrisey. (2) I Continue Reading →

OHIO: A CHILD’S WAITING–ANOTHER UPDATE

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I just got off the phone with the legal services office at Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. The June 16th A Child’s Waiting hearing (postponed from June 2) has been canceled. ACW, the Skank Sisters, and ODJFS have reached a “settlement agreement.” The person I spoke with said the paperwork is being processed and she didn’t know what the settlement entailed. The hearing did not involve the Bennett case. I think it is pretty safe to say that ACW isn’t the dead duck it should be. I suppose there are some sanctions, but what? I’ll reserve judgment on the whole thing until I can learn more. It seems clear though, that running an adoption agency out of business in Ohio is impossible. When I hear something, I’ll let you know.

MASSACHUSETTS: BABY SAFE HAVEN NEWS UPDATE

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I really like to let people speak in their own words The truth is oh-so more interesting than fantasy or what we want to believe. Today, Jean Morrisey’s MySpace page was unlocked and back to normal–the vulgar threat to the press removed. But never fear The threat has been replaced by a blog where Ms, Morrisey explains what happened at her home on June 4, and takes the local media to task. Apparently, the editor isn’t real impressed with BSH or them. He must be removed! BTW, police report are public information. Go here for the latest.

MASSACHUSETTS: BABY SAFE HAVEN ADVOCATE CHARGED WITH DOMESTIC ASSAULT

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Maybe he shoulda been safe havened. From the Make My Day department: Baby Safe Haven advocate charged with domestic assaultBy Ian B. MurphyGateHouse News ServicePosted Jun 11, 2008 @ 05:52 PM ——————————————————————————– LEXINGTON, Mass. —Lexington resident Jean Morrisey, the co-founder of Baby Safe Haven New England, was arraigned on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon at Concord District Court last week. According to police reports, officers arrived at Morrisey’s home after her juvenile son called 911 June 4. Morrisey allegedly threw a drinking glass which hit her son in the head. He was treated at Winchester Hospital for a one-and-a-half inch cut. Morrisey was arraigned June 5 at Concord District Court and was released under the condition that no further abuse occurs. Michael Morrisey, Jean Morrisey’s husband, said their son was “released back to our custody in a matter of hours.” According to the police report, a nurse at Winchester Hospital recommended the juvenile spend the night in the hospital’s care. The report also said the original argument between mother and son started over a bottle of shampoo. Baby Safe Haven New England is an organization to promote the baby safe haven law, which was enacted in Continue Reading →

DISPATCHES FROM THE DARK SIDE

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Surprise! Adoptee viewpoints ignored! Ever wonder what the Chicago Trib, AP, and USA Today think about us? 73adoptee deconstructs adoption media coverage and shows us just how much our voice DOESN’T count in the press with Media Bias in Adoption Reporting. Here’s one of my favorite lines: It says a lot about our society that childless couples get church fundraisers to buy a kid, yet adult adoptees and their birth relatives are all but silenced. But, what’s to be surprised at? As forever children in forever families, we selfish bastards don’t exist. Back in 1996 or `97, Trib editor Bruce Dolt… er, I mean, Dold… called us adopted children over 15 times in an editorial denouncing our right to access our own birth records. Speaking of media. Check out Ann Wilmer’s marvelous Adoption Beat (not from the darkside!). Wilmer, a journalist, J-school professor, adoptee, and activist (Green Ribbons) has launched a great blog to discuss the media and adoption. We have a lot of work to do, and this can help us! Enna Barreto update. Down in New Albany, Mississippi, Marianne Torres, 17, has been charged with capital murder but as of this writing, not arrested, in the death of Continue Reading →

BB CHURCH: THE LIGHT GOES DIM

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Anybody who doesn’t know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose. ….James EllroyTonight, one of the brightest Bastard lights went dim. Ron Morgan, aka B. B. Church, has retired from the movement I cannot tell you how sad this announcement is for us. Ron has been around longer than almost anyone. He predates Bastard Nation. I first met him on AIML around 1995 and immediately loved his brilliance, his humor, his cut-to-the-core style. Ron is the heart of the adoptee rights movement. He is the Heart of the Bastard. Ron has been our Real Politiker. He knows how things really work, not how we think they should work or want them to work. Ron is a theorist, a philosopher, a writer. Our blood poet. Ron understands AdoptionLand dirt and corruption. He’s walked the gutter. Ron is one of the few masculine voices heard above the cacophony of the girrrly girl world of adoption reform. Maybe that’s the problem. Sometimes shit happens. As Ron writes tonight on his blog: I am simply posting tonight to announce that I am no longer participating in the Day for Adoptee Rights event. The event is still going on without me, I Continue Reading →

FOREVER FAMILY, FOREVER DEAD UPDATE: VIKTOR MATTHEY

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Today’s Pravda has an update on the case of murdered Russian adoptee, Viktor Matthey, born Viktor Sergievich Tulimov and adopted from the Amur Region of Siberia. As you may recall, in 2000, 7-year old Viktor, who had been in the US for 10 months, died of cardiac arrest due to hypothermia after adoptive parents Robert and Brenda Matthey, whose history of child abuse was revealed during their trial, locked him overnight in a damp unheated pump room. He also suffered over 40 cuts, scrapes, bruises and untreated fractures. Robert Matthey admitted beating Viktor with an aluminum baseball bat, a belt, 2 whips, and his open hand. Though there is not much new information in the article, we learn that Viktor’s paternal adoptive grandmother, Phyllis Matthey-Johnson, who testified against her son and daughter-in law in court, has finally been allowed to adopt Viktor’s twin brothers Volodya and Zhenya, now 12, first adopted by Mattheys. A Catholic, Matthey-Johnson, according to the article, denounced her born again Pentecostal son saying she “could not understand people who combine faith with whips.” The article says that the Matthey’s four biological sons (some now adults) were put under the guardianship of the family’s Pentecostal pastor, KM Continue Reading →

OHIO: A CHILD’S WAITING HEARING UDATE

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I went down to 30 E. Broad this morning for the first day of the 3-week Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services ACW licensing hearing and learned it has been postponed until June 16. The person I spoke with informed me that there is “talk of a settlement.” In AdoptaLingo that probably means a license revocation won’t happen, but a suspension might. But maybe not! Stay tuned for more!

ANNOUNCEMENT! BASTARD NATION WITHDRAWS FROM A DAY FOR ADOPTEE RIGHTS

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June 1, 2008 To: Members, Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization Re: Withdrawal of Bastard Nation from A Day for Adoptee Rights Bastards, The Executive Committee of Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization announces with regret the withdrawal of our organizational co-sponsorship and official participation in A Day for Adoptee Rights, (DAR) scheduled for July 20-25 during the National Conference of State Legislature’s annual meeting in New Orleans. We had planned to hold a “Bastard Boot Camp Teach-In” on July 20, participate in the protest on July 22, and help staff the DAR space inside the Mariol Convention Center July 23-25. We sincerely regret any inconvenience or discouragement this decision may cause. As of this writing the event itself has not been canceled, only Bastard Nation’s co-sponsorship and participation. Please check the DAR website for updates on the status of the event. http://adopteerights.net/nulliusfilius/ Bastard Nation has been concerned for some time about the cost effectiveness of the project. While many people exhibited an interest in attending all or part of the event, the number of people who actually registered or made a serious commitment to attend was minimal. There were also hidden costs at the convention center, of which DAR Continue Reading →

CALL FOR PAPERS: REPRODUCTION, SEX, AND POWER

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Journal of Women’s History Special Issue Edited by Leslie J. ReaganHistory, Medicine, Gender and Women’s Studies, LawUniversity of Illinois, Urbana-ChampaignUSAReproduction, sexuality, and bodies have been key sites for state andreligious intervention and control, for defining gender, class, race,and sexual identity and for establishing hierarchies andinequalities. They have also been of central significance toindividuals and to organized feminist movements. Although today somemay think of “sex” and “reproduction” as unrelated topics and fieldsof research, historically they have been closely intertwined. Thisissue seeks to spotlight the centrality of reproduction, sex, andpower to women’s history and to demonstrate the ways in which powerhas been made, played, and fought over and through reproduction andsex. Indeed, histories of nations and empire, foreign policy andlaw, religion and popular culture are not free of these seeminglyprivate experiences. Precisely how power has worked throughreproduction and sex varies in time and place; this special issuewill illuminate the points of similarity, divergence, andconvergence, the moments when these areas of personal experiencebecome politically powerful and sites of collective action. Therange of possible topics is broadly defined, including, for instance,obstetrics and gynecology, midwifery, technologies, practitioners,birth control, adoption, sexual practices, sexual identity andparenting, health and sex education.Research essays from all time periods, geographical regions, Continue Reading →