ILLINOIS OPEN’S ANITA FIELD: "…FEIGENHOLTZ FOLLOWED HER OWN PATH – ONE OF COMPROMISE…"

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Here are some recent comments from Illinois Open’s Anita Field. “Curiously,” we only learned of the impending March 12 introduction of Amendment 1 (aka a re-write of the bill) on Monday March 10 in an article in the Chicago Trib. Tuesday, March 11 Anita entered the hospital for scheduled surgery. We were told by Feigenholtz’s office that the vote on Wednesday would be on the “new language only” not the bill itself. On Wednesday, the bill passed out of committee after a show hearing whlie Anita was in surgery. See previous entry for Reform Coalition statement on HB 4623.We aren’t going away! Dear Illinois Open Friends, Thank you all for your support during the days when Representative Feigenholtz was preparing her bill. I tried my hardest to let her know that adoptees don’t want restrictions put upon them by the state. She countered by saying I’m living in a dream world and don’t understand the underbelly of politics. I worked very hard to persuade Representative Feigenholtz that the time was right for a clean bill, one that would help all adoptees equally. I know many of you wrote to her not once, but several times, without ever receiving a reply. Continue Reading →

ILLINOIS ADOPTION REFORM COALITION URGES: REJECT HB 4623

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On March 28, 2008 Adoption Reform Illinois issued a letter to members of the Illinois House of Representatives and the media. The letter was signed by Illinois Open director Anita Field Walker, Green Ribbons Illinois representative Triona Guidry and 27 prominent adoption reform leaders urging the defeat of HB 4623, a so-called records access bill which would open records to some Illinois adoptees while trapping many in the lucrative Illinois Adoption Registry. (More names may be added to the protest at a later date.) Background leading to this letter can be found in several Bastardette entries for February and March 2008. Later tonight I will post Anita Field’s personal comments about HB 4623 and tomorrow I will publish Melisha Mitchell’s claims regarding the bill and opponents. Additional commentary will follow in the days and weeks to come. PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FREELY! NEWS FROM:ADOPTION REFORM ILLINOIS Attn: News Director March 28, 2008 For Immediate Release Contact: Triona Guidry Adoption Reform Coalition Urges: Reject HB 4623 We, the undersigned members of the adoption community, urge legislators to oppose Illinois House Bill 4623. As written, this bill offers some adopted adults the chance to access their original birth certificates, while banning others from accessing Continue Reading →

BLOGGERS DINE IN PORTLAND!

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PORTLAND–I haven’t gotten around to blogging about the AAC Portland conference as I planned, but hopefully tomorrow…In the meantime here’s a group picture of disruptive adopta bloggers taken at Old Wives Tales during our Saturday evening exparte celebration. Bastardette, Heather, Sarah, Dawn Friedman, BB Church and Jan Baker.Photo by Noah

ITS ALL ABOUT SENSITIVE ADOPTERS: FRENCH FRIES HARM ADOPTEES

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A new McDonald’s “adoption-themed” commercial featuring a conversation between a bag of French fries and chocolate parfait (could I make this up?) has worked up sensitive adopters and agency hacks into a tizzy of hyperbole. How dare McDonald’s “ridicule” the great American pastime of family building for the desperately childless? After viewing the vicious personal attack on his/her family on YouTube, one dismayed child acquisionist froths “The assumption behind the ad is that you can’t be a family if you don’t look alike and that something is wrong with being adopted (as witnessed by the “stunned silence” of the french fries.”) Stunned silence of the french fries??? Another ventilates: “I hope my two wonderful boys (both adopted) never have to see this commercial on TV. I hope their birth parents never have to see it either. Being adopted isn’t something to be embarrassed about or to make jokes about. It’s about love.” This must explain why the original birth certificates of adoptees remain sealed in 45 states. Or how 13 Russian “orphans” are now dead at the hands of their new forever families. These all-about-me sob sisters are the same people who in the last few years have consigned any Continue Reading →

HEADING FOR PORTLAND

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Bastardette is heading out for Portland tomorrow for the annual AAC doo. I’ll probably post some things from there but unfortunately some other things I intended to write about before I left will have to wait. I hope to meet some of my readers while I’m there. I’m not sure where I”ll be or what I’m’ doing, but I’ll be there the whole time, including the boat trip.

COLAGE FELLOWSIP PROGRAM: FOCUS ON TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION AND LGBTQ FAMILIES

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COLAGE Fellowship Program: Focus on Transracial Adoption and LGBTQ Families Do you have (or had) one or more LGBTQ parents? Do you have personal experience with transracial adoption? Do you want to build community and resources available to people transracially adopted by LGBTQ parents? Come work at COLAGE and do groundbreaking work on youth with LGBTQ parents and transracial adoption COLAGE is the only national organization working with our specific constituency, providing Fellows with a unique perspective on LGBTQ issues. Furthermore, as the lead staff on a new project to address the unique needs of transracially adopted COLAGErs (ie people with LGBTQ parents), the Transracial Adoption Fellow will have the chance to use their creativity and initiative to direct the project. About COLAGE: COLAGE is a national movement of children, youth, and adults with one or more lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer (LGBTQ) parents. We build community and work toward social justice through youth empowerment, leadership development, education, and advocacy. Our office is based in San Francisco, CA and offers a unique opportunity to be part of a dynamic team. “This fellowship allowed me to build upon my community organizing skills and to profoundly expand the breadth of my Continue Reading →

ADOPTABLOGGERS AND FRIENDS WANTED IN PORTLAND!

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Bastardette’s friend, blogger Dawn Friedman (This Woman’s Work), is organizing an informal adoptablogger-and-reader get-together in Portland, Oregon during the AAC conference next week. This is not an official AAC event. I’m sure that after sitting through presentations on adoptee “soul hunger,” first mother menopause, and adoption “constellations” the more reality based will welcome the exparte break. If you’re an adopta blogger or fan and will be at the AAC or live in the Portland area please join us. For more information or to let Dawn know you’re interested in attending go here. While I’m at it: if you’re a Columbus, Ohio-area blogger (any topic) or blog about the Colmbus area, check out the Columbus Social Media Cafe and the Columbus Blog Directory and register your blog.

CALLING ALL IRON CITY ADOPTEES AND FRIENDS! PITTSBURGH BOOK LAUNCH!

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One of Bastaradette’s favorite books, Reading Adoption: Family and Difference in Fiction and Drama by the always awesome Dr. Marianne Novy is now in paperback. Here is some information about its release: The University of Pittsburgh Book Center cordially invites you to celebrate the paperback release of Reading Adoption: Family and Difference inFiction and Drama, by Marianne Novy, Thursday, March 27, from noon until 2 at the Pitt Book Center, 4000 Fifth Avenue. There will be a brief talk at12:30 and light refreshments. RSVP by March 20, if possible, to . Praise for Reading Adoption: “In Reading Adoption Marianne Novy takes us back to Oedipus, that quintessential adoptee, and to Shakespeare’s romance with parent-child reunions, as well as to orphans lost and found in modern English and American literature. And all the while she gives us insights into living adoption as she weaves her own story of reuniting with her birth mother, which is as absorbing as any of the fictional narratives she has guided us through.”—Betty Jean Lifton, author of Journey of the Adopted Self: A Quest ForWholeness “Profound and touching, deeply smart, the perfect blend of academic/intellectual and heartfelt humanity.”—A.M. Homes, author of The Mistress’ Daughter and In Continue Reading →

THE SIMPLICITY OF LANGUAGE: SUCCESSFUL RECORDS ACCESS BILLS

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Maine State Senator Paula Benoit believes that simplicity of language is the key to passage of records access bills. She is correct. Compare the simplicity of language of Oregon Ballot Measure 58, Alabama HB 690, HB New Hampshire SB 335 and Maine LB 1084 to the convoluted 77-page Illinois HB 4623 with its plethora of forms, preferences and vetoes which would confound a busload of Chicago lawyers. Would adopta-doyens Rep. Feigenholtz and Melisha Mitchell care to explain why it takes them 77 pages to write a bill that was covered in two sentences in Oregon, and only a couple pages in Alabama, New Hampshire and Maine? Where’s the pork? OREGONBallot Measure 58:Upon receipt of a written application to the state registrar, any adopted person 21 years of age and older born in the state of Oregon shall be issued a certified copy of his/her unaltered, original and unamended certificate of birth in the custody of the state registrar, with procedures, filing fees, and waiting periods identical to those imposed upon non-adopted citizens of the State of Oregon pursuant to ORS 432.120 and 432.146. Contains no exceptions. ALABAMAHB 690Rep(s). By Representatives Dolbare and Fuller HB690EngrossedUnder existing law, an adopted person born Continue Reading →