PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY vs DIABLO CODY: JUNO IS A FEMINIST PLAYBOOK

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Poor Diablo Cody just can’t get a break! That old bat shit Phyllis Schlafly hates Juno as much as adoptees and first parents do. Not for the same reasons, of course. Schlafly claims the yukky film is a playbook for penknife wielding feminist castrators in their battle to carve out a happy-ever-after male-free utopia: The theme of this movie isn’t love, romance, or respect for life, but the triumph of feminist ideology, i.e., the irrelevancy of men, especially fathers. The men in the movie are likable, but marginalized; beyond their sperms and their paychecks, they have no value worth considering, and can be thrown overboard by independent women and girls. The movie portrays the adoption as a good outcome, but it is not. The baby will grow up without a real or even a surrogate father, and Paulie, the father, is not asked to approve the adoption or to sign the adoption papers. Some day the child will ask why he does not have a father. The truthful answer is that feminism has made fatherlessness acceptable in our society. But don’t get too excited. Phyl the Pill, founder and president of The Eagle Forum, is the grande hag of the Continue Reading →

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING REALLY PERVERSE: Adoptees for Adults Who Need Them

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I’ve been meaning to post this for some time. The Indian Association for the Promotion of Adoption and Child Welfare, in conjunction with Olgivy & Mather, Mumbai have produced a set of adoption ads–Adoption. You will receive more than you can ever give—that can only be termed “disturbing.” (No, the picture to the left is not one of them!) Olgivy and Mather should know better It’s not some trash outfit. I happen to be very big on advertising aesthetics and am probably one of the few people reading this who actually consider advertising an art form. I can spend a lot of time perusing magazines for ads, not articles. That no one seems to have noted that this campaign, which was a 2006 finalist in the London Arts competition, screams pedophila, surprises me. I’m probably naive. These are ads that only a Matthew Mancuso could love. Too bad he can’t see them, but he’s in the slammer for the next few decades for forcing Masha Allen (latest Masha entry with links to earlier posts) to nurture him and his camera on a daily basis until the FBI caught him. Perhaps if Masha’s chief agency Child Promise, formerly known as Reaching Continue Reading →

SPRINGFIELD SHENNIGHANS: Illinois Adoptees Hustled and Shuffled

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Tuesday, I wrote that Amendment 1 to HB 4623, would be heard by the Illinois House Adoption Reform Committee the next day. This amendment would add limited records access language to the CI fix-it bill which had already passed Rules. I was told by sponsor Rep. Sara Feigenholtz’s office that this hearing was for language approval only. If approved, the amended bill would be published on the Illinois legislative site probably on Friday. I posted that information in good faith, wondering how it would really play out. Now we know. Late yesterday afternoon I was forwarded the email below sent by Melisha Mitchell, the putative author of the bill, with the news that HB 4623 had passed out of the Adoption Reform Committee, 8-1. The only opposition came from Illinois Right to Life. Dear All: I am happy to report that HB 4623, Illinois’ obc access bill, waspassed out of the House Adoption Reform Committee today, 8 votes to1. We had letters of support from most of the state’s prominentadoption agencies and adoptive parents’ groups as well as the supportof the Dept. of Public Health, Dept. of Children and Family Services,NASW, and IL Psychiatrists Assn.; in addition, the Chicago Bar Continue Reading →

ILLINOIS: TRAINWRECK UPDATE

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I spoke to Steve in Sara Feigenholtz’ office this afternoon. As I suspected, the current HB 4623 (CI fix-it bill) will become the records “access” bill. The hearing tomorrow is for reading and approval of the new access records language–which will become Amendment One. If passed the new bill will go up on the Illinois Legislative site probably on Friday. Hearings on that will be scheduled later. When the new bill goes up, I’ll post the link here. After that, the fun begins. UPDATE 3/13/08, 10:05 PMMelisha Mitchell has posted a copy of the proposed amendment on her White Oak Foundation website. The amendment is 77 pages long! Here is her fun FAQ on the bill which is being flogged as “a simple fee-free way for an adoptee who was born in Illinois to request a non-certified copy of his or her original birth certificate.” Well, not ALL adoptees!

ILLINOIS: THAT TRAIN KEEPS A ROLLIN’–MORE PIECE-A-CRAP LEGISLATION

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HEADS UP! According to Kristen Kridel in Tuesday’s Chicago Tribune, Sara Feigenholtz’s alleged “records access” bill will be heard in the Adoption Reform Committee of the Illinois House on Thursday. (SF is the committee chair). Feigenholtz and professional confidential intermediary money hound Melisha Mitchell gushed proud during their Monday press conference, which included former Denver Bronco’s fullback and adoptee Howard Griffith and Chicagoland radio personality Steve Cochran. Ms. Feigenholtz, in her prepared speech, glommed a line from DMC, without credit, Chapter 1 of everyone else’s life begins with a birth certificate, a document I and everyone behind me are prohibited from having. WLS elaborated: “We have been deprived of our history and our identity. We have been deprived of the chapter that everyone else in this state simply gets.” Ms. Feigenholtz may talk the talk, but she doesn’t walk the walk. Under her cowardly compromise bill some adoptees are more equal than others. Since the bill doesn’t seem to be on the Illinois Legislative webpage (more about that in a minute) we can only judge from the summary posted in the Trib: Anyone born before January 1946 will get their original birth certificates immediately (their records were sealed retroactively) Anyone Continue Reading →

LETTERS, WE GET LETTERS….MOTHERS REACT TO NEW JERSEY CATHOLIC CONFERENCE PLEA FOR STORIES

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Letters have been pouring in to Respect Life Today and the New Jersey Catholic Conference since we and others posted the NJCC request for natural mother stories. The conference had hoped the letters, replete with horror stories of the speculative knock on the door and ruined lives, would boost the Catholic Church’s sealed records agenda. Well, letters were written, but not the kind the conference was looking for! Instead of cowering in the closet, proud and unafraid mothers have come forward with the universal message: We don’t want or need your protection. Unseal our children’s records! Many letters have appeared on lists. I have been thrilled and moved at the wonderfulness and honesty of the writing. Though I’ve probably heard hundreds of first mother narratives, none of those has moved me as much as these articulate letters written by mothers on behalf of their surrendered daughters and sons–and themselves. One has to wonder if the church hierarchy and its policy wonks have any concept of what was done to women who sought their help in time of personal crisis and indecision. Or do they care? Adoptee Amy, with permission, has posted a selection of these letters as a blog entry, Continue Reading →

BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU ASK FOR! NEW JERSEY CATHOLIC CONFERENCE WANTS TO HEAR FIRST MOTHER STORIES!

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For the record, Bastardette and Bastard Nation oppose the tortuously compromised S 611, passed by the New Jersey Senate on Monday 30-7. The bill allows some adoptees to get their original birth certificates while others, slapped with a disclosure veto, get the sanitized white-out version. There are other restrictions, too. I haven’t written about the Jersey situation lately, but my blog Settling for Less Than You Deserve on the 2006 look-alike bill will fill you in. (For more NJ entries just type in to Bastardette’s Blogger search engine). That said, it’s been entertaining in a sick sort of way to watch New Jersey’s adoptee haters, legalized child traffickers, religious conversionists, and identity thieves bloviate over ungrateful adoptees and their rights. To hear the Catholic Church’s affiliate hornswogglers — The Catholic Conference, New Jersey Right to Life,and the Knights of Columbus–talk, even limited government respect for adoptees and their rights will cause the state to break off and fall into the Atlantic. Patrick J. Brannigan, Executive Director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference, for instance, holds the quaint belief that first parents just “move on” after surrender since the state seals their pasts as tight as a tomb, leaving them to Continue Reading →

NEW HAMPSHIRE: REST IN PEACE MIKE WHALLEY

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Bastard Nation is sad to learn of the death of Mike Walley, former Deputy Speaker of the New Hampshire House. Mike was a true friend to adoptees everywhere. He had no personal relationship to adoption. He simply believed that all adopted people should be treated like the non-adopted. His passing is a great loss to us personally and to the adoptee rights movement everywhere. New Hampshire State Rep. Janet Allen writes of Mike:At the time of our bill, he was Deputy Speaker of the House and he always understood that our bill was about civil rights not reunion. He fought hard for our bill and without his steadfast support in the House, I do not think it would have passed. With his position in leadership he was able to lend all of his clout and all of his energy to our bill. He will always be my hero. I went to high school with Mike, so we have known each other for many years. I hope that you will all join me in remembering Mike today & recognizing what an important person he was in our quest for equal access. I think that his family would find comfort in hearing Continue Reading →

THE VIGINIA MONOLOGUES: ANTI-ADOPTEE RANTS FROM THE ABC FORUM

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Hundreds of comments have been posted on the ABC Forum regarding records access and adoptee rights. Most of them are on our side, and they are heartening, encouraging, and exciting to read. I hope posters in states with access bills pending will hit the streets running. Here’s am unaltered sample of not-so-happy campers According to them, adoptees are selfish, ungrateful, homewreckers, blessed, chosen, ununderstanding, and uncompassionate. Paula Benoit is selfish and arrogant. Baby dump laws are an alternative to records access. First moms are egg donors. If this keeps up, maybe NCFA will go broke paying off its stringers. AND THE WINNER IS!“As an adoptive parent of four wonderful children i must ay just because the child comes from the viginia a woman does not make her the MOTHER of that child. A Parent is the persons who love and nurture that child forever. Iam truly blessed by our children”…PapaW 1ST RUNNER UP (tie)Oh, whine, whine, whine! Those adopted should feel blessed – they were chosen, not a happening. Be happy with what you’ve got. Stop creating strife and heartbreak in other families. They want to remain anonymouse. Let them be!”…lallen “Shame on Ms. Benoit for using her political position Continue Reading →

GO DIRECTLY TO ABC POLL!

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Calling all Bastards…er…I mean “adopted children.” Go over to ABC News and take thepoll: SHOULD ADOPTEES BE ALLOWED TO ACCESS BIRTH RECORDS? If the link doesn’t work directly, cut and paste this: http://abcnews.go.com/?lid=ABCCOMGlobalMenu&lpos=News We are way way way ahead. Let’s skunk ”em! There are also ABC discussion boards to discuss adoptee rights.