MASSACHUSETTS: MARTA TO GOV. PATRICK–VETO SB63!

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NOTE: Scroll down for Bastard Nation Action Alert and how you can help stop tihs bill from becoming law. September 4, 2007 His Excellency Deval Patrick, GovernorState House, Room 360Fax: RE: SB 63 Adoption Bill Dear Governor Patrick, Massachusetts Access Rights to All (MARTA) asks you to veto SB63. This bill creates an unfair, discriminatory, tiered system in which adopted persons born in Massachusetts on or before July 17, 1974 and on or after January 1, 2008 can receive copies of their unaltered original birth certificates. Adoptees born between those dates will not be allowed to receive their original birth certificate except by petitioning the court. MARTA believes that all people born in Massachusetts should be able to receive a truthful copy of the state record of their birth regardless of their adoptive status..SB 63 is a mean-spirited, ugly, discriminatory bill. It is a slap in the face of every person adopted in Massachusetts. Adoption is supposed to be about the “best interests” of the child. But when that child grows up he or she apparently loses “best interest” status. Our “best interest” is suddenly subjugated to a government-created mythological “interest” du jour–in the case of SB63, an inexplicable codification Continue Reading →

MASSACHUSETTS: BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT–VETO SB63

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BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT! MASSACHUSETTS SB63 Please forward freely! MASSACHUSETTS TRASHES ADOPTEE RIGHTS! ADOPTEES BLACKLISTED BY DATE OF BIRTH! Call, email, or fax Governor Deval Patrick IMMEDIATELY and urge him to VETO SB63. (Contact information below) In 2005 we were told by members of the Massachusetts legislature “trust us.” Unrestricted adoptee access to their own original birth certificates in Massachusetts is a “no brainer.” In 2006 we were told “Oops! Our bad!” We can only “give access to some of you.” The once clean bill, with the support of certain “adoption reformers” was amended repeatedly and quietly, until the right of ALL Massachusetts adoptees to receive their birth record was reduced to a favor for SOME. Although it passed both houses, the bill was pocket vetoed by then Governor Mitt Romney. IT’S BACK!Like a bad penny, the bill came back, resurrected as SB63, obnoxiously titled An Act Further Regulating Access to Birth Certificates. On August 30, 2007 SB63 passed the legislature. It will soon arrive on Gov Deval Patrick’s desk. SB63 tosses a substantial number of Massachusetts adoptees, based solely on their date of birth, into a black hole without the same right of identity as everyone else born in Continue Reading →

MASSACHUSETTS BETRAYED: "IT’S NOT ABOUT OPEN RECORDS"

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Massachusetts adoptees have once more been betrayed by their “friends.” SB 63, the re-hash of last year’s SB 2690 pocket vetoed by Mitt Romney, has passed the General Court and will reach Gov. Deval Patrick soon. The so-called Massachusetts reform group ABC (who cutely demonstrates its dedication to adult civil rights with a baby blocks logo) and their sell-out politician friends like to say SB63 “stops the clock” by guaranteeing that original birth certificates will be accessible to adoptees born on or after January 1, 2008. That would be fine, if it also permitted earlier adoptees to access their birth certificates, too. But it doesn’t. SB63 separates and segregates the rest of the state’s adoptees, based on date of birth, into those who can and can’t get their birth certificates. So much for civil rights! SB63 SUMMARY(1) adopted persons 18 years of age or older born in the commonwealth on or before July 17, 1974 or on or after January 1, 2008 or an adoptive parent of an adopted person under 18 years of age and born in the commonwealth on or after January 1, 2008 will be “allowed” unrestricted access to the original birth certificate. (2) Adopted persons born Continue Reading →

BAN ANNE OF GREEN GABLES: HARMFUL TO ADOPTEES!

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Call out the National Council for Adoption! According to the July 13 issue of Newsday*, the much loved children’s classic Anne of Green Gables insults adoptees. I jest you not! Last month North Bellmore, New York (Long Island) adoptive parents dashed off to NCFA to complain about the ArtsPower National Touring Company production of Anne of Green Gables performed in their school district. Sensitive adopters who can’t tell the difference between songs and playground fisticuffs, complained that the 55-minute musical was “mean” towards adoptees. Apparently these pampered cultural illiteratti are unfamiliar with mythology, religion, literature, folklore, film, and dramatic structure. Oedipus, Cinderella, Snow White, Eppie Cass, Dick Whittington, Pippi Longstocking, Little Orphan Annie, Harry Potter, James Henry Trotter, Adam Farmer, Jesus, Huck Finn, Pollyanna, Baby Bumble, the Little Rascals and Shirley Temple must be as unknown to them as an obc bill hearing in Albany. Anne of Green Gables has a long literary and film history. The 1908 Canadian novel, by Lucy Maud Montgomery, tells the story of English orphan Anne Shirley sent to a family on Prince Edward Island by “mistake” (they’d ordered a boy to work on the farm), and her triumph over adversity. Originally, an “adult novel” Continue Reading →

WHERE IS FRANKIE YANKOVIC NOW THAT WE NEED HIM?: BASTARDS HAVE STANDARDS

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Those of us of a certain age from the Cleveland area will remember the Frankie Yankovic hit Too Fat Polka. I was reminded of that song when I read the responses to my recent “Say It Ain’t So, Joe” blog which discussed conservative writer Joe Sobran’s suggestion that George W Bush should have been put up for adoption. Bastardette sent the link off to Sobran who wrote back: “You never know whom you’re going to offend these days!” But don’t blame Joe! Like the rest of the country, he’s been indoctrinated with the belief that adoptees are mindless little flits with a high tolerance for bullshit–happy to settle for dog scraps as long as we’re watered and papered occasionally. Though the comments are hardly a scientific survey, it is clear that our Dear Leader would not be welcomed with open arms if he were to cross the border–legally or not– into AdoptionLand, not to mention Bastard Nation. More like pikes and sticks. It appears sadly, from the picture on the left that Little Georgie is somebody only a Dick Cheney could adopt. ******** I’m very far behind in blogging. As usual, I’ve got some half-baked blogs in the oven (which Continue Reading →

REGDAY 2007: UPDATE

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Bastard Nation is no longer an official sponsor of RegDay, but that doesn’t mean we don’t support it. Bastardette worked 3 RegDays and was Ohio coordinator one year. Over that 3- year period our Ohio crews met literally hundreds if not thousands, of people separated by pernicious shut-up-and-be-grateful adoption secrecy laws that claim absurdly that adoptees have no right to know their personal histories. If you’d like to work a RegDay in your area please go to RegDay and see how you can help adoptees and their families in your area. Also, check this out message from the RegDay folks: PLEASE FORWARD! RegDay is held each year to promote the InternationalSoundex Reunion Registry – the largest registry for finding people in theworld. This is an example of how to set up a RegDay table should you consider doing one. Margaret Lyburtus did this one alone with materials from the site and things she had collected over the 15 years in which she searched for her daughter. To watch this photo show now, simply paste the following URL into your web browser: http://www.photoshow.com/watch/EK6Qg7gg

BASTARD NATION UNPLUGGED: IUKA PARK NEIGHBORHOOD FESTIVAL

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Except for a perverse fondness for cocktail parties, Bastardette likes to think of herself as an anti-social misanthrope. I mean, is there really a choice between an evening with Dale Hinman and a half-baked family get-together? Yet, Bastardette confesses to an exception to misanthropy. Community “outreach” for Bastard Nation and adoptees. She seldom misses the chance to table an event or blather to a captive audience. Thus, she jumped at the chance for Bastard Nation to co-sponsor, with Chris Anarchist and Yippie! the 2nd Annual Iuka Park Folks Arts Festival & Family Picnic in Columbus, Ohio last Sunday. Low key, unplugged, and easy. Especially when somebody else is cooking. Iuka Park is located in the middle of the University area, on Iuka Ravine. It’s quiet, easy to find, and family friendly. As long as you’re not electrifying your equipment or consuming illegal substances the cops leave you alone–even with a Bastard Nation flag flying. A couple canopies, a couple tables and a homemade stage (which we didn’t use) was all we needed. A storm threatened early in the day but didn’t pour all over us until around 7 PM. About 100 neighbors dropped by during the 7 hours of free Continue Reading →

RADIO BASTARDETTE REDUX: TUESDAY

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Bastardette will once again appear on Donna Montalbano’s Adoption Show out of Fall River, Mass this coming Tuesday (August 14.) We’ll be having an open-ended discussion about Bastard Nation and why records access is a civil right. If things get dull, we can talk about Bastardette’s favorite musical: The Fall River Follies or Oh Mrs. Churchill, Do Come Over: Someone has Killed Father. Unfortunately, the show isn’t streamed, so you’re got to catch it live. Donna is a great friend of Bastards and their families. If you’re in the Fall River area, turn, on, tune in, call us.