10 YEARS: IN MEMORY OF GAVI

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Today marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Bastard Nation Founding Foundling Gavirela Person aka Amy Lynne Akins. Gavi was an artist, designer, philosopher, spiritual guide, and Bastard visionary. A Jill of all trades and a master of all. Among her many accomplishments is her design of BN’s spermie logo. A wonderful memorial to Gavi appears in today’s Lizard Chronicles. Gavi’s memory has also been kept at Gavriela Maxime Ze’eva Person Memorial Page maintained by Denise Castalucci. Another memorial is Charles Filius’s Gavi Remembered,with messages to her from Bastard Nationals Whenver you feel isolated, you can call to us and we will hear. Use your breath, your precious life, and changethe world’s ways for all of us. Know we were loved by at least one silent heart. Be strong and love each other, and the world will surely change. –Gavi Bastard born and Bastard bred A gaggle of Bastard Nation Founding Foundlings, San Diego, 1996: (counterclockwise): Michelle Hilbe, Deni Castalucci, Damsel Plum, Gavi Person, Deb Schwartz. (photo by Shea Grimm)

INDIA: BIRTH RECORD ACCESS

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Bastardette received this a couple days ago. The petition is time-sensitive. Please sign it. Bastardette Dear All, Please sign the comments and circulate the link widely. We need a lot of signatures, so thatCARA really considers our comments.http://www.petitiononline.com/adoptee/petition.html Basically CARA acknowledges that many of us Adoptees do want to search for Roots and specifically open the records. But sadly they explicitly close the records in case of children born to unwed mothers. Practically that means many of us- if not most- are effectively stonewalled from any search and prevented from knowing our original identity. However since there is a chance of our voices being considered, before that comes into effect,let´s all try our best to achieve positive change. Since the comments have become a bit long, here the three main points summarised. a) Birthrecords: that Adoptees, do also get an original Birth Certificate, with the names of their biological parents b) Right to access to our files and records, even in case of children born to unwed mothers c) Support and Setting up of independent Post Adoption Services Thanks for your support! Warm regards Arun Dohle

SAY IT AIN’T SO! JOE SOBRAN SUGGESTS GEORGE W. BUSH SHOULD HAVE BEEN ADOPTED

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Adopted people are accused of many things: bed wetting, fire setting, kleptomania, lying, home wrecking, mother hating, and serial killing (WMD: ax). I mean, who else would do these things? Certainly not legos reared in white picket pens, weaned on strip malls and fern bars, with two happy church-going hets nannying them from cradle to grad school. And to be honest, being adopted isn’t all that bad. It gives us adoptees something to blame all our problems on. But even adoptees set limits on acceptable behavior. Recently, dredging up the old nature or nurture argument, former National Review editor Joe Sobran. suggested the unsuggestable: George W. Bush should have been put up for adoption at birth. Saturday’s Lew Rockwell.com published Sobran’s July 9 Liberty Watch column, Lessons of History (also found on his webpage, The Reactionary Utopian.) Sobran wrote: What must the old man [George Herbert Walker Bush] feel as he sees his family name become accursed of all nations? Being a parent can be tough. Kids can give you unpleasant surprises. Usually, though, these can be coped with. If your son gets drunk and totals your new stretch limousine, well, you’re not happy, but it’s not going into the Continue Reading →

HAWAI’I: BASTARD NATION THANKS GOV. LINDA LINGLE

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Below is Bastard Nation’s letter of thanks to Hawai’i Governor Linda Lingle for standing up for the rights of family and identity in Hawai’i. A slightly different letter has been sent to legislators who opposed the override. The Honorable Linda LingleGovernor, State of Hawai`iExecutiveChambersState Capitol Honolulu, Hawai’ i 96813 July 17, 2007 Dear Governor Lingle: Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization thanks you for opposing HB1830, the so-called “safe haven” law. Baby abandonment and neonaticide are serious matters. So are identity erasure through unsound child welfare and surrender practice, the subversion of ethical adoption policy, the circumvention of parental rights (especially fathers rights) and the abrogation of traditional Hawai’an culture and hanai. HB 1830 “fixes” something that isn’t broken. As Honolulu blogger Mel wrote after the override, “HB 1830 is a bill looking for a problem to happen.” Newborns are seldom discarded in Hawai’i.If “safe haven” history is any indication of what will happen next in Hawai’I, expect to see newborns dressed in Baby Gap, accompanied with binkies, stuffed animals, a supply of diapers, and loving notes from supposedly murderous “desperate mothers” appear soon and mysteriously at emergency rooms and fire stations. Pregnant women and new parents considering an adoption Continue Reading →

HAWAI’I: THANK GOV. LINGLE AND LEGGIES

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Linda Lingle is the only governor who gets it. She knows that so-called safe haven laws are bad for children, bad for families—and bad for ethical child placement., Bucking tremendous political pressure from anonymous-baby harvesters and political partisans, she twice vetoed baby dump bills. Thank Governor Lingle for sticking to her guns and standing up for the identity rights of Hawai’ans and opposing the abrogation of native Hawai’ian civil rights and tradition. We’ll post our letter here shortly. The Honorable Linda LingleGovernor, State of Hawai`iExecutiveChambersState CapitolHonolulu, Hawai`i96813e-mail: [email protected] Also thank those House and Senate members who stood with Gov. Lingle and us and votoed against the veto override. Rep. Corrine W. L. ChingHawaii State Capitol, Room 330415 South Beretania StreetHonolulu, HI96813 phone ; fax E-mail [email protected] Rep. Lynn FinneganHouse Republican Leader32nd RepresentativeDistrictHawaiiState Capitol, Room 328415 South Beretania StreetHonolulu, HI96813 phone ; fax E-mail [email protected] Rep. Colleen MeyerMinority Floor Leader47th RepresentativeDistrictHawaiiState Capitol, Room 333415 South Beretania StreetHonolulu, HI96813 phone ; fax E-mail [email protected] Rep. Kymberly Marcos PineHawaii State Capitol, Room 317415 South Beretania StreetHonolulu, HI96813 phone ; fax E-mail [email protected] Rep. Alex M SonsonHawaii State Capitol, Room 323415 South Beretania StreetHonolulu, HI96813 phone ; fax E-mail [email protected](note: crossed party lines to Continue Reading →

HAWAI’I: LEGISLATURE OVERRIDES LINGLE VETO

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If they build it, they will come: As expected, tonight the Hawai’i legislature overrode Gov. Linda Lingle’s veto of HB 1830. That Hawai has no newborn abandonment or neonaticide problem makes no difference to the baby harvesters. If it steals just one… Our friends from Massachusetts…you know, the ones who are barred from posting here, but who nonetheless continue to send pithy comments under the fitting name of “anonymous”… have been schmoozing Island leggies and talking heads for the last few days. You can read all about their adventures on their MySpace page. Since this was a done-deal, one can only ask why they went all that way and to all that expense to push a done-deal other than to hula on the beach and stick another piece of chewing gum on their bedpost over night. That, of course, is for their handlers to sort out. For now it’s entertaining enough to watch and wonder who is whose useful idiot. The identity rights of adoptees have been flushed down the sewer..but we must remember that a few brave legislators stood against the BS Haven juggernaut. The juggernaut, of course, had nothing to do “saving babies”and everything to do with sticking Continue Reading →

HAWAI’I: LINGLE DUMPS THE DUMP–VETOES HB1830

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According to the HI legislative page, this afternoon Gov. Lingle vetoed HB1830–the Safe Haven bill. Her veto statement is not yet linked, but you can go here for verification of the veto and to look later for her statement. Thanks to all who contacted Hawai’ian lawmakers and voiced your views against safe havens. If you have not done so, fax, email, call and ask Hawai’ian legislators to let the veto stand and oppose an override. Tell them to stand up for the rights of Hawai’ian children, families and adoptees. See BN’s Action Alert dated July 9 (just below “New Hampshire: Battin’ 1000!”) for contact information. And don’t forget to thank Governor Lingle, too:The Honorable Linda LingleGovernor, State of Hawai` Executive Chambers State Capitol Honolulu, Hawai`i96813 Phone: 808-586-0034Fax: 808-586-0006e-mail: [email protected] **********Dear__________ RE: HB 1830 Safe Haven Override Dear_______________ Please do not support the override of HB1830, the Safe Haven Act. Safe Haven laws are detrimental to children, families and ethical child surrender and adoption. For decades adoption reformers and all but a few secretive adoption professionals have fought to create transparent, accountable child surrender and adoption practices and policies such as ethical counseling for natural parents, adult adoptee access to original Continue Reading →

NEW HAMPSHIRE: BATTIN’ 1000!

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Yesterday, the State of New Hampsphire issued its 1000th original birth certificate. Adoptee rights advocates held a party to celebrate. You can read about it in Foster’s Daily Democrat. For those interested in numbers, according to the latest figures from New Hampshire Vital Stats, only 12 “do not contact” preference forms have been submitted to the state–11 in 2005; 1 in 2006 and 0 this year. New Hampshire media has reported no social disruption (including ax killings) due to the restoration of adoptee civil rights. Adoption in New Hampshire, contrary to the dire warnings of conservative secret keepers, liberal record sealers, and extremist adoption industrialists, remains healthy. Bastard Nation is proud and happy to have been a part of liberating New Hampshire adoptees from the stigma and shame of sealed birth records. Back in 2004 BN’s own Rep. Jane Allen played a key role it passing of SB335. Janet, in fact, was the first person to receive her obc when records were unsealed on the first day of business 2005 (left). She was present yesterday when No. 1000 was issued. Many worked for the New Hampshire victory, Most of these heroes have gone unrecorded and unrecognized. We’d like to thank Continue Reading →

HAWAI’I: ACTION ALERT – STOP HB1830 BABY DUMP OVERRIDE!

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BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT! PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FREELY STOP THE HB1830 BABY DUMP OVERRIDE We have a golden opportunity to dump a baby dump! Recently the Hawai’i legislature overwhelmingly passed HB 1830, a “standard” Safe Haven bill that permits individuals to anonymously abandon newborns at various locations with no legal consequences. Governor Linda Lingle vetoed this bill as she vetoed a similar bill in 2003. As early as July 10th or 11th, the legislature will call a Special Session to override Governor Lingle’s veto. Proponents of HB 1830 have announced a media blitz to push the override. The big bucks trade lobby, the National Council for Adoption and its friends, have fed the Hawai’i legislature a line of misrepresentations about the need, use, and “success” of “safe havens.” The truth is, NCFA, initiated “safe haven” laws across the country in a death-throe attempt to thwart adoptee identity rights and the restoration of the right of adult adoptees to access their original birth certificates. The American Adoption Congress, Concerned United Birthparents, Origins-USA, Ethica, The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention for Cruelty to Children, the Nebraska Children’s Home Society, Prevent Child Abuse Virginia, Spence-Chapin Services to Family and Children, Holt International, and American Continue Reading →

HAWAI’I" BASTARD NATION THANKS LINDA LINGLE

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July 4, 2007 The Honorable Linda LingleGovernor, State of Hawai`iExecutiveChambersState CapitolHonolulu, Hawai’I96813 RE: HB 1830: Safe Haven/” Safe Place for Newborns”—Please Veto Dear Governor Lingle: Thank you for placing HB1830, the so-called “safe haven” bill, on your list of potential vetoes. We know that you are under political pressure to let the bill pass into law with or without your signature, and we urge you to make good on your intent to veto. Not one adoption reform organization on the mainland supports safe haven programs. Safe Haven laws circumvent uniform best practice child surrender standards such as the collection of the child’s identifying information, social, cultural and medical history. They thwart due process for parents—especially the father. They devalue communication and ethical counseling. They refute responsible legal alternatives to baby dumping: public assistance, temporary surrender, and permanent surrender for adoption. “Safe Haven” Hawai’an-style rejects hanai: extended family and community care. Not only will Native Hawai’ians, surrendered through the anonymous system be denied their native heritage but also benefits to which the are entailed to legally since they will unable able to prove eligibility Since 1996 there has been one media-reported prosecutable newborn death and no reported cases of unsafe newborn Continue Reading →