New For Xmas 2005The Limited EditionAdopted Child Syndrome Family Cookbook! Victimized by Velveeta? Traumatized by Tater Tots? You’re not alone! In this book, adoptees share long-time family favorites, and other members of the triad contribute their heirloom recipes! From Facili’tater Chowder to Sex In A Pan, we uncover the cause of Adopted Child Syndrome, and it can be found in a pantry near you! Proceeds to Benefit Bastard Nation’sWho’s Next? FundQuantities are limited, so order yours early! Go to Bastard Nation or here

Ontario adoptee identity rights have gone down in flames with the passage of the repressive and anti-rights Bill 183: The Adoption Information Disclosure Act. Unfortunately, it appears from news reports that the province’s rank and file adopted adults don’t realize that the government and so-called adoptee rights advocates have sold them out. Sentimentalists and reunionists can’t detach their graditidunal tongues from the jackboots of Ontario’s Liberal government long enough to acknowledge that with the bill’s disclosure veto (Bill 183 advocates refuse to admit it has a disclosure veto) they have codified “the right of anonymity” by permitting birth parents to go before a government tribunal and claim harm (undefined) if the original birth certificate is released to the adoptee. Adoptees can also go before the tribunal and claim harm if their amended and false identity is released to birthparents. As if this gross violation of the right to identity isn’t pukifying enough, adoptees and birthparents under the bill can file an a priori restraining order…er, I mean a contact veto… against each other with no cause and a $50,000 fine, to keep BAD BASTARDS and BAD BIRTH PARENTS from chatting up their own relatives–all based in some mysterious government scenario Continue Reading →

WRITTEN TESTIMONY IN SUPPORT OF SB 959: ABC BILLACCESS TO BIRTH CERTIFICATES FOR ADULT ADOPTEESThe Massachusetts Joint Committee on Children and FamiliesOctober 27, 2005 Marley Elizabeth GreinerExecutive Chair, Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights OrganizationDear Honorable Members of the Children and Families Commitee: My name is Marley Elizabeth Greiner and I am the co-founder and Executive Chair of Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization. Bastard Nation is the largest adoptee civil rights organization in North America. Our membership includes adopted adults, birth parents, and adoptive parents. Bastard Nation is dedicated to the recognition of the full human and civil rights of adult adoptees. We advocate the opening to adopted persons, upon request at age of majority, those government documents which pertain to the adoptee’s historical, genetic, and legal identity, including the unaltered original birth certificate and adoption decree. We believe that it is the right of people everywhere to have their official original birth records unaltered and free from falsification and that the adoptive status of any person should not prohibit her or him from choosing to exercise that right. In 1998, Bastard Nation was behind Ballot Measure 58 in Oregon, which restored the right of birth certificates access to adults Continue Reading →

RESTORE THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF ADULT ADOPTEES!7 REASONS TO SUPPORT SB 959: Rights are a commonsense one-size-fits-all policy and protection for all citizens without exception. All adults should have the same access to government-held records of their births, whether adopted or not. Preventing adult adoptees from obtaining this information is discriminatory. The state has no compelling interest in and should not be in the business of concealing basic, personal identity information from its own citizens. The fundamental right of adoptees to have access to our own government-held identity information is a separate issue from whether or not adoptees and birth parents should contact each other. Adult adoptees and birth parents contact each other all the time, even in sealed records states. As competent adults, we are capable of negotiating our own relationships, if and when we choose to form them. The state should not block adults from their own birth documents in an attempt to prevent contact between two adult parties. In what other capacity does the state regulate contact between law-abiding adult citizens? There is no evidence that restoring to adult adoptees the right to access our own identity information is detrimental to the process of adoption. There is Continue Reading →

Back on May 5, a strange press release popped on to Bastardette’s screen: “In Russia Anti-Adoption Forces Exploit Child’s Death to Demand Halt in International Adoptions, Says National Council for Adoption. The missive was sent out by Lee Allen, NCFA’s latest press flack, publicizing a letter sent by NCFA CEO Tom Atwood to his then new best friend Russian President Vladimir Putin whom he had met just weeks before to discuss US-Russian adoption “problems.” Members of the Duma, you see, were getting real short tempered over reports of American adopters taking little Russians out of the country and promptly killing them when they got back home. The latest straw was the conviction earlier that week of Erma Pavlis sentenced to 12 years for beating to death her newly adopted Russian son Alex. (born Alex Geiko). The imaginative Mrs. Pavlis, in a move worthy of a Beltway Bozo, attempted to pass the buck and blame Alex’s orphanage and the Russian government for the unfortunate incident–not exactly something to endear her and US adoptive parents and paps to the Duma not to mention her jury. According to the NCFA press release, Duma Member Yekaterina Lakhova had teamed up with former Russian Prime Continue Reading →

Bastardette has been busy with other work, but will return to her regularly scheduled commentary very soon. In the interim, Erik L. Smith, shares his latest commentary with Bastardette’s readers. An interview with Erik and a bibliography of his publications can be found here Legal researchers have advised against legal custody arrangements between prospective adoptive parents and natural fathers. [1] By legal custody, I mean all three parties having parental rights, but where the prospective adoptive parents keep custody and the natural father gets visitation The option is sometimes proposed in contested adoptions. Courts have opined that the child will suffer irreparable confusion, uncertainty, and embarrassment growing up with two legal fathers. As one U. S. Supreme Court justice, and two state courts, reasoned: “‘The Court believes that the existence of two (2) ‘fathers’ as male authority figures will confuse the child and be counterproductive to her best interests…. Confusion, uncertainty, and embarrassment to the child would likely result from a court order[ing] that appellant, who claims to be Z.’s biological father, [be] entitled to visitation against the wishes of the mother [2]While the legal custody alternative is not a cure-all, or even workable in all situations, the fear that Continue Reading →

Bastardette received the following email the other day from Erica Efe Aghedo, a student at Harvard conducting research into black market adoptions. If you’re interested or know somebody who might be interested in working on this project, please contact Ms. Aghedo directly at [email protected]. Bastardette [email protected]: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 12:35:50 -0400From: Erica Efe Aghedo [email protected]: Erica Efe Aghedo [email protected] Subject: Adoption Research My name is Erica Aghedo and I am a senior at Harvard College. I am currently doing research in anticipation for the completion of my senior thesis on black-market adoptions. I am in the process of recruiting respondents for the research and Adam Pertman of the Adoption Institute recommended that I get in touch with you, in the case that you might know of anyone who is able to qualify as a participant for the study. I am particularly looking to interview individuals, who were born between the decades of 1930 and 1960 and who have proof that their adoptions were black-market. An example of such proof could be evidence that their adoption is connected to one of the institutions or individuals, such as Georgia Tann and Katherine Cole, who conducted illegal adoption practices in the earlier Continue Reading →

Action Alert from Bastard Nation, The Adoptee Rights Organization Please distribute freely. Help support open records for adult adoptees and share a laugh at the same time! We’ve all heard the web lore and stereotypes for years, regarding the culinary skills (or lack thereof) in relation to different members of the triad. Fact or Fiction? Urban Legend? Peter Pan collars or thigh-high boots? Finally, here’s a chance to find out! We’re putting together the “ACS Family Cookbook”, a humorous and PG-13 look at the adoption culture of food to benefit Bastard Nation’s “Who’s Next?” Fund. It will be available in the Bastard Boutique at the beginning of November, just in time for Christmas shopping! If you have a revolting recipe (or a really good one!), and would like to donate it to support open records for adult adoptees, email [email protected] for submission guidelines. Please put “Guidelines” in the subject line. It doesn’t matter if you are a member or not. If you are part of the triad, and have a recipe to share (like The Clean Slate Vegetable Plate), let us know! Thanks for your consideration. Open minds. Open records!

How do you spell hypocrisy? B-L-A-G-O-J-E-V-I-C-H. Baby Dump lover Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has sunk deeper than lowest depths of Lake Michigan–if that’ s possible. On August 10 he vetoed a section of HB 29 which would have reduced the legal age in the state for getting tattoos from 21 t0 18. Now what does this have to do with adoption? Plenty! In a press release issued by the governor’s office, Nanny Boy Blago declared that Illinoisans between the ages of 18 and 21–especially his daughters– incompetent to make their own decisions regarding what they can and cannot do with their own bodies: As a parent, I don’t want my daughters to rush to get tattoos on their 18th birthday. At that age, most kids are still in high school and dont’ have judgment or perspective to decide on something as permanent as tattooing your skin. Teenagers may not realize getting a tattoo is a decision they’ll live with and potentially regret the rest of their lives That’s why I refuse to support legisation that allowed a teenager(s) to get tattoos.” Well who cares what you think, Blago! You couldn’t wait to ink HB 175, the bill that removed the Continue Reading →