The Bastard Nation webpage, up since 1997, is down. After investigation, we learned that we had some type of malware malfunction. We have had to move to a new hosting site and need to pay for the recovery and transfer of the files. We need $800 to cover this cost Continue Reading →
I first heard this no-such-thing- as-adoptee-rights hog swill two years ago at the Denver AAC, when Uhrlaub theorized that the Colorado bill that he worked on that opened records and files in that state, was accomplished without a single mention of “rights.” Legislators, you see, are scared away with terms like “rights” especially when prefixed with “adoptee” so they need to hear softer less “divisive” language.Perhaps beggary will do. Perhaps scabbery. Continue Reading →
On January 23, 2018, The Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys (formerly known as the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys–Quad A) did the unthinkable. The traditional adversary of the adoptee rights movement came over to the dark side. It endorsed the right of Class Bastard to our own adoption records. In fact, AAARA went a lot further than OBC access. Taking a page from the Bastard Nation Handbook, it resolved: Continue Reading →
Compared to Uhrlaub, Bill Pierce and the National Council for Adoption in its anti-adoptee heyday were pikers. Uhrlaub claims irrationally that adoptees do not have rights– that adoptee access to OBCs and other state-held adoption documents is not a right at all, but a matter of tweaking adoption procedure and process! The ability to access our OBCs, etc. already exists, he claims straight-faced, and is recognized (for instance via court orders). Access, it seems, has just not been interpreted or utilized correctly by legislators, policy wonks, courts, and bureaucrats –or something like that. Using Uhrlaub’s logic, woman suffrage or the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were about legal tweaking, not voting rights. Continue Reading →
A clean bill was just introduced today in Florida. While we think based on last year’s experience, as well as the presence of the Uhrlaub bill, a clean bill will be a challenge to get through the Florida legislature this year, it is at least an opportunity to educate legislators and to use it to point out the significant flaws in the Stark/Uhrlaub anti-adoptee bill. Continue Reading →
This makes 25 national, state, and international organizations opposed and 0 (zero) organizations that support the bill unless you count the murky anonymously-operated Occupy Florida FB “group” that claims legislators want to hear “rights” connected to adoptees. Occupy, instead, spouts nonsense that the sealing of OBCs and other adoption records are just a matter of “policy” not “rights.” In a November 17, 2017 FB post* Occupy Florida got even sillier: Continue Reading →
ecause today is Veteran’s Day, I am writing about my biological and adoptive family members who died in the nothingness of World War I: Private Frank Lawrence, Private Charles Carey and Captain James Robertson Carey, Jr. Continue Reading →
This month, and coincidentally NA(A)M,) my friend and activist colleague Greg Luce is celebrating his bastardly birthday by setting up a DNA test kit donation initiative to help other adoptees who may not be able to afford tests
The National Center for Adoption Permanency, led by Adam Pertman and the Post-Adoption Center for Education and Research (PACER) has signed on to the Joint Statement in Opposition to Florida HB357/SB576. This makes a total of 24 national, state, and international adoptee rights and adoption reform organizations who oppose Florida HB357/SB576. The only support the bill has received comes from a murky anonymous “adoptee rights” group claiming to represent Florida adoptees, who refuse to make their names public and rejects the idea that OBC and other adoption record access is a right. Continue Reading →
Senator Dennis Baxley recently introduced SB 576 in the Florida Senate. House Companion HB357 was introduced by Richard Stark earlier. Last week SB 576 was referred to the Senate Health Policy Committee The House bill is currently in the House Health Quality Subcommittee but as of this writing no hearings are scheduled.
SB576/HB357 is promoted as an “adoptee rights” bill—one that will restore the right of OBC access to Florida adoptees. Do not be fooled! The confusing and ambiguous bill discriminates against all Florida adoptees by maintaining the status quo for some and placing undue and unreasonable restrictions on others. Continue Reading →