My Letter to the New York Assembly: Vote No on A2901c

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A2901c is an affront and insult to New York adoptees and their families both birth and adoptive. The bill not only maintains, but tightens s over-arching state authority over the personal documents and relations of individuals It degrades adoption defining it as a secret and shameful procedure and treats adoptees as dangerous eternal children incapable of owning their own personal information. I can think of no other example of over-arching state authority over the personal documents and relationships of individuals as exemplified by S2901c. Continue Reading →

Bastard Nation Action Alert: New York A2901c. Redactions, CIs , parental consent–and more! Vote No!

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ADDENDA: Guys, word on the street is that the NY atrocity is coming up for a vote any day now. This would be disastrous for adoptee rights and would have long term consequences not only for NY adoptees but potentially adoptees in other states. Despite the shitty veto bill in MO, we have potentially some good momentum coming out of this session with Hawaii and MA. Let’s not lose that with what is the worst so-called access bill I’ve seen in probably 20 years. Please see the AA and tweet opportunities and let’s try to shut this sucker down….. Shea Grimm

Bill A2901c creates a bureaucratic, nightmarish Disclosure Veto/redaction system administered by the adoption court system, mandates confidential intermediary searches by the state, and requires judges to consider the wishes of the adoptive parents of adult adoptees when deliberating granting access to requests for copies of original birth certificates by adult adoptees. The amended language is an affront to all adoptees.
Both New York sponsoring organizations have issued statements in opposition to the amended bill. We join them and urge you to write the New York Assembly members and request a “NO” vote. Continue Reading →

Baby Drop Boxes: Even safe haven advocates oppose

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That baby box advocates continue to imply that AMT-COH supports this archaic and draconian practice is politically inept if not stupid. These claims baffle me since Jaccard has been vocal in public and private regarding his opposition. His statements are easy to document. Perhaps baby box leaders equate safe haven advocacy with baby drop box advocacy or believe in Big Lie Theory or are simply disingenuous. Perhaps baby drop box supporters are just incurious and enjoy being spoon-fed happy-dappy propaganda by their leaders as clueless as their followers about the tragic cause and effect of newborn discard. Or that they–leaders and followers alike–are all doing God’s will (an oft voiced belief). Boxers consistently fail to mention that Indiana baby drop boxes, the first two of which opened last month (Woodburn, Michigan City), are legally problematic under current Indiana safe haven law. Nor does the media ask. Continue Reading →

Missouri Update and Action Alert

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As most of you know, Missouri’s dirty zombie veto bill passed the House today with a vote of 127-28.

As previously noted this bill creates veto and redaction rights for Missouri birthparents for the very first time. As amended and now passed, those vetoes/redaction demands extend beyond a birthparent’s death. And they will now moving forward be presented to birthparents to be signed at the time of relinquishment/adoption. Access to OBCs for adoptee…s will be delayed until January 1, 2018 to allow the agencies to embark on a full public information campaign to notify and secure vetoes/redaction demands from birthparents.
Continue Reading →

Bastard Nation Action Alert: Massachusetts H2045/S1144 – Support clean bill!

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Bastard Nation | P. O. Box 9959 | Spokane, WA 99209 | Phone 614-641-0294

Massachusetts H.2045/S.1144 recently passed out of the Joint Committee on Public Health. These companion bills are clean and probably the shortest OBC access bill in history. When enacted they will close the gap between the haves and have nots, the worthies and the unworthies, by restoring the right of all Massachusetts adoptees, without restriction, to their own OBCs.

OBC for MA is not affiliated with Bastard Nation, but we support the bills as written. OBC for MA has requested help in bringing the bill to a full vote on the House and Senate Floors, and we have issued the following action alert and contact information: Continue Reading →

Missouri HB 1599. MARM: Your silence will not protect you

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Missouri Adoptee Rights Movement (MARM), continues to stonewall its members, friends, and adoptee rights activists in general on the status of HB 1599, you, know, the “beautiful thing” bill that if passed would strip Missouri adoptees, in the name of “adoptee rights,” of even more rights. As I asked in the lead-up to this debacle, what would Orwell do?

After Bastard Nation partner Missouri Open (MO) published its preliminary report on the Wednesday April 13, 2016 Seniors, Families and Children committee decision to gut more of the already gutted-but-once-clean bill with adoption agency sponsored amendments, MARM remained silent. Although MO posted its statement on the amendments on April 14, 2015 at 12:08 AM MARM did not post theirs until nearly 12 hours later (11:24 AM), and then with a big back pat and a horn toot: Continue Reading →

MISSOURI: Adoptees shafted again. HSC HB 1599 deforms even more.

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But, when you stand for nothing, you get nothing. Yesterday, the Senate Seniors, Children and Families Committee gutted the gutted bill even more with new restrictions. How is MARM going to spin this “beautiful thing”– a bill that would keep some adoptees records sealed FOREVER! (But aren’t adoptees dyin’?) Even the the National Council for Adoption in its Piercian anti-adoptee heyday wasn’t that extreme. Continue Reading →

Louisiana HB 391: My letter to the LA Civil Law & Procedure Committee

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At a time when other states are unsealing the OBC and other documents to adoptees to which they pertain, (Alabama, for instance, restored access in 2000 without incident) Louisiana inexplicably has HB 391 before it, The bill infantilizes adoptees and sends the message that they are not mature or even safe enough to hold a copy of their own birth certificate. The bill suggests that adoptees and adoption are something shameful to be hidden away locked in a government vault. Please do not support HB 391. Vote NO! Continue Reading →