My Letter to the Pennsylvania Senate: Vote NO on PA HB 162

HB 162, in fact, does not meet the standard of OBC access practiced in other states. The bill does not authorize the release the OBC to the person to whom it obtains, but instead creates a “birth summary” of selected pieces of information from the certificate to be sent off to the adoptee. It also authorizes birthparents, upon request, to have their names redacted from the summary, Moreover, HB 162 demands that adoptees be high school graduates or the holders of a GED to access this parsed summary! Ironically, there may already a good number of pre-1985 adoptees with in-tact OBCs in their possession, legally obtained Continue Reading →

Bastard Nation Action Alert: PA HB 162 – Continues to deny OBC access for all. VOTE NO!

The amended version violates adult adoptees’ rights to due process and the equal protection of the law by allowing a birth parent to redact their name from the original birth certificate record. Adults should not be required to get permission from our birthparents to obtain our unaltered birth record.

The amended version mandates that in order to receive the birth record information, one must be at least age 18 AND be either a high school graduate, have their GED, or be able to prove they have “legally withdrawn” from school. The subjects of school dropouts and birth certificate access are not related. Continue Reading →

The Hypocrisy of Ohio Right to Life: Loud on “saving babies'” silent on global murder of children

Welll, it seems that Ohio Right to Life has blocked me from posting on its Facebook page even though I “like” it and still do. I objected to this “inspirational” message from Diane Mariechild, a new agey touchy-feely feminist-type, who I doubt Ohio Right to Life and its Fearless Leader Mike Gonidakis wouldn’t go within 50 feet of had she not been agendized by them. I mean, for Pette’s sake, she’s the author of  Lesbian Sacred Sexuality. Now this particular quote,especially, witinin the context of Ohio Right to Life, really irked me. I had to get to work so I wrote a short note asking if this made those of us who have no desire to breed for the state or God not  real women.” Well, it stayed up there for a few hours, but tonight it’s gone, as well as my abilitly to comment. That’s no big deal,but I find it amusing that ORTL who demonizes sexually active women and goes to great social and political lengths to extract their newborns from them to be recycled in the suburbs, demands a public “safe space” when they’re called on it Feeling frisky, I posted on another thread at the same Continue Reading →

Bastardize your friends, family, and yourself at the Bastard Boutique!

The Bastard Boutique is now open for business.

After a long hiatus, Bastard Nation swag is once again avaiilable to the public. We have a large selection of Bastard Nation calendars, postcards, magnets and hard to come-by keyrings and jewelry. More swag is on the way. Here’s a sample: Continue Reading →

Goodbye National Adoption Month: I won’t miss you!

Well, I’m not sure if we conquered, but bastards and adoptees certainly held our own this National Adoption/National Adoption Awareness Month–the longest month of the year. Especially  long if you’re force-writing every day while tin horn blowers and tin hat wearers, shysters in 3-piece suits, flim-flamers,  do-gooders, Biblicalticians ,Grundys, neurotics, pschchotics, happy dappies, and woundies are all out to get you from one side or the other. Me thinks the whole world is crazy except me and thee; and sometimes I wonder about thee. Continue Reading →

Two More Angels Lose Their Wings: Angels in Adoption winners charged with child abuse

It’s getting to be a habit. Two more Angels in Adoption winners have fallen to earth with a big thud and are currently sitting in a well-deserved slammer.

Fox29 in Kansas City reports that Topeka City Councilman Jonathan Robert Schumm, 34, and his wife Allison Nicole Schumm, 32, were arrested last Thursday (Thanksgiving) and charged child abuse and aggravated battery. Continue Reading →

The B List: Bastardette’s Adoption Playlist

Writer Suzanne Gilbert (Tapioca Fire) posted her playlist of adoption search and reunion songs on Facebook today and asked if anyone else had their own. Looking around tonight for something to write about, I thought I’d glom off her idea. My songs, though, aren’t particularly about search and reunion but about adoption in general–how I’ve thought about and reacted to adoption over the last four decades. What affected me once, doesn’t necessarily affect me now, but when I hear it I think: a-ha adoption! Continue Reading →

Bastard Nation Bedtime Stories: #flippingthe script on the adoptee narrative

One of the greatest tools we have in adoptee rights today is ridicule: satire, parody, and humor. Unfortunately many adoptees fail to see humor in their situation. Spending $20,000 and 20 years of your life to find out where you came from is enough to take the edge off. Continue Reading →

I Want a Pony! Vermin Supreme for President!

Next to sealed birth certificates, pony deprivation is the most serious problem adoptees face today. Placing us for adoption in the belief that we would be reared in a home with a pony which they couldn’t provide, birthparents have been shocked, to learn that forever families did not, in fact, come automatically equipped with the promised pony. Most adoptees, much to our (and our birthparents) dismay have been forced to live a pony-free life. We’re not happy about it.

2016 Presidential hopeful Vermin Supreme has stepped up to our plate promising to change that. He has formed the Free Pony Party (and on Facebook) and promises a government- subsidized pony for everyone in the United States. Continue Reading →