Bastardette’s Letter to the Texas Senate: HB 984 Vote No!

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The easy way out of this quandary would have been to amend the language of Sections B and C from “authorize” to “prefer.” This would have guaranteed the meaning of equal protection and equal treatment under law and maintain the integrity of adoptee civil rights.

Unfortunately, no such amendment was accepted. Instead, an amendment was added to the bill that places a limitation on the time frame (July 1, 2016) that a natural parent may change her or his mind mind or file a Contact Preference Form and a Medical History Form. After that date, it is in the discretion of the Registrar. Of further concern, for adoptions after July 1, 2016, it is an adoption agency, not the Registrar, that issues and collects the forms. No language in the bill provides the date for compliance and there is no oversight or penalty to an agency that fails to adhere to the law. I can think of no other state that has a CPF on the books that puts that kind of power into the hands of either the registrar or adoption agencies. Continue Reading →

URGENT: Bastard Nation Action Alert–Vote No on Texas HB 984

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HB 984 (Rep. Deshotel/Sen. Creighton) having cleared the Senate State Affairs Committee (6-0), comes now to Second Read on the Texas Senate Floor. While the bill language is clean regarding adoptee access to their own original birth certificate, the accompanying Contact Preference Form is in reality a Contact Veto.

Section 2 and Section 3 of the bill would provide a birthparent a new affirmative right to “authorize” or “not authorize” contact, by their adult adoptee. The language of “prefer”, as utilized in Oregon, Alabama, New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island, was lobbied OUT of this bill. By replacing this single word, the legislation undermines an adoptee’s right to due process and the equal protection of the law. Section 4 of the bill places limitation on the time frame (07.01.16) that a birthparent may change their mind or file a Contact Preference Form and a Medical History Form. After that date, it is in the discretion of the Registrar. Of further concern, for adoptions after 07.01.16, it is an adoption agency, not the Registrar, that issues and collects the forms. No language in the bill provides date for compliance and there is no oversight or penalty to an agency that fails to adhere to the law. Continue Reading →

Bastardette’s Letter to the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee: HB 984–Amend or Vote No!

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This is not a language nit-pick. Language matters, and there is a world of difference legally between the words “prefer” and “authorize.” These sections take the traditional language of the CPF and turns it on its head exchanging the word “prefer” for “authorize;” thus, creating a “Contact Veto” (without that specific term in the bill) that will act as a restraining order against an adopted adult with no opportunity for that adult to appear in court and stand against the accuser. No reason needs given, and no court adjudicates the request. We believe that a Contact Veto by that or any other name is unconstitutional and actionable.
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Bastard Nation Action Alert: Texas HB 984–Amend or Vote No!

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Section 2 and Section 3 of the bill would provide a birthparent a new affirmative right to “authorize” or “not authorize” contact, by their adult adoptee. The language of “prefer”, as utilized in Oregon, Alabama, New Hampshire, and Maine, was lobbied OUT of this bill. By replacing this single word, it changes the intent of adoptee autonomy. Continue Reading →

Adoption Do-Rights Through the Lens of William S. Burroughs: I want to be buried right in the same coffin with you

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Our Adoption Do-Rights are known by various names: deformers, Scooby-Dooers, Do-Bees ,asskissers, and the American Adoption Congress and its hangers-on.The goal of these pristine patsys is to be liked by downtown fat cat tax eaters, adoption industry hacks, and therapists who do their damnedest to suck the life out of Class Bastard dispensing persona bromidal solutions to political and class rot.

As Burroughs so perfectly put it: Continue Reading →

Bastardette on Illinois NPR: Foundling Birth Certificates

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My central gripe about the bill is that it would create a “foundling birth certificate” to serve as an original birth certificate for all newborns “relinquished” at a state-authorized safe haven ” drop off point. The certificate, to protect parental anonymity, will contain no identifying information about the relinquishing parent even if that information is known to hospital, fire, police, or social service authorities. Continue Reading →

Indiana SB 352: The Non-Access Bill by Guest Blogger Lisa Zatonsky

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On the surface, the bill used the State Registry as an intermediary while allowing the biological parent(s) to add an additional disclosure veto on all information found in the Registry and on pre-adoptive sibling contact information. The disclosure vetoes would remain effective even after the biological parents were deceased. As if the mutual consent aspect of the Registry requiring both the biological parent(s) and the adoptee to be registered before information may be released isn’t a big enough access hurdle? Repeatedly, SB 352 names the disclosure vetoes as a “non-release of contact information form”. A Contact Preference Form, along with its exact wording, is not in the bill. Yet, the terms and their names were interchanged by those presenting the bill to individuals, media, and legislators. Continue Reading →

INDIANA: EMERGENCY ACTION ALERT: Urge Indiana State Senate to Vote No on SB 352 as written

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Indiana has a very bad bill in the hopper and ready for vote in the Senate. Orignally a clean bill it has been deformed into an anti-adoptee piece of legislation that not only includes a Disclosure Veto, but a warped and inaccurately named Contact Veto that allows birthparents to authorize the state to withhold contact information from pre-adoptive sibings even if they are registered with the state’s adoption reunion registry. Indiana Open Access has offered an amendment to remove ant-adoptee language. Continue Reading →