BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT STOP WASHINGTON HB1525 AND SB5118  SAY NO TO CONTINUED AND EXPANDED DISCLOSURE VETOESDISTRIBUTE FREELY! The State of Washington currently has two bills running, one in the House and the other the Senate, promoted by politicians as OBC access bills. They are not! It is true that both bills, “open” OBC  access  to the majority of  pre-1994 adoptees, who are currently barred, except by court order from access.    Importantly, however   the bills  continue to maintain the current sealed records system  (1) with an expanded Affidavit of Disclosure procedure (Disclosure Veto)  and (2) a misnamed  “contact preference form” which acts as a DV on top of the Affidavits that covers all adoptees, no matter when they were born or adopted.  Both authorize third parties to bar the state from releasing  the birth certificate of adoptees to whom they pertain.  Only four (4) Affidavits of Disclosure have been filed  in Washington since 1993, and those were filed in June 2012 in what appears to be an attempt by opponents to derail enactment of a similar bill last session. Legislators prefer to hold the  rights of thousands of the state’s adoptees hostage to “protect” the vague  “interests”  and comfort zone of  four anonymous persons. Washington legislators have made it clear that Continue Reading →

Below is Bastard Nation’s testimony in opposition to SB5118 submitted to the House Judiciary Committee for the March 26, hearing.  It it somewhat different from last week’s  SB 1525. Both bills are bad, each in their own way! SB 5118 TestimonyAdoptee access to their own original birth certificates Washington State House of RepresentativesJudiciary Committee March 26 2013 OPPOSE Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization is the largest adoptee civil rights organization in the United States. We support only full unrestricted access for all adopted persons, to their original birth certificates (OBC). We do not support any restrictions such as the Affidavit of Non-Disclosure, Disclosure Vetoes (DV), Contact Vetoes (CV), white-outs, or any other form of restricted access to a true copy of the original birth certificate. SB 5118 does not support the civil and human right of adult citizens who were adopted to unconditional and unrestricted access to their original birth certificate. The Senate Human Services & Corrections Committee did at one point propose a substitute bill* that citizens throughout Washington State, this entire nation and Bastard Nation would have, and did support. That substitute version has since been amended and the bill now continues the State of Washington’s discriminatory Continue Reading →

HB 1525   TESTIMONY Adoptee access to their own original birth certificates Washington Senate Human Services  and Corrections Committee March 21, 2013 | Presented by Lori Jeske OPPOSEPrivilege is the opposite of rights Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization is the largest adoptee civil rights organization in the United States. We support only full, unrestricted access for all adopted persons, to their original birth certificates.  (OBC). We do not support any restrictions such as the Affidavit of Disclosure, Disclosure Vetoes (DV), Contact Vetoes (CV), white-outs, or any other restricted access to a true copy of the original birth certificate. HB 1525 is being purported as a bill that supports “adoptee rights”.  However, the bill continues the State of Washington’s discriminatory sealed birth records system.  While this bill would allow a substantially larger number of adult adopted citizens access to their original birth certificate, the bill continues to prohibit the release of original birth certificates due to the “Affidavit of Non-Disclosure” which serves a privilege for only four (4) citizens at the present time.   Affidavit of Non-Disclosure:  This form is onerous and only serves as a discriminatory privilege.  The Affidavit of Non-Disclosure was implemented into state law back in 1993 and applies Continue Reading →