Bastard Nation cheering squad Oregon continues to lead the way! From Ron Morgan: SB 623 is now Measure 623- it was signed by Governor Kitzhaber on Thursday, June 6, 2013 and will be effective January 1, 2014. At that time Oregon adult adoptees may access their adoption court file upon request, complementing the right to access granted by 1998’s Measure 58. More to follow…
Good news from Oregon! While Washington state lawmakers continue to sweep its state’s bastards under the rug like pesky little dust bunnies dirting up the Statehouse. the Oregon House today unanimously passed SB623. Enacted in the spirit of Bastard Nation and Helen Hill’s Ballot Measure 58, the bill expands the right of all Oregon adoptees to acquire, upon request, the contents of their adoption file-– a right that no other state (so far!) recognizes. In other words, Oregon has swept away statutory adoption secrecy by opening the files and trusting the parities involved to leave their axes at home. Adoptees: the age of OBC access will be lowered from 21 to 18. the entire adoption file, except for the Home Study, will be made available to the adoptee upon request at the age of 18 without a court order. the Home Study may be released by court order for “good cause”. Birthparents: original parties to the adoption may view and copy documents in the court adoption file to which they were signatories. Under existing law birth parents must petition the courts to gain access to documents they were required to sign, and often are rejected by courts under the onerous and undefined “good Continue Reading →
This profile of Aaron appears in the latest issue of the Campus District Observer in Cleveland. Aaron, as the profile says, is:a police officer for the Third District Community Service Unit in Cleveland. He works from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. patrolling various neighborhoods within the 3rd district, which extends from the river in the flats to Little Italy and includes the Campus District. Aaron is passionate about ensuring the safety and quality of life of Clevelanders. We share a favorite Cleveland location: Playhouse Square. Must run in the family! Aaron is the son of my late brother Rob–and grandson of my bio dad, the remarkable and fabulous Jack Reese. Aaron is one of the people who need protected from me. I’m adopted and you know how we are. Aaron Reese (right) with fellow officer and mentor Frank Sanchez, taken a day before Sanchez’s retirement. Photo provided by Aaron Reese.
Nothing has changed It was just the beginning..
Save the date! Distribute Freely! The great bastard bard Mary Gauthier will be performing here in Columbus on May 18. I first ran into Mary over 10 years ago on WCBE. I’d never heard of her. I don’t remember the name of the song that was played and the word “adoption” wasn’t mentioned once. But Wowza! I shouted “that’s about being adopted.” It was. And I googled her. Since then I’ve been a big fan. Her May 2010 CD The Foundling, is a tour d’ force of her own adoption experience: The songs (on The Foundling) tell the story of a kid abandoned at birth who spent a year in an orphanage and was adopted, who ran way from the adopted home and ended up in show business, who searched for birth parents late in life and found one and was rejected, and who came through the other side of all of this still believing in love–but speaks to us all no matter what our experience.It was named 3rd top CD of the year by the LA Times. My personal favorites are the title cut and “Blood is Blood”. What bastard can’t appreciate the absurdity of: adoptaspeak: When I was a child They Continue Reading →
This morning SB23–now Sub(stitute) Bill 23, sailed through the Ohio Senate Medicaid, Health, and Human Services Committee, 8-0. No substantive changes to the bill were made, but several amendments were added to clarify procedures in the original bill. The sub bill is not online as of this writing, but should be available on the SB23 page shortly. Sub 23: Removes the 90-day deadline for the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) to mail the contents of an adoption file to the requesting adoptee. The original bill time-framed the response window to 90 days, but ODH, fearful of the time it will take to process the large influx of requests it expects immediately after the bill becomes law, asked that the time frame be removed The Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services (ODJFS) will create the contact preference form (cpf))as opposed to ODH, designated in the original bill. Requires any previous release of information forms on file under current law to be released with the adoption file. Deletes relatives “by marriage” from the definition of lineal descendant. (Ex: .the adult child of a deceased adoptee can request the file, but his or her spouse cannot.). Removes a provision prohibiting a birthparent from including identifying information in a social or medical history form.. Removes provisions requiring ODH to Continue Reading →
I’m late in getting this posted, but I wanted to file a short report on the April 17 hearing for SB23 at the Ohio Senate Medicaid, Health, and Human Services Committee. You can also read an update on the ROAR site (Update #13). Wendy Bllitzer Barkett This was the first proponent hearing (the sponsor hearing was held on February 13). and consisted of two groups of witnesses. The first were adoptees, some from out of state; the second “the experts.” Kicking off the hearing was adoptee poet Wendy Blitzer Barker who came all the way from Texas to tell her story and support the bill. She was followed by Jeffrey Costello (Atlanta), Erin Hopkins McHugh, Ohio firefighter Stephen Kelly, and Julia Derry. Some told jerk-around stories relating to their individual probate court request for non-ID, which indicated that some courts are or have been in the past, out of compliance with current Ohio non-ID laws. And I was beginning to think I’d heard it all! Elizabeth Samuels These witnesses were followed by Professor Elizabeth J Samuels (University of Baltimore Law School) presenting the history of sealed records in the US and former Maine State Senator Paula Benoit sponsor of the bill that restored the right to OBC access in her Continue Reading →
Washington HB1525 passed the Senate and is on its way to the governor’s desk. If signed, it will promote and continue the state’s sealed records system and deny the right of all Washington adoptees to their original birth certificates. As other state’s restore adoptee rights and open our OBCs, some Washington adoptees will find the right to their OBC subject to the whim of third party approval and comfort and will have no chance of ever getting it. Don’t let this happen! Write directly to Governor Jay Inslee and tell him why HB1525 is bad for adoptees, their families and the State of Washington. Contact information for him is here. (a template for email) There is also information for phone and fax contact at that link. Phone: 360-902-4111 TTY/TDD users should contact the Washington Relay Service at 711 or 1-800-833-6388. Fax: 360-753-4110 Email a copy of your note to Insle’s senior polilcy adviser Andi Smith at [email protected] We have only a couple days to get this message to the Governor’s Office. Below is a copy of Bastard Nation’s letter to Governor Inslee sent on April 17. Send us a copy of your letter to comments below, and we’ll post it here. Kill HB1525! Continue Reading →
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 →
The Ohio House today voted 94-1 with 2 abstentions to pass HB61 which restores the unrestricted right of OBC access to those in Ohio adopted between January 1, 1964-September 17, 1996. It’s companion in the Senate is pending. Sadly, the bill did not pick up the ’96’s who will still be subject to a Disclosure Veto (DV) already in place for that access tier.. The truth is that Ohio Legislative Services, which vets all bills, refused to OK challenging the DV law that amounts to an agreement between the State of Ohio and a handful of cowardly biological parents who demand that the government grant them a special privilege to hide their identities from their adult offspring. This “agreement” is quite different from the blanket sealing of OBCs with no legal “agreement,” despite what opponents claim and we have shown repeatedly holds no water. No one knows how many shirkers are on file here, but the number 20 has been tossed around the last couple of years. I believe DVs can be removed from 1996 law, but the legal arguments need to be developed more fully, and the big fat arm of Legislative Services needs twisted.. I also believe that the foolishness of OBC access for all but Continue Reading →