As some of you  know I’ve been forced  in old age to take a job as an  :”inventory associate.”–that is, I count inventory at  mostly chain  stores– Penney’s ,Victoria’s Secret, Party City,,  Tractor Supply, Hollisters.  For the last two days  I’ve worked at the Lowe’s in Mount Vernon, Ohio. . Today I counted over 16,000 pieces of merchandise, everything from screws and  light bulbs to planks of lumber. It’s tiring.  Afterwards, I trudged  back home, and after nursing my decrepitude with a bag of White Castle double cheese sliders I promptly fell asleep There. in Dreamland, I dreamed  the most interesting message:  Martin Scorsese hired me to write a screenplay on  the history of adoption reform..  I envisioned it as a bourgeois Gangs of New York with Bill Pierce as Bill  the Butcher, and me as Amsterdam Vallon. –but  probably less compelling.  Thankfully this screenplay will never make it to Marty’s mailbox. This dream however, reminded  me of other adoption- related dreams I’ve had  through years. Theyonly stopped when I  (for you pop psych fans) I integrated my adoptive and non-adoptive  self. ***** I come home from school and find my amother has been “sent away.” Nobody , including my Continue Reading →

 Call for Papers Mothering from the Margins: New Philosophical DirectionsEditors: Amrita Banerjee and Bonnie MannSubmission deadline: July 15th, 2013. The last two decades have witnessed growing philosophical scholarship on pregnancy, birth, and mothering – areas in which the discipline of philosophy has hitherto remained largely silent. Scholarship in these areas is philosophically important since it takes women’s embodied experience and maternal practice (a practice that has been historically placed in the realm of ‘feminine’ work) as serious domains of philosophical reflection and, more importantly, recognizes the potential of these domains for generating new knowledge in ethics, epistemology, ontology, etc. While this work constitutes an important new development in feminist and philosophical inquiry, there are a number of critical gaps in the new literature. While reviewing some recent work on the topic for the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Shelley M. Park notes the absence of the voices of “non-normative maternal subjects” (Park, 2012), that is, maternal subjects that are not “straight, biological, middle-class, able-bodied, white, western mothers of infants and very young children.” (Park, 2012) Social, cultural, economic, and political arrangements (such as race, nationality, sexual orientation, etc.) that anchor ‘non-normative’ maternal subjectivity, as well as ‘non-hegemonic’ contexts of mothering (such Continue Reading →

Good news for adoption researchers and activists! The Triadoption  Archives–a massive collection of news and magazine articles, adoption reform newsletters, search and reunion materials, maternity home/adoption agency directories, pictures, and audio and video records — is now digitized and online. Much of the material is from the 1970s and 1980s, but some goes back as far as the 1930s. I admit it. that until  Paul Redmond posted a link to the site this afternoon on the Bastard Nation FB page, I’d never heard of the Triadoption Archives.  My bet is you haven’t  heard of  it either, and it’s a shame for both of us. From an introduction to the archives page: TRIADOPTION® was formed as an information center in 1978 to gather and dispense data to assist adoptees, birthparents, siblings and others in locating family members. Based on the belief that adoption adds options and creates extended families, it seemed appropriate to support full disclosure to all involved parties, opening of all sealed records and assistance in acquiring everything pertinent to facilitating reunions and ongoing relationships.For a decade, adoption reform movement newsletters were collected from over 500 organizations spread across North America and some around the world. Newspaper and magazine Continue Reading →

Claud d’Arcy has been kickin’ it high this NaBloPomo with some very relevant wor.k on her blog, Musungs of the Lame. Today she published a very nice research piece BraveLoveorg– Another Front for Adoption Profits.  on bravelove.org,  a new, seemingly well-funded, baybee grabbing organization out of Dallas.  I considered looking  into bravelove myself, but was busy with other projects and knew it wouldn’t happen, so I’m happy Claud  picked up up the shotgun and bagged a big one.. Here’s what bravelove says about itself.(my emphasis): Our mission is to change the perception of adoption through honest, informative, and hopeful communication that conveys the heroism and bravery a birth mother displays when she places her child with a loving family through adoption. The heartbreaking truth is that many women facing unplanned pregnancy feel unable to care for a child. Sometimes the single-most loving thing a mother can do is place her child with a loving, eager adoptive family. We aim to invite and empower women to choose adoption. In other words, heroizing women into tossing their newborns into the ever-shrinking adoption market evaporating  for  lack of product. Altruism.  See, if  you love your baby hard enough,  you;’ll give it away,.  I Continue Reading →

Bastard Goddess Janet gets her OBC One of the collateral benefits and enjoyments of bastard rights activism has been the election,of adoptees and other adoption reform activists to state legislatures. After a couple years of trying to pass access legislation in New Hampshire, in 2004 Bastard Nation’s own Janet Allen was elected to the New Hampshire House.  During her second term, she was instrumental in the enactment of SB 335  which retored the right of all the state’s adoptees the access upon request.of their original birth certificates.  Janet was the first person in the state to receive her OBC when  records were opened January 2005. Since then Maine has elected two activists to its House. Bobbi Beavers,  first mother and co-founder of OBC for ME,  shepherded PL 409 which  in 2009, restored the right of OBC access to Maine adoptees, through the Legislature   She was was elected to the House in 2010 (D-District 148) and  re-elected yesterday,  3,164-  2,094. Bobbi sits on the Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology. Her legislative interests  include foreclosure protection and environmental issues. Bobbi earned  perfect marks from the non-partisan Maine Conservation Voters for her votes to protect the environment and invest Continue Reading →