Why the Adoption Establishment Annoys Me: Joy Lieberthal (aka Song Eun Hee): The adoptee as adoption professional

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The second entry in Why the Adoption Establishment Annoys the Heck Out Me blog week is Adoption Echos blogger  Joy  Lieberthal  (Song Eun Hee).  Joy is a Korean adoptee and clinical social worker specializing in issues of adoption. Her primary work is with children and young adults helping them to understand how adoption fits into their identity. She also works with adoptive parents. In her entry Joy’s discusses  the over arching  validity of pap and adoptive parent desire and privilege over the devalued and suspect adoptee experience and voice. QUOTE:  Sitting in my seat though, spending hours and hours with adopted people opposite me, I keep getting dumbstruck by how little our experience is viewed with the same amount of merit, outrage and pursuits for change.  For those of us who continue to dare to change the system, it seems our reputation as someone with an axe to grind precedes us.

Why the Adoption Establishment Annoys the Heck Out of Us: Trace DeMeyer – Top 5 Reasons

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Welcome to the unofficial “Why the Adoption Establishment Annoys  the Heck out of Us” blog week.  Organized by Kevin Ost-Vollmers and Shelise Gieseke from Land of a Gazillion Adoptess, adoptabloggers will sketch out their own annoyances regarding that most sacred of cows.  I don’t know who all is posting and when they will post, but whenever one arrives I’ll be sending out a link  here. My own won’t be up until the end of the week. Today  we kick off  the fun with  Native American journalist and memoirist Trace DeMeyer keeper of American Indian Adoptees: Lost Children, Lost Ones, Lost Birds.  Trace writes up the Top 5 Reasons the Adoption Establishment Bugs the Heck Out of  Me. Starting with (Lack of ) Disclosure and ending with Gratitude, Trace covers the gamut of adoption paternalism and interference that should be read out loud to every legislator in the remaining 43 closed states. QUOTE:  I can hear the lobbyist pounding on their tables, “adoptees should be grateful they were adopted.” The adoption industry is a billion dollar business and they don’t want to lose a single dollar in profits. It’s about money. Even now, the adoption industry does not appreciate adoptees or Continue Reading →

Arizona: Don’t put her up for adoption…give her to us!

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On February  8 a newborn was discovered in the front yard of a home on Kathleen Street in Phoenix.  Baby Kathleen (yes they named her that!) was transported to the hospital and seems to be all right. Neighbors reported seeing a young pregnant woman in the area shortly before the discovery: Witnesses from the area told detectives they saw a young woman walking around the neighborhood and at a nearby elementary school. She was described as “very pregnant” and appeared to be in “distress.” She is described as: Hispanic female, 17 to 24 years old, 5’3″, slender, dark hair in a ponytail, white spaghetti strap shirt, blue or gray pants, with a noticeable tattoo on her right bicep area that could possibly be a red floral design. Actually yard babies are fairly common, though they tend to be found in backyards.  I”ll leave the logistics of this pop and drop to the authorities. Comments on the story are typical, ranging from complaints about anchor babies (how abandoning an anchor baby helps a parent isn’t addressed) to “at least shed didn’t throw it in a dumpster” appear at the bottom of the story. And then there’s this, the most blatant pitch Continue Reading →

South Carolina: An OBC to get a driver’s license?

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I want to preface this blog by saying that I am no expert on the South Carolina situation.  I am pretty sure, though, that I have interpreted the law correctly. I’m posting this entry as a smaller part of the big picture of sealed adoption records in the age of the national security state. While our battle  is always about equal treatment under law and due process, in the restoration of our right to our original birth certificates,  there are serous practical and political consequences that grow out of our lack of access. Last night, Anne Piper Boyd, one of Bastard Nation’s Facebook friends posted a section from the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles homepage regarding application identification requirements to obtain a driver’s license in the state.  It seems if you are adopted, the BMV–at least in theory– demands proof!  The following  is an identification requirement  posted on  the BMV website  for  residents (native-born and new)  to obtain a South Carolina driver’s license (my emphasis) If your name has changed since birth, you must provide all legal documents (adoption records, marriage certificate, certificate of naturalization, court ordered name change) supporting all name changes from birth to present. For more information Continue Reading →

Washington SUB 2211: Still dead. What happens next year?

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It’s official. As we reported Saturday Washington SUB HB 2211 is dead for this session. Although  it’s still in the hopper, perennial bill killer, and bastard baiter Sen. Jim Hargrove, told 2211’s sponsor Rep. Tina Orwall that he has no plan to bring  it forward this year. Naturally, Hargrove is not available for comment, a convenience that enables him to sidestep the question even the most incurious reporter must wonder: what’s your problem with bastards? But never fear! Tina Ovrwall intends to bring the bill back next year. Don’t get too excited, though. According to the Tacoma News Tribune, her comrade in compromise, birthmother Rep  Ann Rivers, who is currently under the impression (we hope she wakes up) that she speaks for voiceless cowering first mothers: I  think it will give us the direction that Sen. Hargrove might have perceived was lacking,” Rivers said. “We’ll make sure all the bases are covered, and we’ll proceed. And just what might that direction be? Hargrove supported the 1993 law that opened OBCs for October 1, 1993 adoptions and beyond  unless a disclosure veto has been filed. According to Wa-Care no vetoes have been filed; Laurie Lippold from the Washington Children’s Home Society Continue Reading →

Gladney Back in Honduras

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This is from the US Department of State.  No explanation of Gladney’s recent boot from Honduras, but they’re back now. The only possible explanation I’ve heard, and my source didn’t have any documentation,   is that the problem may have been administrative. Messages for U.S. Citizens in 2012 February 17, 2012 Reinstatement of U.S. Adoption Agency by IHNFA (Instituto Hondureño de la Niñez y la Familia) The U.S. Embassy in Honduras informs citizens that the Instituto Hondureño de la Niñez y la Familia (IHNFA ) recently reinstated U.S. adoption agency Gladney Center for Adoption, per IHNFA’s resolution SG-009-2012.   This message updates the prior Message for U.S. citizens published on January 30, 2012.  Gladney Center for Adoption is now accredited by IHNFA and is approved to process adoptions for families in Honduras.   The Embassy continues to monitor the adoption situation in Honduras and will update U.S. citizens accordingly.  Meanwhile, we recommended that families who have not finalized adoptions contact IHNFA directly at at 011-504-2235-3565 to be sure their applications are handled by an accredited adoption agency.  

Washington SUB HB 2211: The testimony Bastard Nation would have submitted

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TESTIMONY SUB HB 2211: Adoptee access to their own original birth certificates Washington Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee xxxx, 2012 OPPOSE Privilege is the opposite of rights Our Washington representative may not be able the attend the hearing so we are submitting this testimony/letter via email. Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization is the largest adoptee civil rights organization in the United States. We support full, unrestricted access for all adopted persons, to their original birth certificates. (OBC). Bastard Nation’s roots are in Washington State, and we would like nothing more than to support SUB HB 2211. Unfortunately we cannot. The sticking point is SUB HB 2211’s “affidavit of non-disclosure,” otherwise known as a Disclosure Veto. This veto creates a special third party privilege for birth parents that no one, parent or otherwise, possesses:  to bypass state law and to personally bar the state from releasing another person’s birth certificate to the person to whom it pertains. This onerous and discriminatory veto privilege, already in place for Washington adoptions finalized on and after October 1 1993, is extended in SUB HB 2211 to cover adoptions finalized before October 1, 1993;. The bill expands the pool of adoptees unable to Continue Reading →

Washington SUB HB 2211: Dead according to sponsor and Wa-Care

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Washington SUB HB 2211 is reportedly dead.  Last night, Wa-Care, promoters of the bill, announced on Facebook and in a post on its mail list that Rep.Tina Orwall, sponsor of the bill, had informed them that it had died in the Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee. Not surprisingly, uber powerful Sen.  Jim Hargrove wielded the coup de grace. I’m  a little unclear what exactly happened since there was no hearing and the Washington Leg page doesn’t indicate, but it looks like he decided to refuse the bill a hearing. Normally I would wait for an official announcement, but since the bill’s sponsor has sent out the word, I’m passing it along. We are not sorry that SUB HB 2211 is dead.  The bill was restrictive,  maintaining and expanding the current disclosure veto system. But we also knew from the beginning that as long as Sen. Hargrove was calling the shots that nothing would happen.  Hargrove, in the Washington legislature for 28 years, has consistently and malignantly opposed all attempts, restrictive and non-restrictive, to free the state’s adoptees from their chattel status. We did not expect a sudden change of heart. We do not know what Hargrove’s problem is, but as long as he is permitted to continue to reign in the Continue Reading →

SB: 713: Missouri Thy Name is Misery

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Last year the Missouri legislature passed a really bad law, (SB 351)  that permits a handful of adoptees to get their identifying information from the state if their  birthpparents give their consent or there is evidence that the birthparents are deceased.  Note that the OBC is not released; only identifying information vetted by a low-salaried apparatchiki.  This year SB 1137,  has been introduced, which contains the same rules only the OBC would be released upon proof of birthparental consent or death.  This is what passes for progress in the Show Me State, which takes its motto way too seriously.. Now, we have Senator John Lamping (R-Dist 24),  stirring this stink pot with.SB 713, designed to further ridiculiousize  the absurd legal condition of Missouri’s adopted class.  In the words of the Senate SB 713 Summary: This act modifies the provision in current law allowing for identifying information to be be obtained from a biological parent who is deceased by also allowing such information to be released  if  the biological parent is proven to be 100 years of age or older at the time of request. In other words, if you’re an old bastard with a walker and bedpan, Sen.Lamping considers you mature and safe enough for a birth certificate.  Polite Continue Reading →

Washington State Sub HB 2211: Are adoptees a runny infection?

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Get this straight. Washington HB 2211/Sub HB 2211 is not an adoptee rights bill.  It does not restore the right of Washington State’s Class Bastard to their original birth certificates. HB 2211/Sub HB 2211 expands the already-in-place October 1, 1993 disclosure veto backward to include all adoptions. HB 2211/Sub HB 2211 creates a new and unique tiered DV system that not only retains the current segregation of the adopted from the non-adopted, but creates two tiers of black-holed adoptees segregated from the non-vetoed adopted and from each other.This miscreation of the bureaucratic mind  is supported by naive deformers who believe that something is better than nothing, even as they claim to abhor the something. Tina Orwall THE STORYEarlier this session WA-Care  (and on Facebook) the latest iteration  Washington’s Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight, got  a bill,  HB 2211 introduced, that would  open  the original birth certificates of the state’s adoptees, except when it didn’t.  Promoted as an “adoptee rights bill” the proposal, sponsored by adoptee Rep. Tina Orwall, (D-DesMoines) would not only keep the current October 1, 1993 disclosure veto in place, but extend it backwards to blackhole  those adopted anytime in the past; thus, expanding the pool of those whose Continue Reading →