The "Shape" of Adoption: What’s a Meta For?

Earlier today on FB, Hanne Andersen linked a 2009 Motherhood Deleted post, The Myth of the Triad. In  that entry, blogger Robin Westbrook (one of favorite bloggers, btw),  linked to one of my first pieces on the triad myth–a copy of my presentation at the oxymoronical  2006 Ethics in Adoption Conference in Arlington, Virginia where adoptees and moms suffered through bastard moments and shut-up Q & A sessions. Re-reading my short presentation got me thinking about  the pretty shapes-of -adoption deformers like to toss about at hearings while they’re being polite obedient children asking for a cookie. ADOPTION:  CIRCLE, TRIANGLE, PENTAGON, CONSTELLATIONWhat next?  Decagon? So I did a Google search on geometric figures to see if there is anything that actually fits adoption and the complicated and secret relationships it invents. I like Adoption Trapezoid, with its scary implications, but it’s just a four-sided  “triangle.” The Cone of Shame is tempting. Personally, I favor  the Metatron’s Cube model,  but  it’s something only adoption nerds can enjoy, and impractical and irrelevant to politicians and frumpy bureaucrats who hold the key to the locked cabinets. WARNING:  :  For internal use only! This  leaves only one symbol  The cross.  (I know!) But think about it.  A big horizontal plank with two little planks nailed to Continue Reading →

Bastardette is Back!

I  have not blogged for the last two months or so due to an extremely stressful situation in my life which has made sustained concentration virtually impossible. I’m not going to discuss it here, but things have improved (I think) and hopefully I will be able to put together a coherent sentence from here on out, and get back to business. This month, I’m dedicating some of my posts to Ohio Right to Life. I’ve adopted (sorry!) the new Blooger interface. You can see obvious differences now,  (still having some problems) but I plan to make some more when I have the time.

Demons of Adoption Awards 2011! Vote!

(NOTE:  I switched to the new Blooger interface and I’m not sure how well my links are showing up on the screen.  Can a few people let me know if they can see them well.  It may just be the computer I’m working on.I’m also having trouble with spacing.) It’s that time of year again! Voting for the 5th Annual Demons of Adoption Awards is at hand.   Pound Pup offers us a fine selection to chose from this year, and as usual, what’s a girl to do?  So many choices; so few votes! .  Nominations have been expanded  this year into separate categories:  The Industry; The Regulators, and my favorite,  The Mouthpieces. My hometown industry  favorite is Adoption by Gentle Care whose been begging for  the award for years. They’re the ones who handled the notorious Baby Grayson placement. ( I’m mean!  I’d planned to nominate Grayson’s PAPs, but came up a day short and a dollar late.) This years nominees are: The IndustryA Act of Love Adoption Agency:  for purposefully finding ways to curcumvent fathers consent (and me:; not to mention bad grammar)Adoption by Gentle Care:   for keeping a young boy (Thad Wyrembek aka Grayson Vaughn) from his biological father Lifetime Adoption:  for predating Continue Reading →

For Jane on her 100th Birthday

Today is the 100th anniversary of my mother’s (a) birth. Jane Hunt was born at home on August 2, 1911 in Columbus, Ohio.Her mother was Alice Thoman Hunt. Her father Charles O Hunt. Alice’s parents Emerson Thoman and Elizabeth Jane (Snyder) Thoman (who I was named for), were transplants from Leetonia, Ohio (Columbiania, Ohio) in northeast Ohio, close to the Pennsylvania line. The Thomans had been in America since the around the mid 1700s when the settled in the York County, Pennsylvania area. The Hunts came to America in the early 1700s settling in Sussex County NJ and eventually moving southwest to Perry County, Ohio. Emerson and Lizzie owned a grocery on S. 17th Street in Columbus. The family, and as far as I know, lived above or behind it. Alice graduated from Columbus East High School in 1906, with a diploma in Latin and Literary Studies. She took a job as a clerk in the shoe department of The Bee, the second largest department store in the city. tHAT same year, Emerson Thoman (l) died at the age of 43. Alice was devoted to her father and was grief stricken. Five months later she ran off to Newport, Kentucky Continue Reading →

Rhode Island #7: Governor Signs Law! Another Brick Falls

It’s been a long 67 years! Around noon today, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, without ceremony, signed S478 Sub AA into law. The bill restores the right of all Rhode Island adoptees, abrogated in 1944, to claim their original birth certificates, without restrictions or conditions, upon request. The law will go into effect July 1, 2012. It has been a pleasure to work in an advisory and support capacity with Access Rhode Island: the Little Engine That Could. Through sheer perseverance, clarity of purpose, and a refusal to back down from its core principle of access for all without restriction, Access Rhode Island defeated incredibly strong opposition in the Senate. I don’t personally know all the people involved in this victorious campaign, but in alphabetically order, these are some of the who who led the way: Kara Foley, Nancy Horgan, Christine Lachapelle-Miller, and Paul Schibbelhute. A former activist once told me that states like Rhode Island didn’t really count. He wanted the key states. Of course, we all want them, but I argued that all states count. All are important. Small states can bring down key states in the end. Rhode Island just knocked another brick out of the wall! Continue Reading →

Rhode Island S478 Sub AA: Support Letter to Full House

Bastard Nation, the Adoptee Rights Organization, the largest adoptee civil rights organization in North America, urges the passage of Rhode Island S478 Sub AA, which restores the right of all Rhode Island adoptees to access their original birth certificates without restriction, upon request. We, however, reject the age qualification of 25, set by the Senate,. The House earlier had voted 66-0 for H5443 Sub A which authorized the access age at 18, the state’s age of majority. with which we agree. That said, lawmakers in both Houses have already decided that all Rhode Island adoptees, without condition and restriction, have a right, as they did until 1944, to their original birth certificates. It is, therefore, imperative to restore that right now, and get a clean law on the books and working. We believe that in the near future, the access age set out in S478 Sub AA should be and can be reduced to the age of majority in order for the adopted and not-adopted to be treated the same under law and policy regarding public document access. The age discrepancy sets a bad precedent, and treats the adopted and no adopted differently. We are grateful for the support Rhode Continue Reading →

Isaac Jonathan Dykstra Update: Trial date to be announced soon

This is cross-posted from my Russian blog, Nikto Ne Zabyt — Nichto Ne Zabyto. Eastern Iowa News Now reported yesterday that lawyers have narrowed down Brian Dykstra’s trial date to the week of October 24 or the week of November 28, 2011. Dyskstra is charged with 2nd degree murder in the August 2005 death his Russian adopted son, Isaac Jonathan Dykstra. Due to scheduling conflicfts, proceedings maybe be forced to occur in non-sequential order. A definite trial date will be announced soon. Eleven doctors and 39 witnesses are expected to testify. More information on the case can be found on Nikto, in the righthand sidebar, including In Memoriam and Summary of Killers and Sentences.

Action Alert: Write Rhode Island House Today. Support S478 SubAA

PLEASE FORWARD FREELY BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT RHODE ISLAND S 478 Sub AA Rhode Island Adoptees Need Your Help Today! House HEW vote scheduled for 4:00 PM Monday, June 27, 2011 Tell House Committee to support HB S478 Sub AA– already supported similar bill a few weeks ago Make Rhode Island #7 H478 Sub A, amended and re-numbered to H478 AA, a bill to allow any adoptee 25 years or older to obtain a copy of that person’s original birth certificate with no conditions or restrictions passed the Rhode Island Senate unamously last week. Friday the bill, now re-numbered S478 Sub AA, was assigned to the House Health and Human Services Committee. A hearing is scheduled for Monday June 27, 2011 IMPORTANT NOTE: a similar House bill H 5443 Sub AA passed the House 66-0 two weeks ago, but will not be heard in the Senate. H478 Sub AA is the LIVE BILL. Despite the age qualificaiton (orignally 30, but reduced to 25 last week), which Bastard Nation does not agree with, we believe that since the House and Senate are already in agreement that the state’s adoptees have a right to their original birth certificates without restriction upon request, Continue Reading →