Natural Mother Experience in Film: a Brief Review of D W Griffith and the Grammar of Film Adoption

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I’ve run short of time today, so to keep up the pace I’m posing here part of my study of adoption in film. This is first part of my longerl Where We Came From that I presented at the ASAC conference in Tampa in 2005, though this part was not included in the final draft. It stands on it’s own, though, there is much more to say about Griffith’s “bastard/adoption” work. ****** Many adoption films are family melodramas, and from the earliest films, the wronged woman and her child – wronged by husbands and fathers, parents, reformers or social workers – have been the subject of film. The study of American adoption film starts with D. W. Griffith. Griffith’s artistic view was more than loosely Victorian with values drawn from the antebellum South, theatrical melodrama, and Populist agrarianism. Griffith was a notorious melodramatist even when traditional melodrama was out of style; a non-Marxist advocate for the oppressed and powerless; an upholder of the bourgeois family as the ideal. He was against the forces of reform and the hypocritical “uplifters” whom he mercilessly attacked his films. The subject of many Griffith films is the interpersonal drama of the family within its Continue Reading →

BJ Lifton: New York Times Obit

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Today’s New York Times offered a featured obit on BJ Lifton who died last week of complications of Pneumonia: Betty Jean Lifton Dies at 84; urged open adoptions. Although the obit conflated open adoption and open records, it’s an otherwise good review of BJ’s life. I had no idea she was 84. I’m bad a age. I thought early to mid 70s. When “Twice Born” was first published, there were few books about the adoptee experience. Adoption in general was a veiled topic, and adoptees — assuming they were told anything — rarely knew their given names, their birth parents’ identities or the precise circumstances of their adoptions. As a result, generations of adoptees grew up with a void where their personal histories should be and, Ms. Lifton argued, with deep feelings of confusion, grief and loss. “When I was born, society prophesied that I would bring disgrace to my mother, kill her reputation, destroy her chances for a good bourgeois life,” she wrote in “Twice Born.” She added: “I say that society, by sealing birth records, by cutting adoptees off from their biological past, by keeping secrets from them, has made them into a separate breed, unreal even to Continue Reading →

Adopt Me: Adopt a Turkey

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CNN reported At Thanksgiving, Some adopt a turkey rather than eating one. Like in any proper adoption, volunteers must pass a screening process. Although it’s not a requirement, a majority of them are vegetarians or vegans. The individuals must have an adequate facility to care for the bird, such as a barn or a sizable yard. The organization prefers adoptive “parents” who don’t have other domestic animals or children who might chase turkeys. The nonprofit will deliver the turkey to the adoptive homes. In fact, it seems that adopting a turkey is more humane and professional than our current adoption process: From the Adopt-a-Turkey Project we find more (my emphasis): Since 1986, Farm Sanctuary has rescued more than 1,000 turkeys, placed hundreds into loving homes through our annual Turkey Express adoption event, educated millions of people about their plight, and provided resources for a cruelty-free holiday. For a one-time $30 donation, anyone can sponsor turkeys residing at Farm Sanctuary. Sponsor a turkey and receive a special adoption certificate in your name – or give sponsorships as gifts for family and friends. Donations are also needed to support our lifesaving efforts to promote a compassionate Thanksgiving and protect all farm animals. Continue Reading →

National Adoption Day: Stats and Shame

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Last Friday. November 18 was National Adoption Day. Baby Love Child, in her blog for that day, National Adoption Day: A celebration of sealed records & inequality, wrote in part: “National Adoption Day” must be recognized for what it is from the adoptees’ perspective rather than the adoption industry’s perspective; it represents the single largest number of sealed records of any day of the calendar year. A collective loss of thousands of kids original identities one stroke of a pen at a time. I had never thought of NAD specifically working in those terms: the single largest number of sealed records of any day of the calendar year. BLC pointed out that by the end of the week culminating with NAD, approximatley 4500 children would be adopted. Except for those adopted in the six free states, all of them will have their identities and histories obliterated by the state forever with the impounding and sealing of their birth cetificates. Unless, that is, we can fix it. It kinda made me sick. Making me sicker is the number of obcs that have been sealed alone on that “special” day since NAD’s inception in 2000. According to the Tri-State Defender: more than Continue Reading →

Blank Slate 2: More Texas Shenighans for National Adoption Awareness Month!

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Sunday I reported that the Texas Attorney General’s office claims that paps and adopters have no legal right to know the background of the children they intend to adopt. This isn’t the end of of the story! After WFAA broke the initial story of ‘Phillip” and “Lisa’s” fight with Texas authorities to get background information on the four children they were trying to adopt, the station says it received numerous emails “detailing similar problems.” Today, right in the middle of National Adoption Awareness Month, WFAA broadcast another case of Texas Department of Family and Protective Services shenanigans. This time it’s the story of “Michelle” and “Dave” who seven months ago tried to adopt two brothers, 5 and 7, from the state system. Records sent by the Department indicated the boys had no history of abuse or disturbing or disruptive behavior outside of “tantrums.” Soon after placement, however, the older boy began to rage for hours, punch himself in the face until his nose bled, and continually screamed that he would kill his new family. Knives and scissors were locked up. The article fails to mention if the couple contacted DFPS. We assume they did, but it looks like they didn’t Continue Reading →

Tennessee Convolution: A Resource

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Kansas, Alaska, Oregon, Alabama, New Hampshire, and Maine are the only states that recognize the right of all adopted persons, without exception, to receive their original birth certificates upon request. Deformers, however, attempting to foist their capitulation obc bills as the real deal, like to cook the books, adding other states, with conditional access to the list. They fail to mention those states are compromised and restrictive. To deformers, it appears, any state that offers some access, must be an open state. You can count on Tennessee to be at the top of their revisionist list. Around 1999, a couple years into the law, I received an email from a Tennessee bastard who refused to play along. In good faith he’d signed two or three affidavits and had been waiting 18 months to get his cert. Every time he inquired about his request, he’d get back more forms to sign. The last time I heard from him he said he’d decided to pay a searcher rather than continue to play ring around the bureaucrat. In 2000 I attended an adoption conference which featured the administrator of the Tennessee obc release program. She’d started the job only a couple day before Continue Reading →

Texas Blank Slate: Adopters Have No Right to Background Information

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More tales from the wacky world of adoption. I am only going by the news article I’m using below. I’d like to think there is more to this story but since it’s Texas and the topic is adoption… WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth reports that the Texas Attorney General has told would-be adopters “Phillip” and “Sara” that they have no right to know the background of the four children they were adopting from the state’s foster care program. In 2008, already the parents of five biological children, the Arizona couple was suckered by a Texas Department of Family and Protective Services flyer advertising a sibling group. Before they knew it, instead of adopting one child as planned, they were hooked on the sibs. Although the sibs had suffered “some neglect and physical abuse,” Texas authorities, they claim, told them the kids, ages, 3, 4, 5,and 6 were healthy and not in therapy. They were assured that the children had suffered no sexual abuse. Within a couple weeks of arrival at their new home, the two oldest were molesting the younger bio kids. The Arizona placement agency the couple worked with told them to contact their Texas caseworker. The paperwork they received back Continue Reading →

Small Update on BJ Lifton

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I’ll be updating and expanding last night’s post on BJ Lifton’s passing. In the meantime I have a couple updates from Facebook. As I learn more I’ll post it here. BJ’s husband Bob, posted this on FB tonight I am Robert Jay Lifton, and write to convey the extremely painful and deeply sad news that BJ, my wife of 58 years and lifelong partner, died on Nov. 19 in Mass Gen Hosp of complications of pneumonia. I want to thank you for your overwhelming outpouring of loving testimonials. We are planning a memorial and will notify you of its date. Also on Facebook Cathie Hanlon has organized A Moment in Memory of BJ Lifton: Stop for a moment, say a prayer for her family. Remember BJ’s fortitude. She spoke for us all! She was our voice who sought the truth for us all! Click on the link to “attend.” Of course, you can do this on your own, too.

We Lose Another One: B J Lifton

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At 11:45 tonight B J Lifton died. I don’t have the details but I know she had been hospitalized with pneumonia for the past week. I haven’t seen any details yet, but I’m sure some will be forthcoming tomorrow. I first read BJ’s books in 1980, right after I got I got my obc. I took Lost & Found out of the Ohio State University Library. It was old and beat up having undergone numerous readings. I was stunned that somebody was actually writing about adoptees from an “us” POV. ” Although I didn’t agree with everything she said, I was hooked. For the longest time I was convinced that nobody else would ever write about adoption, at least not that way. In a way I was right. I didn’t meet BJ until about 17 years later during the AAC Seattle conference. She had joined Bastard Nation. And boy, were we excited to have such a prominent member. Alfie and I were in the hospitality suite. Alfie was dressed as a cow and I was wearing a big red devil’s tail. Shea was with the band. BJ took my hand. I didn’t know what to say. All I could think Continue Reading →

Exclusive Video from the Willard: What the American Adoption Industry Doesn’t Want You to See

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This afternoon Bastardette and her news team arrived in Washington to cover the National Council for Adoption’s 30th anniversary festivities at The Willard. Earlier this evening, we shot this exclusive footage of what happens behind the closed doors of adoption industry privilege and money– where the industry believes it is safe from the prying eyes of the public. We believe this expose of the industry and it sycophants frolicking and fighting while our birth certificates remain sealed will shock the public into action. We have had an exhausting day. I need to retire to my $339/night room to clean up. I’ll resume resume regular blogging tomorrow.