Is this professional? Is this normal? Does this exude confidence? Would we donate to this organization? Would we leave our baby with her? Hmmmm. No! No! No! Nol! Continue Reading →
Today, HB 2284/S1146 the bill that restores the right of all Massachusetts-born adoptees to obtain their Original Birth Certificates without the restriction, goes into effect. Until today Massachusetts adoptees born between July 17, 1974, and January 1, 2008, were tossed in a black hole by a series of archaic laws that kept their records sealed except by court order. Those born before and after those dates enjoyed full and unrestricted access to them.No reasonable explanation was ever given for this nonsense… Continue Reading →
Class Bastard—the Adopted—to the minds of the baby box tycoonery poses some kind of existential threat to their evangelical stampede through America to normalize baby-abandonment-by-box-in-the-wall. Class Bastard (and I) are not on their politically correct page. Objecting to baby boxes turns adoption saviorism of all creeds and colors on its head disrupting the adoption mythology and mythological uses of adopted people in a patriarchal culture. And for that, box pushers have no reputable answer other than to claim we are disturbed, had a “bad experience” in adoption, “just want dead babies,” or the most popular accusation, “hate adoption.” Now go stand in the corner, you ungrateful little bastard! Continue Reading →
No one knows the exact number, but thousands of queer and trans young people are lost, figuratively and literally, in the broken corrupt foster and adoption systems and what follows. They are subject to harassment, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, social isolation, incarceration, depression, suicide ideation, stigma, bullying, exploitation, violence, and rejection by bio families as well as foster and adoptive ones. They and their families, who do stand with them, are increasingly subjected to family policing through Draconian rules, regulations, and laws pushed by “conservatives,” Christian Nationalists, and traditional family values politicians and special interest groups. (Oten the same groups that oppose adoptee rights in general.) They are ignored by the very “child protective system” and so-called care communities–public, private, and increasingly corporatized– that are supposed to protect and nurture them. Continue Reading →
November! That time of the year again! The time for National Adoption Month otherwise known as National Adoption Awareness Month otherwise known as National Adoption Bewareness Month otherwise known as Adoption Sucks Month otherwise known as National Sealed Birth Certificate Month otherwise known as Be Grateful You Weren’t Tossed in the Dumpster Month ad infinitum. I am sure that some somnambulant adoptees are headed out to Party City for their celebratory hats and horns and cake decorations (you know who you are), but outside of that deviant minority, no one else is amused about being poked. We poke back and we don’t fool around. Continue Reading →
That, of course, could mean a state agency, but since Bethany has moved 30 babies, it suggests that babies are routinely shipped off to private adoption corporations to finish the forever family identity-stripping process. This means that Michigan adoptacrats, again, using the lowball figure of $30,000, have potentially glommed more than $8.5 million off of abandoned babies. “Safe Delivery ” keeps the Great Lakes adoption cruise line afloat. Continue Reading →
When Roe v Wade falls, the entire adoptee rights movement will be fucked…In the meantime…This week the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School issued a collection of kick-ass blogs on its Bill of Health site regarding adoptees, adoption, abortion, and Safe Haven laws, and the expected demise of Roe by SCOTUS. Continue Reading →
Now comes New Mexico Senator David Gallegos (R) and Leo Jaramillo (D) with bills to foist off the cost of boxes onto the taxpayer.(SB168/HB157 ) with an appropriation of $330,000 to buy a box to place in all 33 counties and another $70,000 for promotion and education. (Teaching your 12-year old how to stick a baby in a box so you’ll never know). The Associated Press reported (picked up by other media) that the appropriation is $1 million, but there is nothing in the bills that hit that mark. (Should we expect an amendment to boost more out of the taxpayer purse?) The boxes cost about $16,000 each, which comes to $528,000 Since Espanola is about to officially open a self-funded/doated box, without a state law, that takes it down to $512,000. Groupon anyone? Continue Reading →
Please join Greg Luce and me for the premiere edition of What’s Next: The Adoptee Rights Podcast. I am thrilled to be his first guest. We cover an array of subjects including the upcoming legislative year, coalition building, Safe Haven Baby Boxes, Bill Pierce, the History of Bastard Nation, and adoptee rights movement history retention–or lack thereof. How typical is that? Even our movement history is a blank slate! We are freaking 69 years old for Pete’s sake, and lots of adopted people still don’t know the movement exists. And, then there’s those deform toxics who declare that “rights” activists are malfeasants that ruin it for everybody. Continue Reading →
Dear Bastards and Friends: Happy New Year! Welcome to Bastard Nation Legislation 2022 Hell! The Bastard Nation Legislation 2022 page is now up. The political outlook hasn’t changed much from 2021. Granted, Connecticut did free up its OBCs and Massachusetts continued to move forward on its lumbering road to victory, but other than that, 2021 was a disappointing, frustrating, dreary year. Arizona went weird, Maryland zilched, and deformers continued to stumble their baby booties through their own muck. Safe Haven Baby Box bills and Baby Boxes continued to flare up like herpes under the banner of “women demand anonymity,” the feel-good alternative for politicians who cringe over “adoptees demand rights.” Even more dismal, legislatures, blaming Covid, made discovering how to submit written testimony or to present remote or in-person an often unsuccessful endurance test. Bastard Nation, of course, continues our battle. Many state legislatures have yet to open. So far, though, we have several carry-over bills from last year. Most important of those is Massachusetts.HB2394. The bill passed the House last year and now is ensconced in the Senate, where it allegedly has no detractors, We’ll see. The bill is only two sentences long, so lawmakers can’t complain that they Continue Reading →