MY LETTER TO SOUTH DAKOTA: HB 1223

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NOTE: You still have time to get your emails in! The floor vote was postponed until tomorrow afternoon.Go to the action alert below for contact information. It’s not too late to change South Dakota history! The original HB 1223 was a clean bill that would permit all South Dakota adopted adults, without restriction, to obtain their original birth certificates (obc) upon request. I would very much like to support HB 1223, but. unfortunately, a so-called “contact preference” amendment was added to the bill which not only corrupts and misnames what a genuine “contact preference” is, but guts the intent of the bill with what is in fact a “disclosure veto” that keeps specific obcs sealed. A “contact preference” was introduced legislatively in Oregon after the 1999 passage of Ballot Measure 58 that restored adoptee rights in that state. Its purpose is to give a mechanism through the “contact preference form” for birthparents to communicate with the adoptee in a confidential manner, whether they were interested in contact and submit other personal information about themselves. Submission of the form is voluntary. The form is put into the adoptee’s state file and sent with the obc when and if the adoptee requests Continue Reading →

BAD NEWS IN SOUTH DAKOTA…AND MORE BAD NEWS: ANOTHER ACTION ALERT

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SB 152, the only clean bill so far this year in the United States, died Wednesday afternoon in the South Dakota Senate. The “reconsideration” never happened. South Dakota Seal posted on its FB page: When the House Speaker announced it for reconsideration, not even the sponsor said a word. Apparently he lost his fight??? ****** SB 152’S companion bill, HB 1223 started out as a clean bill, but a “contact preference” which is actually a disclose veto, was added to it which reads: If a parent has indicated a no contact preference no original birth certificate may be obtained. South Dakota Seal has been told the bill will go to the House floor today (Thursday) at 2:30 PM for a vote. Please contact the House and asked members to (1) strike the amendment on the floor (2) if the amendment is not struck on the floor, urge members to vote NO. If this bill passes with the current amendment, South Dakota will have created a “special right” for a handful of parents to deny access to records that serves as a guarantee that “special records” will remain sealed. No state with a disclosure veto in place has ever revisited the Continue Reading →

MY LETTER TO THE SOUTH DAKOTA SENATE–RECONSIDERATION OF SB 152

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Adoptees throughout the country have been watching the progress of SB 152 and are greatly dismayed that the Senate yesterday defeated the bill. We are pleased, however, that the bill will be reconsidered today, and urge your reconsideration and support. SB 152 is about the restoration of the right for all South Dakota adoptees to receive a copy of their original birth certificates, a right they once enjoyed and took for granted just as the state’s not adopted continue to. The bill is about nothing else. I was very surprised that the South Dakota Eagle Forum opposed and was apparently influential in yesterday’s defeat–especially since it used the spurious and discredited abortion argument. Reasons to seek abortion vary, but fear of a dirty little secret showing up 30 years later isn’t one of them. Even the biggest opponents of the restoration of our rights have admitted that there is no proof of a link between an original birth certificate and an abortion, it’s just something they “know” with no further explanation. The fact is thatstates that treat adoptees like everyone else with full access to their birth certificates and pre-adoption identities have lower abortion rates. And that IS provable. The Continue Reading →

SOUTH DAKOTA — EMERGENCY ACTION ALERT

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The South Dakota Senate yesterday defeated SB 152. This was a clean simple bill to restore the right to access original birth certificates to all South Dakota adoptees without restriction. The vote was 22-12. The roll call vote is here. According to the South Dakota Seal Facebook page, the chief opponent was the South Dakota Eagle Forum. It’s argument: abortion We haven’t heard from the Eagle Forum since it took a trouncing in the 1996 Doe v Sundquist case Back then, the Tennessee Eagle Forum signed on as an amicus to overturn that state’s partial-access bill, which resulted in the now famous Sundquist decision. Apparently the Eagle Forum hasn’t learned its lesson. Go here for BN’s short review of Sundquist South Dakota seal writes: UFFDA!! Senate Bill 152 failed on the Senate Floor today. 22 nays,12 yeas. HUGE turnaround from last year. The strong opponent this time was abortion and the young girl who may been pg and want to keep it a secret. When some of them were speaking, they were saying Adoptive Parent instead of Birthparent, and child instead of Adult, even the sponsor did that. Geeesh. Made me wonder if they were a bunch of kids running Continue Reading →

MYLETTER TO THE SOUTH DAKOTA SENATE – YES ON SB 152

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I am delighted to endorse and support SB 152, a bill that if passed, will restore the right of all South Dakota adopted persons, without restriction, to access their original birth certificates upon request. SB 152 is about rights not reunion. It is about the relation of adoptees to the state. It is about the absolute natural right of identity and the civil right to a true unfalsified birth certificate for all South Dakota adoptees. SB 152 as written is a simple-to-understand measure that recognizes the presumed right of all adults to unrestricted access and ownership of their true birth certificates, not just some. If adoptees are not equal legally to the not-adopted in terms receiving their own birth certificates, then the right of anyone to possess their own birth certificate is not a right but a state favor. SB 152 is inclusive. It acknowledges a legally, morally, and ethically correct one-size fits all standard of identity and records rights for all persons– adopted and not adopted. SB 152 does not change adoption procedures. Adoption records are sealed upon finalization, not relinquishment. If the court denies an adoption petition or the petition is withdrawn, the birth record remains unsealed. If Continue Reading →

IS JORGE PUELLO REALLY JEWISH?

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Accurate personal info, including the religious affiliation, of Jorge Torres Puello is scarce so far, but the question has caught on in the blogosphere: Is Torres Puello really Jewish? Although the relevancy of this question has nothing to do with adoption, the subject of the Daily Bastardette and End Child Exportation and Trafficking…, I’m going to take it on. No reference is made to Torres Puello’s religion in the interview with his mother and stepfather in the Miami Herald (registration required) or CNN. I’ve heard nothing to suggest he was born Jewish. Puello isn’t a Jewish name, but Torres is. His father is reported to be Puerto Rican and if he were Jewish, it wouldn’t make his son Jewish by birth. There are a couple media references saying that Torres Puello is a Jewish convert, but I’ve not seen any genuine documented source on that. If it is true, when did he convert and who did he convert under? Nobody has come forward to claim him. We only “know” Torres Puello is Jewish because (1) he says he’s Jewish and (2) he wears a kippah and talit. I have a talit. Does that make me a Jewish man? When Did Continue Reading →

BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT: SOUTH DAKOTA SB 152 – UNCONDITIONAL ACCESS TO OBC – VOTE YES!

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BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERTSOUTH DAKOTA SB 152 PLEASE FORWARD FREELY. SB 152, a 100% unconditional open records bill, will be voted upon on the floor of the South Dakota Senate on Tuesday, February 16th. Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization, urges everyone to write to the Senators of South Dakota immediately and ask them to vote YES on SB 152, which will give all adoptees equal rights. SB 152 will allow any adoptee 18 years or older to obtain a copy of that person’s original birth certificate upon written application, with no conditions or restrictions. SB 152 is sponsored by Senators Adelstein, Jerstad, and Merchant and Representatives Lederman, Feinstein, Lust, McLaughlin, and Sly.The bill was heard first by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. The only change made in committee was omitting a contact preference form in the bill. It was felt that this form was not necessary to the bill. The Senate committee passed the bill with a vote of 4 to 2. Help make 2010 the year South Dakota goes over the top! Please bombard the senators with your letters of rousing support!. You can read the bill at: http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2010/Bill.aspx?File=SB152SHE.htm CONTACT INFORMATION South Dakota has made it Continue Reading →

WHO IS JORGE PUELLO, PT 2: JUMPING DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

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INTERPOL: WANTED JORGE TORRES ORELLANA (Jorge Pulleo)CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN, PEOPLE SMUGGLING, TRAFFICKING & ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION Thanks to everyone commenting and sending tips. They are tremendously helpful. Tomorrow I plan to sit down and go through them carefully. “Plan” being the operative word. The way the story is moving it won’t surprise me if Jorge Puello is picked up in Andorra by then. In the meantime, it’s impossible to keep up and comment cogently on breaking Puello events. The best way is to break the story into chunks, although with so much new news, old news gets tossed aside, at least for now. Today I’m writing about Jorge Puello. Next, unless something big breaks, I’ll give an update on the New Lifers. ***** On February 11, 2010 ((New York Times) we first learned that New Life Children’s Refuge “legal adviser” Jorge Puello, may not be who he claimed to be. As I determined earlier, and the New York Times verified, Puello is not a licensed lawyer in the Dominican Republic. In fact, he’s not a lawyer anywhere. How Puello became the group’s “legal adviser” is still unknown. Updates on that situation will appear in another entry. The article said Jorge Callegas, Continue Reading →

EVIDENCE GROWS AGAINST JORGE PUELLO; RELEASE OF KIDJACKERS MAY BE DELAYED

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Big news popping out of DR tonight. The New York Times reports a growing amount of evidence to connect New Life Children’s Refuge “legal adviser” Jorge Puello to a sex trafficking ring operating in El Salvador. The trafficking suspect, who police believe is Puello, worked with Pablo Nasser, the former deputy director of the Salvadoran Immigration Service to lure foreign girls and women into the country and sell them into prostitution. The latest break comes from two sources: (1) photographs that appear to match Puello and the trafficking suspect and (2) public and court records linking Puello to a Florida address that is tied to the suspect. Hey, I thought Jorge didn’t have a passport! Here’s what the Times says: The Salvadoran police asked their Dominican counterparts on Friday to arrest Mr. Puello. “Dominican authorities should proceed to detain him,” said Augusto Cotto, deputy director of investigations for the Salvadoran police. “If the fingerprints coincide, we’d begin the process to try to bring him to El Salvador.” Eric Álvarez, a spokesman for the Salvadoran chief prosecutor’s office, said Friday that judicial officials had determined that photographs of Mr. Puello in Haiti matched those of the suspect wanted in El Salvador. Continue Reading →

JORGE PUELLO: NOT A LAWYER AFTER ALL

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For my initial report on Jorge Puello, please go directly below this entry. The Associated Press and CBS News reported Friday afternoon that Jorge Puello, “legal adviser” to the New Life adoption traffickers, as suspected, has no license to practice law in The Dominican Republic. AP reporter Frank Bajak writes: Jorge Puello, who has been a high-profile advocate for the American Baptists as they navigate the Haitian justice system, is in apparent violation of Dominican law for failing to register with the local bar association or obtain a license, said Jose Parra, vice president of the Dominican Lawyers Association. Parra said his organization was still investigating the situation and might file a complaint with the Justice Department, which could pursue criminal charges. Last night I asked some questions about Puello’s relationship to CVBC and Laura Silisby. I was particularly interested in whether Puello and Silsby had a pre-quake relationship (about what?) which would have greased the way for Puello to slide in and “advise” the prisoners, their families, and their churches. We now have this small statement from Sean Lankford, whose wife Corinna and daughter Nichole are being held in Haiti, which suggests that either the folks in Idaho are Continue Reading →