Bastard Nation Action Alert. Louisiana HB 391. VOTE NO on mandatory CI and counseling

LOUISIANA HOUSE BILL 391 is set to come before the Civil Law & Procedure Committee within the next couple of weeks, (No date set as of this writing). The bill imposes undue restrictions upon adopted persons’ access to a copy of their own original birth certificate, through the implementation of a Confidential Intermediary and mandatory counseling system.

Louisiana Adoptee Rights Campaign (LARC), opposes HB 391. LARC is not a Bastard Nation partner, but we agree with the group’s assessment of the bill.

Please email the sponsor and committee members today and tell them that HB 391 is NOT an adoptee rights bill Continue Reading →

Help send Bastard Goddesses Marley Greiner and Emm Paul to the rodeo in Denver on March 30, otherwise known as the AAC conference.

Bastards! It’s time to pony up to send Bastard Goddesses Marley Greiner and Emm Paul to the rodeo in Denver on March 30, otherwise known as the AAC conference.

Unsurprisingly, adoptee equality doesn’t feature prominently (well, at all) in the conference program. Moreover, someone needs to hold the AAC accountable for their representations of the current legislative landscape and serve as a voice for the left behinds. Marley and Emm will also serve as bastard ambassadors, recruiting new activists. Continue Reading →

HAWAI’I” Clean HB 2082 records access bill passes out of committee

While Indiana and Missouri continue to fail, flail and founder on the Sea of Deform, the Hawai’i legislature took the first step yesterday to restore adoption records access with no restrictions to all Hawai’i-born adoptees. In a vote of 13-o-1 (absent) the House Judiciary Committee voted Do Pass on clean HB 2082. All testimony supported the bill with no opposition either submitted or addressed in person. The bill is sponsored by Hawaii adoptee Chris Lee (D-51). It now goes to the House Floor for a vote. A companion Senate bill may be introduced as early as next week. Continue Reading →

Bastard Nation Action Alert: Missouri HB 1599: Write today to support unrestricted OBC access

Please submit your written testimony (especially if you are connected to Missouri) or letter of support for HB 1599 as written without restriction to bill sponsor Rep. Don Phillips and to committee members now. Your message need not be long. Let them know that the era of sealed birth certificates is over and that Missouri adoptees should be treated the same as the not adopted. Ask them to vote YES for HB 1599. Continue Reading →

Bastard Nation Testimony on Indiana SB 91 – Vote No

SB 91 is not an adoptee rights bill. It is a flawed bill that does nothing to address the right of all Indiana-born adoptees to access their own original birth certificates, without restriction or condition upon request. Instead of offering a simple non-bureaucratic access procedure, the bill expands an already over sized bureaucracy placing burdensome “legal” obligations and requirements on adoptees, birthparents and adoptive parents. (Under current law, these obligations and requirements are mandated for only some) The bill, in fact, doesn’t even allow for OBC release, only release of information taken from the certificate Continue Reading →

Bastard Nation Action Alert: Indiana SB 91 – Oppose

All Indiana-born adoptees, over the age of 21 will be required to join the Indiana Adoption Medical History Registry to access “identifying information,” but no OBC would be released.. Those under 21, are required to have their adoptive parents join the registry. All biological parents listed on the obc must join the registry and submit proof that they are who is listed on the obc. Once joined, the biological parent has the option to sign a DV thatcan extend past death. Neither the DV nor the CPF/DV distinguishes between “identifying information” released. That means either the biological parent releases ALL of the “identifying information” (including being able to “inspect” the obc) or they release none. The CPF/DV is effective even if pre-adoptive siblings indicated, upon registration, that they want contact with each other and not with the biological parent. If either biological parent indicates that information may not be released, the State Registrar will not release any information. Continue Reading →

My Letter to the Pennsylvania Senate: Vote NO on PA HB 162

HB 162, in fact, does not meet the standard of OBC access practiced in other states. The bill does not authorize the release the OBC to the person to whom it obtains, but instead creates a “birth summary” of selected pieces of information from the certificate to be sent off to the adoptee. It also authorizes birthparents, upon request, to have their names redacted from the summary, Moreover, HB 162 demands that adoptees be high school graduates or the holders of a GED to access this parsed summary! Ironically, there may already a good number of pre-1985 adoptees with in-tact OBCs in their possession, legally obtained Continue Reading →

I Want a Pony! Vermin Supreme for President!

Next to sealed birth certificates, pony deprivation is the most serious problem adoptees face today. Placing us for adoption in the belief that we would be reared in a home with a pony which they couldn’t provide, birthparents have been shocked, to learn that forever families did not, in fact, come automatically equipped with the promised pony. Most adoptees, much to our (and our birthparents) dismay have been forced to live a pony-free life. We’re not happy about it.

2016 Presidential hopeful Vermin Supreme has stepped up to our plate promising to change that. He has formed the Free Pony Party (and on Facebook) and promises a government- subsidized pony for everyone in the United States. Continue Reading →

The Celebrity A List: Adopted, the not adopted, and the definition of adoption

Adopted celebrities or the adopted adult children of celebrities aren’t ever asked how they feel about being adopted or how they even view adoption in a general sense. Not even a crass, “Do you know who you real parents are?” Most definitely they are not asked if it’s OK for socio-political agendized organizations to queer their personal adoptee (or not adoptied as we shall see) narratives for themselves to fit whatever program they’re pimping. Celebrity adoptees are simply paper dolls for the adoption industry and a gullible public, meant to entertain and play with, not to care about. Certainly nobody is going to bring up the adopted children of celebrities who reject their adopters or whose adopters reject them or those who have otherwise depressing outcomes. How many of you know about Barabra Stanwyck’s shipped-off adopted son Tony Fay who once wrote an article for Confidential “Why does my mother hate me?” or Joan Fontaine’s possibly illegally adopted Peruvian daughter Marita (they reconciled after decades of estrangement) or Hedy Lamarr’s adopted/not adopted son James Lamarr Loder (think Loretta Young and click the link.) Christina Crawford is the only celebrity adoptee/adopted I can think of who dared to speak out, and you won’t see her paraded around by NAM. In the future no NAM pusher is going chat up Chelsea O’Donnell, though Rosie, no doubt will shoot her mouth off, for years much to the pleasure of her fanc about the ungrateful little bastard formerly known as her adoptee. Continue Reading →