Tag Archives: adoptee rights; original birth certificates; Deval Patrick; Bastard Nation

MASSACHUSETTS: WEEKEND UPDATE–A DAY LATE BUT NOT A DOLLAR SHORT

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The fallout from SB63 is still dropping on Massachusetts—and AdoptionLand. Except for the shadowy “ABC Committee” no one is popping corks, at least in plain site of the thousands of adoptees whose rights ABC flushed down the sewer. No press release. No making whoopee on the ABC webpage. An informal survey of internet adoption forums made this weekend indicates that 100% of records rights activists would string up ABC— if they could be located. The committee fortuitously removed its membership list from the ABC page, leaving only the names of organizations that supposedly supported the bill, to take the heat. One Benedict Bastard, however, was outted by Jason Millman in yesterday’s Boston Herald: Susan Hicks, described as an adoptee and head of the ABC Committee. Hicks, recalling her own experience of trying to get her original birth certificate, says “I thought it was insane, it’s such a humiliating process… Something needs to be done about this. It doesn’t even make sense in today’s society.” We can only assume that Ms Hicks believes that sealed records are humiliating and nonsensical for her, but not for anyone else. It would be interesting to know if she’s pre- or post cut-off date. Care Continue Reading →

MASSACHUSETTS: BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT–VETO SB63

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BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT! MASSACHUSETTS SB63 Please forward freely! MASSACHUSETTS TRASHES ADOPTEE RIGHTS! ADOPTEES BLACKLISTED BY DATE OF BIRTH! Call, email, or fax Governor Deval Patrick IMMEDIATELY and urge him to VETO SB63. (Contact information below) In 2005 we were told by members of the Massachusetts legislature “trust us.” Unrestricted adoptee access to their own original birth certificates in Massachusetts is a “no brainer.” In 2006 we were told “Oops! Our bad!” We can only “give access to some of you.” The once clean bill, with the support of certain “adoption reformers” was amended repeatedly and quietly, until the right of ALL Massachusetts adoptees to receive their birth record was reduced to a favor for SOME. Although it passed both houses, the bill was pocket vetoed by then Governor Mitt Romney. IT’S BACK!Like a bad penny, the bill came back, resurrected as SB63, obnoxiously titled An Act Further Regulating Access to Birth Certificates. On August 30, 2007 SB63 passed the legislature. It will soon arrive on Gov Deval Patrick’s desk. SB63 tosses a substantial number of Massachusetts adoptees, based solely on their date of birth, into a black hole without the same right of identity as everyone else born in Continue Reading →