Today we learned of the passing of Susan Friel-Williams on October 21 in Fort Myers, Florida. Susan was a veteran adoptee rights activist and searcher. whose work goes back decades. Continue Reading →
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 →
The AAC has consistently folded under the slightest pressure to compromise its “principles” in order to get “something passed.” That something has been disclosure vetoes and disclosure vetoes disguised as contract preference forms, contact vetoes, white-outs, redactions, and tiered access based of birth or other factors. Scratch a dirty bill and you’ll find the AAC, an affiliated organization or Indies latching on to the AAC example. Delaware, New Jersey, Montana, Ohio, Indiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Illinois, Missouri, and Washington State are just a few states that have been jammed by AAC-led Deform, Inc’s baby step solutions to the problem of Class Bastard and institutional adoptionism. Getting one’s name on a law has been more important than securing adoptee equality. The unfortunate by-product of this is that the time, money, and energy spent on killing their bad bills could be used to pass clean bills. As a result Bastard Nation, whose mission for the last twenty years has been legal equality and the restoration of OBC and other adoption record access for all adoptees without restriction, gets the rep of the “bad guy.” Groups that claim to agree with our non-compromise position but pile on restrictions, pevaricate to their members and placate special interests and politicians to negate those rights, but maybe cause some personal “reunions” are repped as the “good guy.” Continue Reading →
Currently, Indiana has two access bills in the hopper. HB 1201 is a convoluted, incomprehensible eye-burning mess that must have been written by a random bill generator. It seems to have something to do with access, but the several of us who have read it are not sure what. SB 469 is a different story. The bill seeks to expand backwards the state’s OBC access law to cover pre-1994 adoptees. The only problem is that (1) the current law, although it allows many adoptees to access their OBCs, contains a disclosure veto, and (2) the new bill expands that veto backwards; thus, creating a significant pool of potential unworthies to be blacklisted by the state. HB 469 is backed by the American Adoption Congress and other compromisers. Pam Kroskie, AAC Midwest Director wrote a glowing report on “our legislation,” (HB 469) in the January 29, 2011 Bloomington Adoptive Families Examiner. She thanked deformers Adam Pertman (director, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute), Mary Mason, Donnie Davis, Wendy Rowney (all AAC) and Judy Foster (president NJCares and AAC NJ State Rep) for their “terrific help.” The February 2 Indiana Daily Student (Indiana University) included Kroskie and the AAC. AAC North Carolina State Continue Reading →