Tag Archives: Illinois HB 5428

Sara’s Bastards: Feigenholtz Continues to Lie about her "law"

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When Neal Young released his 1979 LP Rust Never Sleeps we doubt if he had Sara Feigenholtz in mind. Yet, that’s the phrase that came to mind when I read Feigenholtz’s latest interview with the press in Saturday’s Springfield State Journal Register and other Gatehouse publications. Corrosion. Corruption. Decay. Listen to Sara: I think that non-adopted people take the right to know the first chapter of their life for granted … To know where you came from is a basic human right. Feigenholtz’s HB 5428, which she claims restores the right of original birth certificate access to Illinois adoptees, guarantees no such right–unless she considers playing wack-a-mole and Mother May I with state functionaries and birthparents and filling out War and Peace-length government forms how the non-adopted exercise their actual right to access their own birth certificates, Listen to Sara: We have to stop stigmatizing adoption. Adoption is a beautiful thing. We have nothing to be ashamed of. This legislation turns the corner on the stigmatizing of adoption. From an email sent by Feigenholtz or a member of her staff, to Washington State bastard activist Lori Jeske, after Jeske objected to HB 5429’s failure to recognize obc access as a Continue Reading →

Attention Illinois Original Birth Certificate Rejects! Act Now!

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If you were adopted in Illinois and your request for your original birth certificate under that state’s new Feigenholtz Folly obc “access” law (HB 5428) has been turned down, then Mary Fuller is looking for you! Mary writes: I’ve started compiling a list of those who have been rejected an OBC or to register with IARMIE. (Illinois Adoption Registry and Medical Information Exchange.) Please email me if you fall into this category. This is a result of someone contacting me who has been told he can’t register with IARMIE because he is a grandson. I’m too young myself although my birth mother is deceased and died shortly after the Registry went into effect. I fear that Sara and Melisha’s new law has left out too many folks. There was a big rush to get the bill through so those of us who could have been of help were shut out. You can read Mary’s latest blog about Illinois here. Note that although Mary is a grandmother, and her first mother is dead, she is not yet old enough and thus responsible enough to qualify for her own birth certificate–despite what Feigenholtz says to to the contrary on her own webpage. Continue Reading →

WHAT IS DEFORMED: A Response to the Passage of Illinois HB 5428 by Maryanne Cohen, guest blogger

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Maryanne Cohen sent the following as a comment to Bad Day in Illinois, regarding the passage of HB 5428. I posted it there, but thought it was so good, and voices what many of us feel right now, I am posting it, with Maryanne’s permission, as a separate guest blog. I am working on a long piece on Illinois and not sure when it will be finished. There is much to say about this travesty. ****** I am so disgusted over IL signing a terribly deformed bill into law, and all these other bad bills popping up like warts all over the country. This has really made me understand the term “Adoption Deformer” used by some to describe the people who push these bills. What is deformed? The notion that convoluted compromise bills are “fair” and consider the “conflicting rights” of adoptees and birhparents. This ignores the fact that birthparents gave up ALL rights around the adoptee when they signed a surrender. There are no “conflicting rights” until deformed bills with vetoes write them into law. Some Deformers have the nerve to say bad bills are “better” than clean ones, and to eagerly offer to advertise them far and wide Continue Reading →

BAD DAY IN ILLINOIS: Quinn to Sign Anti-Adoptee Bill

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The Chicago Tribune announced this morning that Governor Pat Quinn, over the protest of adoptee rights activists (aka “ungrateful bastards”) throughout the US, will sign Sneaky Sara Feigenholtz’s Adoption Industry Cash Cow and Corporate Welfare Act of 2010, HB 5428, (NOTE: The Trib has since published an longer version of this story, which I will hold back on an include in later commentary. We are expected to jubalize because Under the legislation, adopted people born in 1945 or earlier could get their birth certificates right away. Adopted people born after 1945 would have to wait until November of next year — after their birth parents have had a chance to file an objection if they want. Note the absence of the actual Draconian restrictions on post-1946 bastards and their obc access that the bill codifies. Feigenholtz has never mentioned, much less taken responsibility for the ugly post that came from her published email account last month to adoptee Lori Jeske that included: Would you consider giving Representative Feigenholtz the key to your (delusional) Eutopian world where all ungrateful bastards think it’s easy to pass a bill that makes everyone happy AND CAN ACTUALLY PASS ? Pass a law? what a Continue Reading →

BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT: It’s Not Too Late to Stop Illinois HB 5428!

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DISTRIBUTE FREELY! It’s not to late to ask Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to veto HB 5428. Quinn will make his decision on the bill by the end of the week. Even if you have already contacted the governor’s office, please do it again. Let the real voice of adoptees be heard. Web contact (email) form: http://www.illinois.gov/gov/contactthegovernor.cfm Springfield OfficeOffice of the Governor207 State HouseSpringfield, IL 62706Phone: 217-782-0244FAX 217-763-8710TTY: 888-261-3336 Chicago OfficeOffice of the GovernorJames R. Thompson Center100 W. Randolph, 16-100Chicago, IL 60601Phone: 312-814-2121FAX 312-867-0801 Here is Bastard Nation’s second letter to Governor Quinn: Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization once more urges you to veto HB 5428, a so-called “adoptee rights” bill promoted as a progressive piece of legislation to correct Illinois’ long-standing Draconian treatment of its adoptees and their families of origin. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The bill’s stated purpose and its final product are diametrically opposed. The introduction to the bill reads: The General Assembly recognizes that it is the basic right of all persons to access their birth records, and, to this end, supports public policy that allows an adult adoptee to access his or her original birth certificate. The rest of the bill guts Continue Reading →

SARA SPEAKS: SARA FEIGENHOLTZ TELLS US WHAT SHE REALLY THINKS OF US

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Recently adoptee rights activist Lori Jeskie emailed a short note to Sara Feigenholtz at her listed Illinois House address stating her disappointment with the representative’s sponsorship of HB 5428, which under the guise of”records access” has eviscerated adoptee civil rights in the state. We do not know if the reply Jeske received was actually written by Feigenholtz or a staffer or her “assistant” Melisha Mitchell. We have heard stories, however, about Feigenholtz’s personalization of political criticism and attacks on those who disagree with her whom she thinks should be her friends. Until now, we have not had a written document. No matter what the source (in the past Feigenholtz has blamed staffers for SNAFUs that she clearly owns), the email was sent from Feigenholtz’s address. This response, says much about her professional demeanor and respect for the adopted people and our interests she claims to represent. Below is Feigenholtz’s response to Jeske’s email, followed by Jeske’s original email, reposted with Jeske’s permission. —- Original Message —– From: Sara To: Lori Jeske Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 10:00 PM Subject: Re: HB 5428 Lori: Thank you so much for your kind remarks about HB 5428. We will pay for your travel Continue Reading →

PETER MOSE: WHY CANT I GET MY REAL BIRTH RECORD?

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Yesterday, the online (and today’s hardcopy) Chicago-Sun Times published an op-ed piece by Peter Mose, Why can’t I get my real birth certificate? in response to HB 5428. Peter is a member of Bastard Nation’s Executive Commitee. The piece will go into the Sun-Times paid archives soon enough. With Peter’s permission I’m giving it a permanent home here. It is a clear simple statement, written on a very personal level, Aabout why sealed birth certificates and restricted access is wrong. It deserves wide circulation. Thank you Peter! Please go to the link above and post a comment. ****** Why can’t I get my real birth record? April 25, 2010 BY PETER KRISTIAN MOSE On July 15, 1956, I was born in downtown Chicago, at Wesley Hospital, now a part of Northwestern University’s medical complex. I was delivered by a physician named Byford Heskett. It says so on my Illinois birth certificate. It also says my parents were Donald and Ellen Mose of Oak Park. But Ellen never met Dr. Heskett, and indeed she never gave birth to me. Instead, I was adopted by Ellen and Don Mose from an adoption agency in Evanston when I was 2 months old. The Continue Reading →

BASTARD NATION LETTER TO ILLINOIS GOVERNOR PAT QUINN – PLEASE VETO HB 5428

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Dear Governor Quinn: Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization urges you to veto HB 5428, a so-called “adoptee rights” bill promoted as a progressive piece of legislation to correct Illinois’ long-standing Draconian treatment of its adoptees and their families of origin. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The bill’s stated purpose and its final product are diametrically opposed. The introduction to the bill reads: The General Assembly recognizes that it is the basic right of all persons to access their birth records, and, to this end, supports public policy that allows an adult adoptee to access his or her original birth certificate. The rest of the bill guts the “recognition of that “basic right,” putting unreasonable and outrageous restrictions on that “basic right:” HB 5428 separates adoptees into two classes by date of birth and then into numerous subclasses of “access” and “contact” eligibility dependent on parental and state “consent.” HB 5428 “grants” rights to some at the expense of others. HB 5428 criminalizes adoptees that use information from the Illinois Adoption Reunion and Medical Exchange to locate and contact families of origin. HB 5428 dictates relationships between adults. .HB 5428 is a bill that adopted persons and their Continue Reading →

WHAT IF? Illinois HB 5428 and Woman Suffrage

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You can listen to the HB 5428 Senate floor debate at the link at the bottom of this blog. The debate is about 33 minutes long. What I find interesting is that many of the senators theoretically “got” the idea of our “rights”–but failed to grasp that the bill, with its multi-layered “consents,” forms “information exchanges” and liabilities obviated those rights, kept the state in control, and gave adoptees and their families nothing but a big messy pile of obtuse rigmarole that can only be sussed out with a pitchfork. On June 10, 1919, Illinois ratified the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. What if Illinois leggies that day declared: All women have the “basic right” to vote. However, we are concerned about the affect female voters will have on male reputation and status in the community. We need to protect the rights of those husbands who believe that the marriage contract promised them that their wives would never be allowed to vote. To balance the right of women to vote with the right of husbands to protect their reputations and status, we are mandating a mutual consent voter registration law, which authorizes Continue Reading →