Tag Archives: Illinois Open

ILLINOIS ADOPTION REFORM COALITION URGES: REJECT HB 4623

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On March 28, 2008 Adoption Reform Illinois issued a letter to members of the Illinois House of Representatives and the media. The letter was signed by Illinois Open director Anita Field Walker, Green Ribbons Illinois representative Triona Guidry and 27 prominent adoption reform leaders urging the defeat of HB 4623, a so-called records access bill which would open records to some Illinois adoptees while trapping many in the lucrative Illinois Adoption Registry. (More names may be added to the protest at a later date.) Background leading to this letter can be found in several Bastardette entries for February and March 2008. Later tonight I will post Anita Field’s personal comments about HB 4623 and tomorrow I will publish Melisha Mitchell’s claims regarding the bill and opponents. Additional commentary will follow in the days and weeks to come. PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FREELY! NEWS FROM:ADOPTION REFORM ILLINOIS Attn: News Director March 28, 2008 For Immediate Release Contact: Triona Guidry Adoption Reform Coalition Urges: Reject HB 4623 We, the undersigned members of the adoption community, urge legislators to oppose Illinois House Bill 4623. As written, this bill offers some adopted adults the chance to access their original birth certificates, while banning others from accessing Continue Reading →

ILLINOIS: WARNING! TRAINWRECK AHEAD FOR RECORDS RIGHTS

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Today Anita Field, founder of Illinois Open sent a letter to Illinois adoptee rights activists updating them on the “open records” situation in that state–the new bill that’s supposed to liberate all of their OBCs from the file cabinets of oblivion. The news is not good. Below are my comments followed by Anita’s letter. On November 19, 2007 the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Illinois State Representative Sara Feigenholtz (D-12) intended to file legislation that would make available to all Illinois adoptees, their original birth certificates. Bastard Nation collectively rolled its eyes and waited. Some BN members had experienced Ms Feigenholtz’s “devotion” to access in the mid-1990s, when she abandoned them and a clean records bill to a seriously dysfunctional registry scheme that treats adult adoptees like 7 year olds. Due to her new press-reported putative interest in adoptee rights, Ms. Feigenholz was invited to attend the December 2007 Donaldson roundtable in New York City. Like some other interested parties, she was unable to attend in person so she and her “assistant” Melisha Mitchell sat in by phone. Mitchell is the proprietor of The White Oak Foundation, a professional CI service (Mitchell pays herself $65k a year–Guidestar) that passes itself off Continue Reading →

ILLINOIS: Illinois Open Update!

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Hello Illinois Open Friends, The Illinois Legislature will be back in session this week. Representative Sara Feigenholtz (D – Chgo) has expressed an interest in filing an open records bill. The deadline is Friday, January 11th. I don’t think I’ll get an opportunity to see the bill before it’s finished. I have no idea what kind of bill is going to be written. But I’ll let you all know just as soon as I know. Stay tuned. Sincerely, Anita Anita Walker Field Illinois OpenIllinois Open My Space

BASTARD GRANNY ANNIE KICKS IT AGAIN!

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Bastard Granny Annie has a great blog today. Read the whole thing here or on MySpace. Here’s part of it: These agencies and attorneys have lied to adoptive parents and birth parents for many decades. They altered records, changed names and dates of birth, omitted medical information, and did not give birth mothers adequate legal representation or professional counseling. Yet all the while they were busy collecting huge fees for themselves. Hanky Panky Agencies became very profitable cottage industries. Adopted adults who are walking around today with original birth documents are potential threats to the adoption BUSINESS.

ILLINOIS: GRAND OPENING! ILLINOIS OPEN!

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GRAND OPENING PLEASE FORWARD FREELY ILLINOIS OPENhttp://[email protected] MISSION STATEMENT Illinois Open advocates the issuing to all Illinois adult adoptees, upon request an unconditionally, a copy of their unaltered original birth certificate. GOALS Illinois Open is an informational organization. Its goals are to educate the public about sealed records as well as locate grassroots supporters of equal access to the original birth certificate for all adopted men and women in Illinois. Currently, the only way adopted adults in Illinois can receive a copy of their original birth certificate is by petitioning the court and showing good cause, a lengthy, costly, and time consuming process. Illinois Open is asking the State of Illinois to repeal or amend its Adoption Act so that all adopted adults can get their original birth certificate in the same manner as all non-adopted citizens. We want to hear from you. Please write to us at: [email protected] Visit our Myspace Page

LET’S MAKE MORE ADOPTEES: ILLINOIS CHOOSE LIFE

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Oh dear! Jim Finnegan, president, Illinois Choose Life, demands his organization’s “civil rights under the first and fourteenth amendment, guaranteeing freedom of speech and equal protection under the law” to get his alleged “pro-adoption” Choose Life plate out of the Statehouse and on to the road. Well, what about the civil rights and equal protection of Illinois adoptees whom Finnegan claims to love so much that he wants to make more of us with his cheap license plate advertising? What about the civil rights of the thousands of adopted adults who are perpetually infantalized and anonymized by Draconian Illinois adoption law that confiscates, seals, and locks away the birth certificates, identities, genealogies, and histories of the state’s thousands of adult adoptees? Sorry! In a hierarchy of “civil rights,” the rights of adopted adults to their own identities and records trumps the specious right of a small loud band of Biblical Americans to tool around the state with their “pro-adoption” government-approved message tagged to their cars. Of course, this is the same “pro-adoption” crowd that routinely opposes adoptee civil rights in whatever state they drive in. Live adults have never been their strong suit. And we’re not so cute either. Choose Continue Reading →

THE FOX WATCHES THE HENHOUSE IN ILLINOIS

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An interesting tidbit came across in Friday’s Bloomington Pantagraph. In an editorial entitled “State’s safe haven law proven benefit for babies” the Pantagraph reveals that the safe haven advocacy group Save Abandoned Babies Foundation, is compiling baby abandonment stats for the State of Illinois. Huh? As a Beltway lobbyist friend of Bastardette’s pointed out, “Do you think the White House would let Planned Parenthood collect family planning data?” At this point, we can only go by what the editorial says, but this is not the first time this allegation has been made. An AP story in the May 17, 2005 edition of the Chicago Defender and other papers mentions that SABF “compiles information on the issue for state government.” If the merry band of amateurs at Save Abandoned Babies Foundation is collecting data for the state in an official capacity, it is a direct conflict of interest, since SABF is not only the leading advocate and “educator” for safe havens, but SABF gang banger, Chicago Fire Commissioner Cortez Trotter, has also been quoted as saying the safe haven law sunset needed to be repealed two years early, making the law permanent, so advocates could raise money for their organization. If Continue Reading →

PIMPING BABY MATTHEW–SAVE ABANDONED BABIES DAY

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Domestic tranquility continues to elude Bastardette. Did my parents ever have these problems? I think not! But then they were responsible adults. More catch-up today. It’s that time of year again. April 11. Pimp Baby Matthew….er, I mean Save Abandoned Babies Day. For the third year now, the Illinois-based Save Abandoned Babies Foundation has staged this laudatory dollar harvesting event where “saved” babies are paraded around like a new pair of Sunday shoes and their anonymous,invisible mothers who “legally abandoned” them through the state’s Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act, are back-patted by police, politicians, professional do-gooders, and adopters. Words such as “brave,” “courageous,” “loving,” and “responsible” get thrown at these unknown women faster than a sidewalk hooker works a traffic jam. It is assumed that if these unfortunate mothers didn’t possess one or more of those sterling Republican qualities they’d drown, smother, stab, shoot, bash, or garrot their “inconvenient” newborns. The term “adoption plan” never enters the heads of the bay-bee savers. Ditto the subversive idea that with help “desperate mothers” (the favored descriptor) could keep their babies if they wanted to instead of depending on the kindness of the nearest cop shop. In the weird Manachaen world view of Continue Reading →