n November 8, less than a month after the bills were introduced, both bills were voted favorable out of the Committee on Families, Children, and Seniors. The next day, the House passed both bills, 99-8, and it was transmitted to the Senate. The Michigan legislature, for all intents and purposes, is now in recess so we will have to wait until next year to seal the deal. Continue Reading →
We support HB5148 a “clean bill” that allows all Michigan-born adoptees, their descendants or legal representatives to obtain the adoptee’s original birth certificate without restrictions or conditions upon request at the age of 18, The bill contains a voluntarily optional Contact Preference Form which allows biological parents to record if the would like contact, but does not control the release of the OBC.
We support HB5149 which eliminates current court and Central Adoption Registry control over the release of the OBC. It retains biological parent denial of identifying information requests already on file, BUT that request does not restrict OBC access. No release vetoes can be filed after July 1, 2024. Continue Reading →
Dear Bastards and Friends: Happy New Year! Welcome to Bastard Nation Legislation 2022 Hell! The Bastard Nation Legislation 2022 page is now up. The political outlook hasn’t changed much from 2021. Granted, Connecticut did free up its OBCs and Massachusetts continued to move forward on its lumbering road to victory, but other than that, 2021 was a disappointing, frustrating, dreary year. Arizona went weird, Maryland zilched, and deformers continued to stumble their baby booties through their own muck. Safe Haven Baby Box bills and Baby Boxes continued to flare up like herpes under the banner of “women demand anonymity,” the feel-good alternative for politicians who cringe over “adoptees demand rights.” Even more dismal, legislatures, blaming Covid, made discovering how to submit written testimony or to present remote or in-person an often unsuccessful endurance test. Bastard Nation, of course, continues our battle. Many state legislatures have yet to open. So far, though, we have several carry-over bills from last year. Most important of those is Massachusetts.HB2394. The bill passed the House last year and now is ensconced in the Senate, where it allegedly has no detractors, We’ll see. The bill is only two sentences long, so lawmakers can’t complain that they Continue Reading →
Although an identical bill sailed through the Arizona House in 2020, this time it was amended down quickly with the consent and support of the fake adoptee advocacy group, Heritage Arizona (aka HA! ) and the sponsor Rep. Bret Roberts to cover only those born in 2022 and beyond; thus, leaving the majority of Arizona-born adoptees behind. In practical terms, the HB 2070 law could not have been utilized by Arizona adoptees until 2040! Continue Reading →
it was amended down. A lot. Instead of unrestricted unsealing, the Committee decided to keep records closed for those born between 1968-2021. That’s well over half of Arizona adoptees who will (if the bill passes) remain sealed and secret, An amendment was also offered but rejected to add a Disclosure Veto. Oh, and another politician is worried about protecting the “DNA rights “ of birthparents. What’s he want to do? Ban adoptees from owning Ancestry accounts? Perhaps he was channeling Bill Pierce who long ago declared that it should be illegal for adoptees to use phone books to look for first parents. This is the kind of nonsense Class Bastard is subjected to daily by legos and lawmakers. Continue Reading →
The birth certificate is the most political and politicized public document issued by a government entity in the United States today. It is the “breeder document” that generates all other government and private documents of identity and entitlement. Since the government has positioned itself as the arbiter and creator of identity, bestowing upon each of us the legitimacy of our existence, we cannot function in a “normal” way for long without it. What were once routine activities everyone could enjoy, are now mediated by a piece of government paper issued to us its discretion.. For instance, without a government-approved birth certificate or documents engendered by it, a child can’t enter school, attend camp, or even play Little League; adults can’t marry, acquire security clearances, collect private and government pensions, access government programs, open a bank account, acquire employment, rent an apartment or buy a home, fly to Seattle or Fort Worth, enter certain public and private buildings, or legally drive a car. And certainly one cannot travel internationally, even to the once easily accessibly Canada and Mexico, without a passport or pass, which cannot be acquired without …a birth certificate. Starting April 1, 2011, the US Department of State changed Continue Reading →
After decades of frustration, begging, pleading, demanding, threatening, theft, blackmail, political agitation, and ax throwing, I finally got my original birth certificate today! And, as Bastardette always knew deep in her heart, she is of royal blood. A Romanoff, to be exact! And born in Kenya! Now that might seem a little far-fetched to those of little imagination, but it’s true. After I received my original Kenyan birth certificate today, I did a quick Internet search and found this picture of my my aunts, my grandfather, and my father, as a boy, (above) summering at their Lake Victoria palace. Although this picture was taken years before my birth, I now know for a fact that Bastardette was hovering in the clouds looking for an unobtrusive way to channel my way into the Russian royalty. I have yet to learn how and when my father (who I you assure was not murdered by the Commies in 1918 as reported) met and married Sylvia Plath, but my birth certificate says it’s so it must be true! Don’t believe me? Here’s my obc that proves I am who I say I am. Don’t concern yourself with the “certified fake” seal. That’s just a Continue Reading →
Last week, the National Council for Adoption published its latest issue of Adoption Advocate: “Mutual Consent: Balancing the Birthparents Right to Privacy with the Adopted Person’s Desire to Know. The article (it is not a “report”) appears to be a better-late-than-never response to the November 2007 Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute report, For the Records: Restoring a Legal Right for Adult Adoptees, a document as activist, as say, the phone book. The fuss Mutual Consent has caused in AdoptionLaLaLand is as perplexing as why in the name of St. Jerome Emiliani NCFA waited so long to repsond…or why. It’s not exactly new news that NCFA promotes sealed records. NCFA was founded in 1980 specifically to fight the Carter initiative to open records on a federal level. Although NCFA in the last couple years has put on a happy face and begun to move to the center, (no more 5 signature registry! no more dour proclamations about open adoption or “spoiled adoptees”),it continues to oppose the unsealing of records without rigmarole worthy of a Soviet propiska. That doesn’t mean that Mutual Consent isn’t worthy of comment. But there is no need to legitimate Mutual Consent by making a big deal about Continue Reading →
WANTED: Letters to Santa Claus Adoption Reform Illinois wants to raise public awareness that adult adoptees cannot legally obtain an original birth certificate in Illinois. Those who should write letters are: adoptees birth parents adoptive parents relatives, i.e. spouses, children, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and those who have found an adoptee on their family tree friends who are aware of the need someone is feeling to have an original birth certificate Letters should be addressed to: Santa Claus% Mary Lynn Fuller109 W. Illinois St., Apt. 506Urbana, IL 61801 Letters can be signed with just a first name or your full name. Just keep in mind that your letter could be selected to submit to the news media. Although Christmas is a few weeks away, write now. “Santa” will deliver the letters to Vital Records in Springfield before Christmas. The more letters, the better! Example letters but please use your own words: 1) Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is my original birth certificate. 50 years ago when my adoption was finalized, it was sealed. I have family and friends who were not adopted and they have their OBC. Sincerely,Mary (last name optional) 2) Dear Santa, All I want for Continue Reading →
Today’s St. Paul Pioneer Press has a good commentary on Gov. Pawletty’s right-decision- for-the-wrong-reasons, veto of the greatly compromised obc access bill. Written by St. Paul Attorney and adad Jim Hamilton, it discusses the absurdity of adoptee identity confiscation in Minnesota: Here’s part of it: Fortunately, my son was born in a country that does not seal original birth certificates. He already has a certified copy of his. He knows his origins. But thousands of others adopted in Minnesota since 1917 (and their descendants) will never know theirs, so long as Minnesota continues to meddle in their private lives. Ninety-one years of such meddling is more than enough. Perhaps our next Legislature and our next governor will recognize that the state has no legitimate role to play in this area of our lives. Perhaps they will recognize that adult adoptees are indeed adults, not the children they once were. But they’ll need to hear from us to do so.