Cognitive Dissonance: Bastards, Birthers, and Bad Bills

Adopted adults, especially since 9/11, have increasingly been denied passports, drivers licenses, pensions, Social Security benefits, professional certifications, and security clearances due to discrepancies on their fictive amended birth certificates produced by the state, and their inability to produce a true original birth certificate to respond to those discrepancies. Now, due to our lack of an OBC, we may not be allowed to run for president or vice president (or other offices) if some states have their way. Currently, 11 state legislatures are looking at bills to force presidential/vp candidates to divvy up their birth certificates to prove citizenship and that they are who they say they are. If these measures pass, the birth certificate requirement will no doubt seep down to all elective offices from city council and county commission to state and federal legislatures and courts. Although voters are already required to show proof of citizenship when they register to vote, I don’t think it’s beyond reason that more stringent requirements will be mandated; thus potentially disenfranchising millions of the country’s adopted adults due to lack of their “real” birth certificates. The highly unpopular Real ID,which about two dozen states have refused to implement. and other Draconian “security Continue Reading →

PENNSYLVANIA: Bastard Nation Letter to Rep. Oliver: Please schedule hearings for HB1978

This is the post I sent to Rep. Oliver today on behalf of Bastard Nation and myself. Please feel free to post your letters here on on the Bastard Nation blog http://bastardnation.blogspot.com/2010/08/pennsylvania-bastard-nation-letter-to.html Thank you all. Marley **********Dear Chairman Oliver: I write today to urge you to schedule hearings for HB 1978, a bill that if passed would restore the right that all Pennsylvania adoptees once enjoyed: the right to his or her own original birth certificate (obc) with no conditions or restrictions. That is, to authorize the state to treat the adopted on the same legal level as those who are not adopted. HB 1978 is an important bill. It is being watched by adoption advocacy and reform groups and individuals across the country. The sealing of birth records is an archaic hold-over from an age when adoption was held shameful. That day has passed. The restoration of the right of adoptees to their obcs is the keystone of ethical adoption practice not only in Pennsylvania but throughout the country. . As someone whose birth and adoptive families have deep Pennsylvania roots (Pittsburgh, Greenville and Bucks County), I would love to see Pennsylvania join the ranks of states that believe Continue Reading →

BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT: Monday is "Contact Chairman Oliver Day" (Pennsylvania)

Please distribute freely! BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT Give Pennsylvania unrestricted HB 1978 a hearing! Monday, August 16, 2010:“Contact Chairman Oliver Day for Adoptee Rights” HB 1978 is a short, simply written bill to restore the right of all Pennsylvania adoptees to their original birth certificates without restriction. For months, the bill has been stalled, with no hearings, in the House Health and Human Services Committee chaired by Rep. Frank Louis Oliver. To move this bill into hearings, Pennsylvania Adoptee Rights (PAR) is sponsoring “Contact Chairman Oliver Day”–a day dedicated to asking Rep. Oliver to schedule hearings. Read HB 1978 here. Read about Pennsylvania’s current access laws here. Read the entire PAR action alert here. You do not have to be from Pennsylvania to help. Please join activist around the country and contact Rep. Oliver. Messages shouldn’t take more than two sentences. HB 1978 deserves a hearing! Restore adoptee civil rights in Pennsylvania in 2010! Call, fax, or email Rep. Oliver now. Rep. Frank Louis Oliver, ChairPennsylvania House Health and Human ServicesPO Box 202195Harrisburg, PA 17120-2195Phone: 717-787-3480Fax: [email protected] Bastard Nation is not affiliated with PAR and HB 1978 is not a Bastard Nation bill. We, however, support the action and endorse Continue Reading →