Tag Archives: Washington HB 2211 (2012)

Washington SUB HB 2211: Dead according to sponsor and Wa-Care

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Washington SUB HB 2211 is reportedly dead.  Last night, Wa-Care, promoters of the bill, announced on Facebook and in a post on its mail list that Rep.Tina Orwall, sponsor of the bill, had informed them that it had died in the Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee. Not surprisingly, uber powerful Sen.  Jim Hargrove wielded the coup de grace. I’m  a little unclear what exactly happened since there was no hearing and the Washington Leg page doesn’t indicate, but it looks like he decided to refuse the bill a hearing. Normally I would wait for an official announcement, but since the bill’s sponsor has sent out the word, I’m passing it along. We are not sorry that SUB HB 2211 is dead.  The bill was restrictive,  maintaining and expanding the current disclosure veto system. But we also knew from the beginning that as long as Sen. Hargrove was calling the shots that nothing would happen.  Hargrove, in the Washington legislature for 28 years, has consistently and malignantly opposed all attempts, restrictive and non-restrictive, to free the state’s adoptees from their chattel status. We did not expect a sudden change of heart. We do not know what Hargrove’s problem is, but as long as he is permitted to continue to reign in the Continue Reading →

Washington: Bastard Nation Testimony in Opposition to HB 2211/suggested amendments

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                                                     TESTIMONY HB2 2211 Adoptee access to their own original birth certificates Washington House Committee on the Judiciary January 16, 2011 OPPOSE Privilege is the opposite of rights Our Washington representative cannot attend the hearing today so we are submitting this testimony via email. Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization is the largest adoptee civil rights organization in the United States. We support full, unrestricted access for all adopted persons, to their original birth certificates. (OBC). Bastard Nation’s roots are in Washington State, and we would like nothing more than to support HB 2211. Unfortunately we cannot. The sticking point is HB 2211’s “affidavit of non-disclosure,” otherwise known as a disclosure veto. This veto creates a special third party privilege for birthparents that no one, parent or otherwise, possesses: to bypass state law and to personally bar release of another person’s birth certificate to the person to whom it pertains. Already in place for adoptions finalized on and after October 1 1993, HB 2022 would expand this onerous and discriminatory veto privilege to cover all adoptions; thus expanding the pool of segregated adoptees unable to access their OBCs, even when the vast majority of the state’s adoptees could.. Interestingly, HB Continue Reading →