The Elves' Journey To Springfield

Mary Lynn Fuller has posted an account of Adoption Reform Illinois' trip to Springfield and our meeting with Illinois Vital Statistics concerning adult adoptee access to original birth certificates. Be sure to check it out, and thanks to all our elves for their hard work!

Rescheduled Santa: Adoption Reform Illinois

See also Mary Lynn Fuller's Rights of Adoptees blog. This press release is available in a pdf.

Adoption Reform Illinois

ATTN: NEWS EDITOR
December 27, 2008

Santa Advisory
What adult adoptees STILL want for Christmas is their original birth certificates

WHO: Santa’s elves (Adoption Reform Illinois, a coalition of adoption reform advocates) were delayed by an ice storm forcing them to reschedule their planned delivery of...

WHAT: ...letters to Santa from triad members requesting his help in obtaining Illinois adoptees’ original birth certificates will be delivered to the Department of Public Health,

WHERE: Vital Records, 605 W. Jefferson St., Springfield, IL

WHEN: December 29, 1 p.m.

WHY: Adopted adults in Illinois cannot access their original birth certificates, a
right all other Illinois natives take for granted. AFI member organizations works to recover the right of people everywhere to have access to their original birth records, upon demand, unaltered and free from falsification.

Background

When adoptions are finalized in Illinois, an adoptee’s original birth documents are sealed in perpetuity. The only recourse for an adopted adult is to go to court and petition for the original birth certificate. [ 750 IL CS 50/18 ].

Adoption Reform Illinois is a coalition of adoption reform organizations and individuals who oppose disappointing legislative proposals to create multiple classes of adoptees, some of whom would be denied access to information about their own identity. ARI opposes substituting mandated mutual consent registries or intermediary systems in place of fully open records and do not support any other system that assures anything less than access on demand to the adopted adult, without compromise and without qualification. (For an explanation of the difficulties with conditional legislation see http://www.bastards.org/documents/conditional.html.)

-30-

For more information or to arrange a telephone interview with Santa:

Anita Walker Field: Phone: 847-677-0694/Email: awf5000@gmail.com
Mary Lynn Fuller: Phone: 217-722-4814/Email: mlfuller65@comcast.net
Triona Guidry: Phone: 847-540-5938/ Email: triona@guidryconsulting.com

Santa, Baby!

Santa's elves are rescheduled to deliver letters tomorrow, Monday, December 29th at 1pm at Vital Statistics in Springfield, Illinois. Over seventy-five letters from thirteen states and Canada urge lawmakers to restore adult Illinois adoptees' access to their original birth certificates.

Some of us can't make it to Springfield, so we'd like to offer a playlist for the elves on their drive. An anonymous friend we shall call the Holly Jolly Adoptee got "Santa Baby" in her brain and emailed me her parody, ironically only days before the great Catwoman herself would go to the Bat-Cave in the sky. Eartha Kitt was one of us, and although I'm more of a Duran Duran fan, she will be missed.

Holly Jolly's offering gave me the courage to dig out a couple parodies (or what I'd call filks) I wrote myself a while back. Crank it up on the way to Springfield, elves!

Santa Baby
parodied by the Holly Jolly Adoptee from the Eartha Kitt original

Santa Baby,
Just give the vital stats 'bout me,
To me.
I'm tired of being a such a good girl,
Santa Baby, so tell me all the secrets you know.

Santa baby, a '63 adoptee is who
Needs you.
I anxiously await you my dear
Santa baby, just tell us all the secrets you know.

Think of all the peace that I've missed
Think of all the others in my midst.
Next year could finally be good
If you'll just help the folks on this list.

Santa Baby, I want a past and really that's not
A lot
For folks who've waited all their lives
Santa Baby, to hear all of the secrets you know.

Santa honey, one little thing I really do need
Indeed
Is just my honest history
Santa Baby, so tell me all the secrets you know.

Santa cutie, please fill my stocking up to the edge
With knowledge
Sign your 'x' on the line
Santa cutie, and give me all the info you know.

Come and trim my Christmas tree
With just the real truths that you've withheld from me
I really do believe in you
Lets see if you believe in me

Santa Baby, forgot to mention just one more little thing
The law.
They really really truly must change.
Santa Baby, hand out the all truths you've withheld
And tell us the things we don't know.
Hurry... let's go.



Too Much "Information"
from "Too Much Information" by Duran Duran

(ABC = amended birth certificate, OBC = original birth certificate)

Destroyed by ABC, I hate to bite the hand that feeds me
So-called "information"
When you're adopted, see, your slate's supposed to be wiped clean
It's made-up "information" for me

Adopted child, open up your eyes
You've been a possession
We'd like your attention
Adoption lies, dressed in suits and ties
They tell us to believe it
We're too scared to leave it
It's skewed from every angle, assumptions we ignore
The same adoption agencies now ask us to pay more
Here comes the news, with love from me to you

Destroyed by OBC, I hate to bite the hand that feeds me
So-called "information"
Denied my own real name, it's part of the Adoption Game
It's sealed-up "information" for me

Watch the world go by, while you sit and cry
Everyone can see theirs, you're too low to be there
Request revoked, records access is a joke
Adoption's perfect, just don't scratch the surface
They cover all the angles, the questions you might say
Just sign this registry and you'll start smiling any day
This parody was made with love for you

Destroyed by ABC, I hate to bite the hand that feeds me
So-called "information"
When you're adopted, see, your slate's supposed to be wiped clean
It's made-up "information"

Destroyed by OBC, I hate to bite the hand that feeds me
So-called "information"
Denied my own real name, it's part of the Adoption Game
It's sealed-up "information" for me

Dilate your mind...

Got to give it to me
Got to listen to me
Got to give it to me now, I'm an adult

I've tried... yes, I've tried... but they lied...



Please, Adoption Man
from "Immigration Man" by Crosby & Nash

There I was,
part of the adoption scheme,
Shining and looking clean
But my birth's a sin
My life picked by some big adoption man
Now he says he doesn't know if he can
Tell me more

Tell me more
Please, adoption man
Can I pay some more and pray
I can know my name today?
Tell me more
Please, adoption man
You don't know the life I lead
You won't see me beg and plead

There he was
With his big adoption smile
Telling me "it's better, child"
But the storm is coming
'Cause me and mom, he looked into our eyes
Stamped "adoption" over our lives
And he sent us running

Won't you tell her more,
Please, adoption man
Can she pay some more and pray
She can talk to me some day?
Won't you tell us more
Please, adoption man
You don't know the lives we lead
You won't see us beg and plead

Here we are, with our fake adoption forms
Not big enough to keep us warm
When the lies start mounting
We'll tell whom we will, as long as we think we can
You better hear us tell our stories, man
Everywhere, we're talking

Come on and tell me now
Big adoption man
I won't spout your party line
Take your fingers off what's mine
Tell us now,
Big adoption man
We won't pay another way
We will know the truth today

Open Adoption Records States: Alaska, Alabama, Kansas, New Hampshire, Oregon... MAINE!

On January 1, 2009, Maine becomes one of the growing number of states that are reopening adoption records to adult adoptees. If you are a Maine adoptee, please see the following press release for instructions on obtaining your original birth certificate. Kudos to OBC of ME and everyone else who worked on Maine's legislation, well done!

For those who may not be aware, adoption records weren't always closed. The idea of closing them was originally to protect from public scrutiny, but participants still had access. Later this was skewed into "protecting" participants from each other, sometimes to disguise quasi-legal adoption practices. See E. Wayne Carp's "Family Matters: A History Of Secrecy And Disclosure In Adoption" and Barbara Raymond's "The Baby Thief."

The other civilized (e.g. open records) states are as follows, including links to how you may obtain adoption records from them.

• Alaska (never closed)
• Alabama
• Kansas (never closed)
• Maine (see below)
• New Hampshire
• Oregon

The rest of us are stuck with conditional legislation, ineffective registries and a roulette of red tape. If your state's not on this list, it should be. Join our efforts in Illinois and elsewhere to promote open adoption records. I will continue to post legislative updates for all states as they become available. If you are working toward open records and have news you'd like to share, please contact me.

Okay, you lucky Maine bastards, here's the press release! Also note there is a reception on January 2, 2009; contact OBC for ME for details. Congratulations!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Bobbi Beavers
Co-founder, OBC for ME
South Berwick, ME
207-748-3432
rbbeavers@comcast. net
www.OBCforME.org

Cathy Robishaw
Co-founder, OBC for ME
Falmouth, ME
207-671-1375
tmc3910@yahoo. com
www.OBCforME.org.

New Law Affects Maine Adoptees
Maine has restored a basic human right to all Maine-born adult adoptees – the right to know their identity at birth! Just as New Hampshire, Alabama and Oregon legislatures have done in the past 12 years, the 123rd Maine Legislature made the decision in June 2007, via LD 1084, to correct an injustice the Maine Legislature enacted in 1953 when they declared that the original birth and adoption records of adoptees were to be sealed upon adoption of any child after August 8th of that year and leaving adoptees access to their original identity only at the discretion of the courts and only if adoptees knew this fact, which is buried in the cumbersome adoption laws.

Excitement is building as over 130 Maine-born adoptees from around Maine, plus New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Florida, California and other states have already submitted their info to the Maine Office of Vital Statistics. Many, including those living out-of-state, are coming to Augusta to request their Original birth Certificate on January 2, 2009.

Maine LD 1084/Public Law 409 – An Act to Allow Adult Adoptees Access to their Original Birth Certificates (OBC) - goes into effect January 1, 2009. Any Maine-born adult adoptee wishing to receive an uncertified copy of their original birth certificate in-person on January 2, 2009 at the Office of Vital Statistics in Augusta, must contact Lorraine Wilson immediately at the following address, email, or phone and provide her with the information (below) she will need to locate their records:

Lorraine Wilson
Deputy Registrar
Office of Data, Research and Vital Statistics
Division of Public Health Systems
Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Maine Department of Health and Human Services 244 Water Street 11 State House Station Augusta, ME 04333-0011
(207) 287-3181
1-888-664-9491 (toll free)
Lorraine.Wilson@ maine.gov

The adoptee information needed:

• Name after adoption, Date of birth, Town of birth (if known)
• The relationship of the requestor to the adoptee (i.e., same person, son, daughter, etc.)
• Contact information of the requestor

In order to receive a copy of his/her original birth certificate on January 2, 2009, an adoptee will still need to download the official state application form from this website: http://www.maine. gov/dhhs/ bohodr/documents /Application% 20for%20Adult% 20Adoptee. pdf. The adoptee must also bring (or mail if not coming in-person) the filled out and notarized form, a certified copy of their current birth certificate, and a $10 check made out to: Treasurer - State of Maine.

Parents of origin (also called birth parents) may also NOW submit information, confidentially, to Lorraine Wilson:

• Contact Preference Form, which is downloadable from this website: http://www.maine. gov/dhhs/ bohodr/documents /Contact% 20Preference% 20form.pdf.
• Birth Parent Updated Medical History Form, which is downloadable from this website: http://www.maine. gov/dhhs/ bohodr/documents /Medical% 20History. pdf.

Everyone impacted by this law should read the rules compiled by the Office of Data, Research and Vital Statistics (Maine Center for Disease Control, DHHS), downloadable at this website: http://www.maine. gov/dhhs/ boh/_rules_ documents/ Adult%20Adoptees %20Access% 20to%20Original% 20Birth%20Certif icate.pdf.
REASONS FOR SUBMITTING THIS INFO EARLY: If an adoptee applies for the first time on January 2, 2009, it is very likely they will not get the uncertified copy of their original birth certificate that day. If birth parents have filled out their forms, adoptees will have updated medical info and possibly a current contact name and address that will expedite searching if that is what an adoptee chooses to do.

ISSUES TO BE AWARE OF:

• Adoptees who obtain their OBC before a birth parent has submitted their forms will be able to request that DHHS send them the birth parent contact preference and medical history forms.
• In about 80-90% of the cases, the birth fathers name will not be on the birth certificate (DNA testing has not been available until relatively recently and birth fathers were not always required to be part of the surrendering process as they are now), unless the couple was married.
• Medical, genealogical and cultural histories are important to many individuals, yet for others, just having the document (“the deed to my person,” as adoptee Robert Hafetz says) will be sufficient at this time.
• To help people impacted by this law to work through the emotional roller coaster that this information may stimulate, OBC for ME has two adoption triad support group formats: ONLINE at this website - http://health. groups.yahoo. com/group/ obcformesupport/ which requires a prior free Yahoo registration, and IN-PERSON with the next meeting on January 17, 2009, at Norway Savings Bank Community Room, Route 1 South, Falmouth, ME, 10 AM - Noon. There are also support groups in just about every state, province and country on this continent as well as in most overseas countries.

A private reception for adoptees and their families will be held at the Augusta EconoLodge at 5 PM on January 2, 2009. For more information contact Bobbi Beavers, rbbeavers@comcast. net.

Santa On Ice

Santa's elves are postponing their trip until next week due to inclement weather. We can't say if the Jolly Man himself arranged it, but it does give folks another day or two to submit letters if they would like to participate. Please note that you do not have to be in Illinois to write on behalf of Illinois adoptees.

In the interests of time I encourage you to submit letters directly to Mary, Anita, or myself via email. We'll post the rescheduled date and time as soon as it's available.

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

For more information:

• Adoption Reform Illinois: Santa Advisory
• Santa Needs Your Letters!
  

Illinois: Santa Advisory

Adoption Reform Illinois

ATTN: NEWS EDITOR
December 17, 2008

Santa Advisory

What adult adoptees want for Christmas is their original birth certificates

WHO: Santa’s elves (Adoption Reform Illinois, a coalition of adoption reform advocates)

WHAT: Letters to Santa from triad members requesting his help in obtaining Illinois adoptees’ original birth certificates will be delivered to the Department of Public Health.

WHERE: Vital Records, 605 W. Jefferson St., Springfield, IL

WHEN: December 19, 10:30 a.m.

WHY: Adopted adults in Illinois cannot access their original birth certificates, a right all other Illinois natives take for granted. AFI member organizations work to recover the right of people everywhere to have access to their original birth records, upon demand, unaltered and free from falsification.

Background

Upon judicial finalization of adoption, all adoptees’ original birth documents are sealed in perpetuity. According to the Illinois Adoption Act, the only recourse for an adopted man or woman is to go to court and petition for the original birth certificate. [ 750 IL CS 50/18 ].

Adoption Reform Illinois was formed early in 2008 in response to a series of disappointing legislative attempts to create multiple classes of adoptees, some of whom would be denied access to information about their own identity. Member organizations of ARI oppose substituting mandated mutual consent registries or intermediary systems in place of fully open records and do not support any other system that assures anything less than access on demand to the adopted adult, without compromise and without qualification. (For an explanation of the difficulties with conditional legislation see http://www.bastards.org/documents/conditional.html.)

ARI member organizations urges the Illinois Legislature to pass a law that would put all adopted men and women on a par with all other citizens with regard to access of original birth documents.

For more information or to arrange a telephone interview with Santa:

Anita Walker Field, Illinois Open – Phone: 847-677-0694/ Email: awf5000@gmail.com

Mary Lynn Fuller, Illinois Open – Phone: 217-722-4814/ Email: mlfuller65@comcast.net

Triona Guidry, Green Ribbon Campaign for Open Records, Phone: 847-540-5938/ Email: triona@guidryconsulting.com

Or visit our websites:
73adoptee.blogspot.com
www.ilopen.org

SECA: Stop Encouraging Child Abandonment

I hope you will all take a moment to visit the new SECA web site, and thanks to the folks who put this together.

(Please distribute freely, keeping links intact.)

Last Friday, December 5th, 2008, the SECA web-page finally went live. (http://www.stopdumpingkids.com/)

SECA, short for “Stop Encouraging Child Abandonment,” is a concept that has been a long time coming.

From the first of the legalized child abandonment laws passed in 1999 until now, efforts to repeal and stop the dump laws have suffered from a lack of an alliance dedicated to focusing primarily on the issue.

Before SECA, responses to dump laws had been piecemeal, portions of existing organizations’ broader missions. Over the years numerous organizations have opposed and testified against the legalization of child abandonment, and individuals have contacted legislators and worked against legalized child dumping. But, there had been no one place dedicated to dismantling the evolving child abandonment infrastructure.

Thus, SECA has finally been created.

Stop Encouraging Child Abandonment works toward nothing less than the full and permanent repeal of laws that legalize child abandonment.

We feel it is not the proper role of any government to encourage child abandonment as policy.

We approach this work firmly grounded in a human/civil/identity rights perspective. We support kids, women, and reproductive autonomy.

The need for SECA had become apparent over the past nine years, but the child welfare crisis in Nebraska with its law legalizing the abandonment of older children finally made it clear to the broader public, a formalized response to legalized child dumping is necessary.

Since the beginning, the consequences of such laws have been clear to those of us “in the field.” With bills rushed through state legislatures and policy and legal criticisms by and large dismissed, the general public simply never had reason to even think about the consequences of “safe haven” laws. Most people had never heard the voice of a kid who had been legally dumped. They had never seen the desperation of mothers and families utilizing the legalized abandonment laws.

Nebraska changed everything.

Nebraska’s older kid dumps, and the state’s eventual age down of eligible dumpees from 18-year olds to those 30 days and younger has solved nothing. It has merely attempted to put off dealing with the inevitable consequences “safe haven” laws create until the infants abandoned under the new law grow old enough to speak for themselves.

The child welfare abandonment disaster across the United States, legalized everywhere except Washington DC., is far from over. It is just beginning.

Out of that context, SECA was born, not so much a formal organization, for now more of a collective voice of allies, organizations, bloggers, and individuals among others working together towards the repeal of the dump laws.

If you are interested in working against the legalized child abandonment laws, or already are, SECA can serve as a resource in that work.

We can be contacted through the SECA contact page.

Welcome, Indiana Open!

A shoutout from Illinois to my neighbor state. Indiana Open has a new web site: www.indianaopen.org.

Welcome to Indiana Open! We are the adoptees, first families, and adoptive families with adoption connections to Indiana. We seek to change the adoption laws of Indiana. We fully support unrestricted access to the original birth certificate by all living adoption. We encourage all members of the Indiana Triad to join us in changing these laws.

Please help to support open adoption records in all states.

Why Rent When You Can Own?

Spotted on a phone pole right here in my very own town:

WE ARE A LOVING, MARRIED COUPLE PRAYING TO ADOPT A BABY. PLEASE CALL...

What caught my attention is that it was placed directly outside the local thrift shop that caters to in-need women and children. The underlying message: A well-off married couple is "better" at raising children than a single, in-need mother.

There is a crass elitism in the way adoption takes children from the less fortunate and sells them to the more fortunate. What a heartwarming holiday tale:

"Mommy, Daddy, how did you adopt me?"
"We put a sign on a phone pole."

Maybe I should put up a sign of my own.

I AM A BITTER ADOPTED BASTARD PRAYING FOR AN END TO INFANT ADOPTION. VISIT MY BLOG AT 73ADOPTEE.BLOGSPOT.COM

The sign came down after only a day or two, removed by whom, I don't know. What's really depressing, there is undoubtedly some desperate, pregnant woman out there who will take them up on their offer, with all the unspoken hardships that entails for herself, her child, and the rest of their family--for eternity. Does anyone think a mother who winds up with these people will be objectively counseled on ALL her options? Or that an adoptee in this situation, if he or she is even told about being adopted, will have access to his/her records?

There is an infant adoption agency here in town, and no lack of adoption services in the adjoining area. Which means the people who posted this sign:

a) don't have enough money for the preferred Healthy White Infant,
b) don't have the connections for a gray- or black-market adoption,
c) have been rejected from the agencies (with or without cause),
d) all of the above.

So they're going to take it into their own hands and get a baby by any means necessary. I know this tale because it happened to me. My adoptive parents tried to adopt at a time when Healthy White Infants like yours truly were at a premium. Rejected by the agencies, they went with the Good Ol' Boy Network, adopting me via my adoptive father's old college buddy, the delivery doctor. They had the money and influence these people presumably don't, otherwise maybe the phone-pole tale would have been my "Chosen Child" story.

While I have nothing but sympathy for those who are not blessed with children, parenting is a privilege, not a right. Just because you want a baby doesn't mean you are entitled to one. And this is why prospective adopters have a reputation in the adoption community for having an entitlement mentality. The scariest part of all is that many people would view these sign-posters as trying to HELP. When are folks going to realize that the way to help is to provide support to mothers, not take their children?

There are plenty of needy kids in this area who would love a mentor or friend. But that doesn't convey the ownership of adoption, and you could end up with some disgruntled teen straight out of the Nebraska dumping grounds. Why rent when you can own?

Adoptee Privacy

When it comes to the question of opening adoption records, the biggest concern of politicians, agencies. and courts is usually "the privacy of the birth mother." Note that this isn't necessarily the concern of the birth moms themselves. Most birth moms welcome contact with their offspring, but it makes a nice excuse for keeping quasi-legal adoption practices quiet.

I'd like to know why nobody cares about the privacy of the adoptee.

From the Misplaced Baggage blog (emphasis added):

During my interview with John Safran, he brought up the subject of privacy rights vs. birth searches. I wish I’d had the presence of mind to convey the thoughts I’d expressed in an earlier conversation with a fellow adoptee. Some people seem to focus on the privacy of parents over the need for an adoptee to know, but there’s more to it than that. Many adoptees have to give up their privacy in order to even begin a search. Many of us have to trust complete strangers with information of which we’re usually very protective. We become ripe for exploitation. Then there’s that devastating disappointment when nothing is found.

This is an excellent point that has been all but completely ignored in most discussions of adoption records. The only way for adoptees to gain information is to offer, publicly and at great cost, what little information they have about themselves. As a computer whiz it makes me wonder about identity theft and data mining and all the nasty things that can happen when information gets inside a computer, or otherwise into the wrong hands.

When computer identity theft became an issue, states began enacting laws to protect people by forcing companies to disclose data security breaches (stolen laptops, missing backup tapes, hacker infiltration). But if you are a searcher, you have no such protection. You have no way to know if a third party may have disclosed your information without your consent.

Because it happened to me. During the course of anonymous correspondence with my birth mother through the Illinois Confidential Intermediary program--the only official state-sanctioned way of obtaining information--my identifying information (name, address, phone, email) was "accidentally" left on documents sent to my birth mother. In Illinois, the law has provisions and punishments if a birth mother's information is released in the course of the CI process, BUT NOT THE ADOPTEE. I don't even have concrete proof that this happened (since, over a year later, the CI program still has not provided me with "official" notification).

How's that for turning the tables? In making sure my birth mother's identity was concealed from me, mine was exposed to her. Now I can be the one looking over my shoulder, wondering if I'm being watched.

Why does the law provide redress for giving out an adoptive family's or birth relative's information without consent, but not an adoptee's?

Adoptees get to expose our private selves to public scrutiny, all for the barest hope of information that may or may not even be correct, much less available or affordable. And if our identities are stolen in the meantime... well, adoptee identities are so fluid anyway, who cares? We are non-people and historically, once you're classed as a non-person, you don't count.

This is not to dis birth moms and other relatives, who have at least as hard a time trying to gain information as we adoptees do. But the laws are clearly skewed... not toward birth relatives, and certainly not toward adoptees, but toward adopters, prospective adopters and adoption agencies. Just think what might happen if an adoptive family's information were erroneously given to a birth mother. It'd be front-page news, with everyone accusing the birth mother of heinous crimes she never committed, fussing over the "poor" adoptive family's "trauma," and completely ignoring the fact that there's an adoptee at the center of the maelstrom. Similarly, if an adoption agency's files were to be hacked, the poor sod who did it would get the book thrown at him, and if it happened to be a searcher who had reached the end of his rope, all searchers would immediately be accused of hacking, harassment, and stalking (we're already accused of the last two as it is, just for wanting answers).

If you are searching, whether adoptee or birth relative, I suggest you be careful. Who knows where your information might be going? It's also known that there are scammers who lurk on search sites, pretending to be long-lost adoptees or birth relatives, so watch out.

Adoptees are denied their own identities, yet have no way of protecting them from misuse by others. It's an ugly paradox buried in the myths and distortions of adoption. And without full and unfettered access to our records, there is little we can do about it. That's why adoption records should be open, without exception, to ALL participants in an adoption.

Help Indiana Open Adoption Records

From AmyAdoptee's blog:

Indiana is introducing adoptee access legislation this year. Representative Cherry and Senator Pat Miller will be the ones bringing forth the legislation. I am asking all adoptees, natural parents, and adoptive parents write the legislators in Indiana and let them know that its discrimination for us not to have the same documents as the non adopted. If they hear from us en mass, they will stop and listen to us. Please write these legislators know that it is an event whose time has come.

http://www.in.gov/cgi-bin/legislative/contact/contact.pl

Please also mention that conditional legislation (registries and intermediaries) is no solution to the question of records access. Bastard Nation's position paper on conditional legislation will give you some talking points.

Good luck, Indiana!