Outrage Over "Orphan": Adoptees Are Second-Class Citizens

Think we're making progress in our society toward equality for adoptees? Think again. As this article from the Tribune explains, the tagline for the new Warner Brothers movie "Orphan" is:

"It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own."

Oh. MY.

If you think that's bad enough, take a close look at the media coverage of the outrage. ABC News ticked me off more than the tagline itself with their headline: "'Orphan' Horror Film Outrages Adoptive Parents." As if there are no adult adoptees who might find it a wee bit offensive as well!

Scott Rowe, senior vice president of communications for Warner Brothers, admitted the company, "messed up" in promotions for the film, which is due out in July.

Warner Brothers was besieged with complaints from parents and organizations that deal with adoption, foster care and orphans [emphasis mine] who were troubled by the story line of a deranged and homicidal child.

Speaking out in blogs, listserves and in phone calls and letters to the movie executives, adoptive parents say [emphasis mine] the trailer is especially offensive.

"They were right," Rowe told ABCNews.com. "Their complaints resonated with us."

Rowe said the company is moving "as quick as possible" to remove the offending line from the film's marketing materials.

So it's offensive to adoptive parents and adoption professionals, but where are the adoptee opinions? Nowhere. We don't exist, not as adults. Because it's far easier to disregard our opinions on adoption, a subject upon which we are unacknowledged experts, when people pretend we don't grow up. Like Lost Boys in Neverland, we are supposed to remain invisible to the outside world. Meanwhile there is no shortage of people willing to speak for us, as if we are incapable of voicing our own opinions.

Adult adoptees have the same problem as adopters of explaining this grossly discriminatory tagline to our kids, who may worry that maybe they, too, are "bad seeds" because they descend from our tainted adopted blood. We have to put up with the knowing looks and snide remarks from friends and associates who are aware of our adopted status. Those of us with sealed records are expected to Pay To Play in vain attempts to regain that which every other citizen of the U.S. takes for granted: our original birth certificates. Adoptee rights are lightyears behind those of minorities, gays, and others who have had some success achieving the respect they deserve as equal members of our society.

Thanks, Hollywood, for making our point in such a blatant manner. Adoptees are second-class citizens. Why don't you just brand us with B-for-Bastard on our foreheads like the old days and be done with it? Now if you'll excuse me, I'll slink back to my dank adoptee cave with the rest of the grues.

There But For The Grace Of...

I can't say those words without thinking of Daniel Jackson in a parallel universe, but I digress. This article concerning Ireland caught my eye. I enjoy all things Irish, as I've noted in the past, but this article had little pleasantness to it. It's about the struggles of those who, as children, were routinely abused by trusted individuals at Catholic institutions across Ireland.

Boys and girls in Ireland were beaten, sexually abused and emotionally terrorized for decades in workhouse-style schools run by the Roman Catholic Church where a "culture of silence" protected victimizers rather than the children in their care... Those are some of the findings of the controversial report unveiled in Dublin after a nine-year investigation by Ireland's Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.

The Catholic Church sponsored scores of reformatories, orphanages and industrial schools where more than 30,000 boys and girls deemed to be delinquent or incorrigible were sent from the 1930s until the close of the 20th Century. In some instances, the children's only "fault" was to be born out of wedlock. [emphasis mine]

If I had been born into another space and time, if I had been living with my Celtic kin across the ocean at the time my possibly Catholic birth mother became pregnant with me, this could easily have been my fate. Gives one pause over one's breakfast paper, let me tell you. It makes me think about all those kids out there to whom this is still happening today, whether in workhouse-style conditions like these or at the hands of their adopter "rescuers." In classic style, we bastards become the scapegoats for the perceived sins of others.

I can only hope these men and women find justice for the wrongs done to them.

Impressed With Troy Dunn of The Locator

I have to share with you all that I am impressed with Troy Dunn (of The Locator TV series). There's a thread at FirstMotherForum about his show (here and here). I made a remark and was very surprised to see Lorraine's followup posting Troy's direct response to the comments made by myself and others.

I am normally not fond at all of reality TV as a means to search and reunion. But in this case I must give kudos to Troy for doing what most people don't: listening to the comments of adoptees and mothers, and paying heed. I'm so used to being stereotyped by the media that I am quite flabbergasted. Thanks, Troy, for listening to our concerns, taking the time to address them, and proving me wrong about reality TV always sensationalizing adoptees. I hope you'll continue to share your open-mindedness with your audience.

ADDENDUM: Since writing this I've gotten several reports from people whose experience with this show and others like it have been less than positive. I guess my initial reaction to reality TV as a mechanism for reunion was more accurate than I thought. I'm still glad Troy was willing to listen but I guess it just goes to show that there is a flip side to every coin.

New York: Get A8410 Adoptee Rights Bill To The Assembly Floor!

Via Joyce Bahr, President of NY's Unsealed Initiative:

Two day session in Albany this week. Tuesday & Wednesday only --so try to get your call, fax or letter in ASAP.

If you miss out this week, call next week.

Tell them you want A8410, the bill of adoptee rights, to the assembly floor for a vote!

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
LOB 932
Albany, NY 12248

phone: 518 455-3791
fax: 518 455-5459

Get your family, friends and neighbors to call!

Full bill text at http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A08410&sh=t

Adopting Agroecology: Madonna, Malawi and Malthus

Again, can't even read National Geographic without thinking about that cursed word, ADOPTION. This month's issue has an article about the global food crisis. When I got to the part about Malawi, of course the only thing I could think about was Madonna and her haphazard attempts to adopt another Malawian orphan-who-is-not-an-orphan. Even NG talks about it when discussing Malawi's two Millennium Villages:

Good primary schools, improved road systems, and connections to the power grid and the Internet are on the way in these villages, and in the "Madonna" village, which is further north.

"The Madonna?" I asked.

"Yes. I hear she's divorcing her latest husband. Is that true?"

The "green revolution" of the 1960s-1990s has not helped places like India, where cancer and birth defects are rampant in some areas. Aggressive fossil-fuel-based fertilizer use has resulted in contaminated ground water and barren soil. Western ideals of "helping" Africans and others by bringing the green revolution to them is not going to solve the problem of food production. Neither is the corn-based ethanol craze in my native Illinois, or genetic engineering, or any of the other "modern" techniques most people think will be the magic bullet. As I said in my previous post, we need to return to the simple, tried-and-true method of organic self-sustaining farming, otherwise known as agroecology.

And that is what some people in Malawi are doing. The Soils, Food, and Healthy Communities project (SFHC) helps farmers get off the ground by distributing legume seeds, which nourish soils and children's bodies at the same time. As NG describes:

The program began in 2000 at Ekwendeni Hospital, where the staff was seeing high rates of malnutrition. Research suggested the culprit was the corn monoculture that had left small farmers with poor yields due to depleted soil and the high price of fertilizer.
...
[T]he project's research coordinator, Rachel Bezner Kerr, is alarmed that big-money foundations are pushing for a new green revolution in Africa. "I find it deeply disturbing," she says. "It's getting farmers to rely on expensive inputs produced from afar that are making money for big companies rather than on agro-ecological methods for using local resources and skills. I don't think that's the solution."

I live in a rural-suburban community where farming is still an important part of life. I'm lucky that I can (and do) grow my own food, or go to our local farmer's markets and find a plethora of delicious produce sustained in Illinois soil. There is a big push in my community toward helping our farmers by buying or growing organic, sustainable produce. But we're lucky. We have an abundance of rainfall, excellent soil, and easily accessible grocery stores when you just can't help that craving for Ben & Jerry's Cake Batter ice cream. Like so many others, Malawians don't have that luxury. Instead they get people like Madonna taking advantage of the food crisis by sweeping in and stealing their children, and thus their culture, much as happened (continues to happen?) to Native Americans in the Western Hemisphere and Aborigines in Australia.

In 1798 Thomas Malthus suggested that our population and our food supply are inextricably linked. NG writes:

Though [Malthus'] essays emphasized "positive checks" on population from famine, disease and war, his "preventative checks" may have been more important. A growing workforce, Malthus explained, depresses wages, which tends to make people delay marriage until they can better support a family. Delaying marriage reduces fertility rates, creating an equally powerful check on populations.

Which is exactly what we're seeing in the United States. Couples delay, discover they're infertile, and wham! come up with the concept of "rescuing" those poor non-orphans by adopting them. This is merely distributing the population, it doesn't solve the problem of the food supply nor does it benefit the cultures from which these children are stolen.

Madonna could have given her adoption blood-money to the SFHC instead. I wonder how many legume seeds THAT would bring! Not as fashionable an accessory as a child, true, but far more beneficial for both the planet and its people. We could preserve the Malawian culture by preserving their most valuable asset, their children, and at the same time help them restore their soil and their future through sustainable farming.

Why is that less noble than ownership via adoption? Why can't we adopt agroecology instead of kids?

100% Organic Adoption Reform

Why is it I can't even read a book about gardening without adoption rearing its ugly head? "The Winter Harvest Handbook" by Eliot Coleman is an excellent resource for anyone interested in extending their vegetable harvest through the coldest months. Yes, I have other interests besides ranting about adoption, mostly protecting the environment. For our family part of that means growing as much of our own food as possible. Besides, it's relaxing to be part of nature, where you aren't judged on your status in the adoption machine. At the end of the book Coleman speaks about fighting for the truth of organic gardening, techniques that have been known for centuries but have been ridiculed by corporate agriculture. And this is where I stopped wondering about where to plant Paris White Cos Romaine and started getting angry all over again about the fight for adoption records access. The parallels between his fight for organics and ours for equality is uncannily similar.

[W]hat has been accomplished to get organic farming from the early pioneers to where it is today is the story of a groundswell of natural truths flourishing in the face of a passel of corporate/industrial lies... [T]he myth that organic farming could not work was so ingrained, so much like a religious belief, that it was accepted out of hand...

The reason for this still very active attempt to villainize organic farming is that our success scares the hell out of the other side. Just like the fear of Nature that the merchandizers and scientists have worked so hard to create in farmers in order to make purchased chemical products and reductionist science seem indispensable, so has our success with organic farming created in the scientists and merchandizers a terrible fear--a fear of their own redundancy; a fear that all farmers will realize other solutions are possible; a fear that agriculture will learn the truth. Organic farmers have succeeded in producing a bounty of food through the simple means of working in harmony with natural processes, without any help from the scientists and the merchandizers.

I submit the adoption industry is doing the exact same thing regarding records access. We are messing with Nature, conducting a great big uncontrolled experiment on the relationships between human beings just as we are conducting a great big uncontrolled experiment on the very planet we depend upon to survive. In both cases, we've got nowhere to go when the experiment fails. We've got deformers trying to convince us that industrialized food is "organic" and intermediary-based records access is "a necessary compromise." And we, too, are capable of bypassing it all with a return to the organic, harmonious balance of equal access. The adoption industry is trying to make it appear that such panaceas are necessary because they're afraid we'll figure out the plain, simple, and natural truth: that everyone deserves the right to access their records in an equal manner. That means adoptees with the same access as non-adoptees. It also means parents with the same access as, well, parents. These misbegotten attempts to divide by half for infinity are causing real harm to real people, and it's unnecessary.

To anyone interested in adoption reform, please don't grant knee-jerk support to any bill that promises "records access," and if you can't get a clean bill passed, wait until next session. A vote against a compromise bill is not a vote for 0% access, it's a vote for 100% access in the future. If you want to complain about "adoptees dying in the meantime," what about adoptees dying because they were left behind? Actually the whole dying thing is facetious. We're all dying, getting the life sucked out of us by endless debates designed to keep us spinning our wheels instead of moving forward.

Don't let yourself get mired in the mindgames. Equal access is the only equitable option.

The Green Ribbon Campaign For Open Adoption Records

I'd like to invite you to visit the new web site for the Green Ribbon Campaign For Open Records at http://www.campaign4openrecords.org. We are an advocacy group for open adoption records and strive to educate legislators, the media, and the general public about the need for adoption records access.

GRC also runs the GRC_Update mailing list which provides links to adoption related articles. If you'd like to subscribe or contribute, please contact us at GRC_UPDATE-owner@yahoogroups.com. You can also reach the Green Ribbon Campaign at info@campaign4openrecords.org.

(Full disclosure: I am the Midwest Coordinator for the group and also designed the new web site. Kudos to our Coordinator, Ann Wilmer, for providing the content and otherwise keeping us on an even keel!)

First Contact, No Second Chances

What exactly do we say when we contact a long-lost relative for the first time? Is it better to go slowly, in the hopes of establishing further contact? But what if that initial correspondence is the only chance you have to speak to that person? If you're using a state-based mandatory intermediary like the ones in Illinois, you've got one and only one chance to say what you want to say. Should you take that chance, or hedge your bets and potentially let the opportunity slip by?

This was the dilemma I faced during my brief contact with my birth mother. I had been through so much just to get to the point of speaking with her: years of wrangling with attorneys and bureaucracy even to be able to participate in their blighted, benighted intermediary program. And then to be told we were only allowed three letters each... I felt I had no choice but to try to squeeze as much as I could out of that brief chance at contact. Maybe I scared my birth mother off with what I said, although I tried very hard not to be angry or judgmental. But if I hadn't taken the chance I would have forever lamented not being able to share what I wanted with her while I could. I will always wonder if the reason she denied contact is because of something I said. But what else are we supposed to do? I think sealed records and mandatory intermediaries lead directly to this problem. When you are given a very limited shot at something as important as contacting your own parent or your own child... if there is a misunderstanding or miscommunication there is no second chance. Not very humane, is it? Makes me wish I'd never heard of intermediaries or open records or hell, being adopted. Maybe ignorance IS bliss.

For example, I made the mistake of mentioning that my daughter wants to know about her "other grammy". I said it that way because my daughter, who is all of five, considers my husband's mother her "grammy" and so that's her vocabulary for it. I think it freaked my birth mom out because she wrote back very strongly that my adopted mother is my "real" mother. I tried to explain that it's just how my daughter verbalized it and that I wasn't trying to imply anything. But the fact is, my birth mother is the only "real" mother, genetically, that I could have. That also makes her the genetic grandmother of my children. It's a simple fact of biology, nothing that either of us can do anything about. (She also said I should "make up" with my adopted mother, as if thirty-odd years of emotional abuse could be repaired with a wave of a magic wand. I guess it would be easier for her if I could take my need for a mother and dump it onto someone else but I can't, not that I'm expecting her to fill that role either. Truth is, in this lifetime I don't get a mother. Perhaps I don't deserve one.)

Do the harsh policies of mandatory intermediaries actually hinder reunion rather than help it? Personally I don't think the state should be in the search-and-reunion business, period. It's like the tin-can telephone, the message gets distorted the more you pass it through third parties. And all adult adoptees really want is equal access to the records of our birth, not search, not reunion, and certainly not a strict matronly chaperone wagging a finger and telling us our time's up.

How many times have you said the wrong thing to someone and had them take it in a way you didn't expect or intend? In the real world you can go to that person and explain, move through the miscommunication. In Adoption La-La Land it's one strike and you're out. I submit this is cruel and unusual punishment, the icing on the sealed records cake. First contact, no second chances.

Urgent California Open Alert: Oppose AB 372!

* * * CALIFORNIA OPEN ACTION ALERT * * *
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FREELY

Issued May 12, 2009

URGE THE CALIFORNIA STATE LEGISLATURE
ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
TO VOTE NO ON AB 372

On Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 AB 372 will come before the California State Legislature's Assembly Appropriations Committee. Assembly Bill 372 would require State Notification to birthparents of an adoptee's request for their record and the birthparent's Consent to Disclosure and Release of the Original Birth Certificate to the adoptee. The author's office has stated there is an $8 Million start up cost estimate attached to the bill. The State of California can not afford such foolish expense, especially when other open records states have utilized a Contact Preference Form with no fiscal note attached and no additional staff required for implementation and provision.

WE MUST ACT NOW TO DEFEAT AB 372 AND LEAVE CLEAR THE PATH FOR A RIGHTS DRIVEN OPEN RECORDS BILL. DO NOT ALLOW A MISGUIDED ATTEMPT TO WORK WITHIN AND EXPAND AN EXISTING DISCLOSURE VETO, UNDER THE GUISE OF "PRIVACY RIGHTS", TO ESTABLISH FURTHER PRECEDENT IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA! NO MORE BAD LAW ON THE BOOKS!

BILL TEXT OF AB 372: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_0351-0400/ab_372_bill_20090507_amended_asm_v96.pdf

FAX, PHONE and E-MAIL the Assembly Appropriations Committee to vote NO on AB 372.
http://www.calopen.org/asmapprop.shtml

KEY POINTS FOR YOUR LETTER:

- I strongly urge a NO VOTE ON AB 372.

- Adult adoptees refuse to pay for notification to birthparents, as provided for in the bill. "Mommy May I?" Adults, adopted or not, should not be required to seek parental approval to receive their original birth certificate from the State. Certainly, a parent who relinquished all legal right, prior to adoption, can have no credible veto right to disclosure. Therefore, I oppose the fee laid onto adoptees.

- There can be no "settled expectation" of privacy by birthparents, since birthparent names were published and sold under the protection of the California Public Records Act and are available on the internet TODAY. www.vitalsearch-ca.com

- Adopted adults hold constitutional privacy rights, the same as non-adopted citizens, who have no restrictions placed on their access rights.

- Adopted adults are not only the subject of their own adoption, but a PARTY to the action of adoption. AB 372 seeks to allow a non-party to the adoption, the persons who relinquished all rights, to veto access and pay for the notification to exercise that veto.

- AB 372 has strayed far from its original intent, to restore adopted adults unrestricted access to their own birth certificate. I'm glad the discussion was opened, but this bill is a monstrosity. I strongly urge a NO vote on AB 372.


We urge all California residents to ATTEND THE HEARING.
http://www.calopen.org/attend.shtml

You can watch and listen LIVE to the hearing via the internet:
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Room Number 4202
9:00 AM (PST)
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/committee_hearings/defaulttext.asp
(Click on Committee Room List)

RAPID E-MAIL CUT-N-PASTE

YOU LETTERS AND PHONE CALLS DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Assemblymember.Ammiano@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.Calderon@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.Davis@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.deLeon@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.Duvall@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.fuentes@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.Hall@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.Harkey@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.Miller@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.Nielsen@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.John.Perez@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.Price@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.Skinner@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.solorio@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.strickland@assembly.ca.gov;
Assemblymember.Torlakson@assembly.ca.gov;
info@calopen.org


California Open and Coalition Partners thank you for your activism!
www.calopen.org

Mother's Day

This is a special shout-out to all the mothers out there who surrendered children to adoption. Each and every one of you deserves accolade. May your voices be heard and the atrocities you suffered never be forgotten or suffered by the mothers of tomorrow.

To my own mother: I hope someday you will come to understand that my existence is no threat to you, and you will find it in your heart to contact me again. I only want the chance to talk directly, without a governmental chaperone.

To my adopted mother: I'm sorry things didn't work out better between us, and I hope someday we can accept each other as unique individuals.

To my mother-in-law: Thank you for accepting me into your family, supporting my search, and being as forthright in your way as I am in mine.

To my children: Thank you for being the best damn kids in the universe and for showing me that the word "mother" can be a beautiful thing.

Adoptees As Mothers

Are adoptees' abilities to parent affected by their adopted status? Is there a cumulative effect upon successive generations? It's not discussed much in the adoption community, but I believe the answer to both these questions is yes.

Personally, I can say being adopted continues to have a gigantic influence upon how I mother my kids. For one thing, I am deathly afraid of losing them. When I had my first child I insisted that she remain in the hospital room with me. Fortunately hospital policies these days encourage "rooming-in" as it's called, but when she had to go to the nursery for check-ups I insisted to the point of hyperventilation that my husband stay with her AT ALL TIMES. Despite the security (mother-child arm bracelets, guards, cameras, alarms) I was terrified that someone was going to walk out the door with her. Same thing when I had my son, because in my gut it feels like that's what happened to me. My birth mother surrendered me to the delivery doctor who took me directly from the hospital. Somehow that became ingrained in my psyche such that when I became a mother myself, it was the overriding instinct. (So much for the idea that babies don't remember...)

I also find that I cherish my children far more than some people seem to. My son drew on the wall with blue marker the other day and I just laughed. My daughter ripped her pants up in the garden and I was delighted, although part of that may be because my adopted mother chided me for the exact same thing. I became a freelance consultant specifically in order to have maximum time with my (at that point future) kids. We hardly use babysitters, not because we don't like to go out but because we'd rather go with the kids than without them. My husband's idea of his 40th birthday party was to take the kids bowling and you know what? We had a blast. My kids are such a delight. I know most parents say that but MINE really ARE, not that I'm not biased or anything.

But there's this dilemma when I look at these two identical copies of myself. Probably only the adoptees out there will know how weird it is to have the first biological relative you've ever met be your own child. That is so warped, so wrong, that it chokes me. The only birth relatives I've met are my own children! Who the hell decided to burden them with that? The baggage of my adoption passes onto them. Another part of it is the dilemma of having no background to share with them. We're a severed twig of a family tree, me and these two new-sprouted leaves beside me. The weight of an entire clan rests on my shoulders. My Celtic ancestors shout at me across the ages, but I can't hear what they're saying. Do non-adopted people think about these things?

There's a book I've wanted to read for a while called Stalking Irish Madness: Searching For The Roots Of My Family's Schizophrenia by Patrick Tracey. In one of those blinding strokes of synchronicity that sometimes strike adoptees, I knew I was Irish long before I saw any non-identifying information about myself. In fact I've followed a path of Celtic spirituality for nearly twenty years. When I made contact with my birth mother through the intermediary a few years ago, she made mention of mental illness in the family, in my uncle's case quite severe. Unfortunately that brief tidbit is all I know, and it concerns me greatly. Are my own issues with depression and anxiety related to this mystery family illness? What do I need to know for my kids' sake? What about their kids, and theirs? Again I am left as the sole repository of this knowledge, with zero access to any information that might help. I think it's cruel that sealed records and ineffective registries allow such enigmas to occur. We should not be left merely with vague knowledge of "mental illness in the family." I need a diagnosis, dammit, some resources that tell me what remedies did or did not work for others of my bloodline.

I firmly believe adoption is unnatural. Motherhood is sacred, and we don't know enough about it to go mucking it up with social constructs that emphasize the material wealth of adopters over the bonds of blood. What has been done to my children is wrong. They should not have to suffer because I was adopted. They deserve full access to their ancestry, and as their mother it's my responsibility to see they get it.

Illinois: Comments Needed On Birth Certificates

From the Green Ribbon Campaign For Open Records:

Feel free to forward:

http://forum.chicagotribune.com/vmix_hosted_apps/forums/948/Illinois/

Comment now. No telling how long this will be allowed to remain in place. Illinois residents will speak most effectively but all comments are welcome.

Note to natural parents -- tell them that not all of you are hiding from the adoptee you relinquished!

Green Ribbon Campaign for Open Records

Wolverine And Adoption Part II: The Mutant Registration Act

Right after I posted yesterday's bit about Wolverine as poster boy for adoption records access, the travesty in Texas crossed my path. Snikt!

There's a lot to despise about what's they're doing to adoption records access in the Lone Star state. First there is the matter of contact veto, which is abhorrent in and of itself. We've rehashed this so many times I'm starting to feel like a Tater-Tot. Go read here, and here, and here.

Secondly there is the even more abhorrent notion of mandatory counseling--therapeutcracy in action again. As the BN action alert concerning Texas points out:

Mandatory counseling for the adoptee and his or her birth mother by a state-selected social worker or mental health professional with expertise in postadoption counseling. The bills require “verification of the counseling “in a form satisfactory to the state registrar.”

Just as a state registrar has great discretionary powers to approve the “matches” made by the state’s adoption registry, now the registrar will have a similar control over which adoptee/birth mother matches she will find have had “satisfactory counseling.”

I'm feeling those adamantium claws ripping out of my fists, aren't you? This might as well be an adoptee version of the Mutant Registration Act. Records access is about EQUAL RIGHTS, nothing more, nothing less.

Go back and reread what I said in my post, Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut. There's no way to logically argue against the idea that adult adoptees should have the same access to our birth certificates as the non-adopted. In fact, equal access is cheaper, easier, and uses the process already in place for everyone else. So the opposition resorts to calling adoption reformers crazy and telling us we need counseling.

Adoptees do not need therapy. We request only the restoration of that which everyone else takes for granted. If we, as adult citizens of this nation, can vote, drink, pay taxes, go to war and die for our country like anyone else, we deserve the exact same access to our records as everyone else. And while you're at it you can restore equivalent access to our mothers and fathers as well.

Or are you going to brand us all as mutants and send us to Genosha? Subdue our abilities, not with chemicals to inhibit superpowers but with legislation that infantilizes us? Brainwash us into believing we're subhuman and deserve to be treated that way? Force us through mandatory therapy sessions--therapy we ourselves have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for, only to be told it's not "satisfactory" to whichever governmental entity takes it upon itself to decide what's best for us?

Gee, that's an awful lot of effort just to keep us rebellious mutants--er, adoptees--from being able to stand in line and pay fifteen bucks for our birth certificates like everyone else, isn't it? But if you're a powerful politician with a few bastards in the closet, or a profiteering ambulance-chaser--sorry, I mispronounced "adoption professional"--you know that the muddier the waters, the more lucrative the rewards. And profiting from the subclasses is easy because no one cares what happens to them.

Yup. Mutant Registration Act. Science fiction seems so science fictiony, until it happens to you.

Emergency Action In Texas: NO On SB 499/HB 4470

[As posted on the Bastardette blog. Please write TODAY, even if you are not in Texas. Bills enacted elsewhere can still impact you by setting precedent. Stand up for yourself and insist upon equal rights for everyone regardless of adopted status.]

Monday, May 04, 2009

BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT-- NO ON TEXAS: SB 499/HB 4470

BASTARD NATION: THE ADOPTEE RIGHTS ORGANIZATION

ACTION ALERT

TEXAS ACTION ALERT- EMERGENCY

TEXAS SENATE BILL 499 & COMPANION HOUSE BILL 4470

We have an emergency in the Texas State Legislature. Probably one of the worst combination of so-called “adoptee rights bills” in history are on their way to crushing any chance of adoptee’s ever achieving equal access to birth certificates, now and in the future.

Senate Bill 499 was engrossed and passed the Senate on April 28, 2009 and was sent to the House. A companion bill, House Bill 4470, has been waiting in the wings. On April 28, 2009, testimony was taken and registrations recorded in the committee. The bill has been left pending in committee.

PLEASE WRITE AND CALL THE HOUSE COMMITTEE MEMBERS TODAY. Ask them to vote NO to SB 499 and HB 4470. We must not allow this destructive bill to get any closer to the floor of the House. The bill must be killed RIGHT NOW IN COMMITTEE. Contact information appears below.

SB 499 and HB 447 have some minor differences in language but they both contain the same myriad of humiliating restrictions on adoptee rights. In the Senate bill, an adopted adult can receive an original birth certificate now if he/she knows the identity of each parent on the original birth certificate, w/out obtaining a court order.

In the House bill, the state registrar may, if resources allow, on request provide to a person who was adopted before January 1, 2010, a noncertified copy of the person's original birth certificate only if an adopted person's birth parent has filed a contact preference form with the state registrar authorizing the release of a noncertified copy of the person's original birth certificate.

Otherwise, both bills are prospective beginning January 1, 2010. They both contain:

Disclosure vetoes and contact vetoes which give veto rights to birth parents who legally and irrevocably relinquish children to adoption. These veto sections effectively codify into law a birth mother’s right to prevent her “adoptee” from ever getting an original birth certificate.

A “contact preference form” which is a term from Oregon for a non binding ‘preference’; however, these bills use the form as a means to deny birth certificates to adoptees.

Mandatory counseling for the adoptee and his or her birth mother by a state-selected social worker or mental health professional with expertise in postadoption counseling. The bills require “verification of the counseling “in a form satisfactory to the state registrar.”

Just as a state registrar has great discretionary powers to approve the “matches” made by the state’s adoption registry, now the registrar will have a similar control over which adoptee/birth mother matches she will find have had “satisfactory counseling.”

No such verifications are required for the contact and disclosure vetoes though. Anyone can file a denial form, which is not a preference form at all, but now would have the force of law. Anyone at an agency, a well meaning relative, or someone with a grudge can file a denial form, no questions asked.

TEXT OF HB 4470: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=81R&Bill=HB4470

TEXT OF SB 499

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=81R&Bill=SB499

TEXAS COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH

Contact Information

In order to send an email, you will need to go to each representative’s website listed below and submit your message there. I know this will take a few more minutes than our usual rapid cut/paste email, but this is how Texas works. You’ll have to paste your email 11 times instead of once. It’s not so bad.

Chair: Rep. Lois W. Kolkhorst
Capitol Office: EXT E2.318
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0600
District Address: P.O. Box 1867
Brenham, TX 77834
District Phone: (979) 251-7888

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=13&rep=lois%20W.kolkhorst

Vice Chair: Rep. Elliott Naishtat
Capitol Office: CAP GW.16
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0668
District Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
District Phone: (512) 463-0668

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=49&rep=elliott.naishtat

Rep. Garnet Coleman
Capitol Office: CAP GW.17
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0524
District Address: 5445 Alameda, Suite 501
Houston, TX 77004
District Phone: (713) 520-5355
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=147&rep=garnet.coleman

Rep. John Davis
Capitol Office: CAP 4S.4
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0734
District Address: 1350 NASA Parkway,, Suite 212
Houston, TX 77058
District Phone: (281) 333-1350

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=129&rep=john.davis

Rep. Veronica Gonzales
Capitol Office: EXT E1.324
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0578
District Address: 4900 North 10th Street,, Suite C-2
McAllen, TX 78504
District Phone: (956) 686-5501
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=41&rep=veronica.gonzales

Rep. Chuck Hopson

Capitol Office: EXT E2.708
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0592
District Address: 214 South Main
Jacksonville, TX 75766
District Phone: (903) 541-2250

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=11&rep=chuck.hopson

Rep. Susan King

Capitol Office: EXT E2.416
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0718
District Address: P. O. Box 2376
Abilene, TX 79604
District Phone: (866) 463-0718

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=71&rep=susan.king

Rep. Jodie Laubenberg
Capitol Office: EXT E2.504
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0186
District Address: 603 North Goliad
Rockwall, TX 75087
District Phone: (972) 772-8525

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=89&rep=jodie.laubenberg

Rep. Jim McReynolds
Capitol Office: CAP 1W.3
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0490
District Address: 203 South First, Suite A
Lufkin, TX 75904
District Phone: (936) 634-9786

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=12&rep=jim.mcReynolds

Rep. Vicki Truitt
Capitol Office: CAP GW.18
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0690
District Address: 1256 Main Street, Suite 248
Southlake, TX 76092
District Phone: (817) 488-4098

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=98&rep=vicki.truitt

Rep. John Zerwas
Capitol Office: EXT E2.316
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0657
District Address: P.O. Box 434
Simonton, TX 77476
District Phone: (281) 533-9042

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=28&rep=john.zerwas

Wolverine: Poster Boy For Open Adoption Records

My husband and I are big X-Men fans. Call it the geek equivalent of a dowry: he brought nine longboxes of comics into the marriage, I brought complete collections of Star Trek and Doctor Who. And when it comes to open adoption records, there's nobody better qualified to comment than Wolverine. At the risk of implying that all adoptees are angry adamantium-laced mutants, here are some take-home lessons from everybody's favorite clawed Canadian.

• Don't conceal someone's origin.
  
  
• If you do conceal someone's origin, expect him to be angry.
  
  
• Very angry.
  
  
• Especially when he finds out about the brainwashing.
  
  
• And the lies.
  
  
• And the government cover-ups.
  
  
• And the politicians behind the scenes who profited at his expense.
  
  
• Telling him it was the right thing, the good thing, the patriotic thing.
  
  
• And destroying his loved ones in the process.
  
  
• Expect also that he will eventually figure out the truth.
  
  
• Come hell or high water.
  
  
• And when he does, he's going to rip the scheme wide open.
  
  
• Because he's the best there is at what he does, and sealed records aren't very pretty.
  

(Now sit back with a beer and imagine Logan shredding his way through your falsified birth certificate... mmm, satisfying...)