So-Called "Champion Of Adoptees" Illinois Rep Sara Feigenholtz Says We're "Ungrateful Bastards"

Please read Bastardette's recent post, Sara Speaks: Sara Feigenholtz Tells Us What She Really Thinks Of Us. It details an email exchange between an adoptee concerned about Illinois HB 5428 and the bill's sponsor, Token Adoptee Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (or someone in her office). This is the reply from Sara Feigenholtz (or her staffer) with the original message below, as posted on Bastardette's blog.

Below is Feigenholtz's response to Jeske's email, followed by Jeske's original email, reposted with Jeske's permission.

---- Original Message -----

From: Sara (staterep12@aol.com)

To: Lori Jeske

Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 10:00 PM

Subject: Re: HB 5428

Lori:

Thank you so much for your kind remarks about HB 5428.

We will pay for your travel and housing expenses if you will come here and start working on a new bill that completes the effort so that all adoptees get their obc. Are you ready to move to Illinois and sacrifice your life to work for adoption reform for the next fifteen years in the frigid winter tundra of Illinois?

Would you consider giving Representative Feigenholtz the key to your (delusional) Eutopian world where all ungrateful bastards think it's easy to pass a bill that makes everyone happy AND CAN ACTUALLY PASS ? Pass a law? what a concept !!

Many Illinois born 65+ year old adoptees will get their birth certificates BEFORE THEY DIE--- very soon.

We will tell them that you would prefer to throw good under the bus while waiting for perfect and that you think they should wait a little longer.

Good luck in Washington state with your efforts. We can hear the unsealing now.......

NOT.

YOu sound so positive and committed to opening all records

that I wish you could give me the key to your adoption

The bill and your efforts to pass this bill are inhuman. This bill will prove to a huge population of citizens that Democrats should not longer govern the State of Illinois. It is with deep regret, as a Democrat, to see this bill and your inability to stand up for ALL citizens in the State of Illinois.

Lori Jeske

Spokane, WA

I find Feigenholtz's response (or that of her staff person--regardless, an act done in her name) appalling. Whatever one's opinion on adoptee rights, there is no call for an elected official to treat anyone in this manner. It's unprofessional and rude, but it says a lot about what Rep. Feigenholtz truly thinks of her fellow adoptees when the cameras aren't rolling.

In public Feigenholtz plays up her role as "champion of adoptee rights" as she was termed in the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on HB 5428. In that hearing she said (taken from my personal transcript of the proceedings):

I feel it is my responsibility... I wear my heart on my sleeve. It's hard having to beg for human rights. I have been called a traitor to the adoption rights movement because I try to stay balanced, to be the voice of the minority but restore human rights to the majority.

State Senator A. J. Wilhelmi (Senate sponsor of the bill) said Feigenholtz is on "the side of the angels." Senator Kirk Dillard said it was "an honor to work with Sara Feigenholtz" on this issue. Although the governor has yet to make a decision about HB 5428 (keep those letters and calls coming to ask him to veto!), Feigenholtz is already including it as a feather in her cap, as she said in the following message to her newsletter subscribers this week:

Rep. Feigenholtz knows that there are plenty of people in Illinois who have been trying to get clean legislation passed. But that is not what she wants, as evidenced by the complete curtailing of public commentary on HB 5428. If she truly believed in adoptee rights, she would be trying to pass legislation like Maine's that restores adult adoptee rights without condition or exception. In Maine, adoptees simply go to the courthouse and order their original birth certificates. In Illinois adoptees are forced through a Byzantine and expensive process that may or may not result in birth certificate access, and could even permanently deny them that access.

Many of Rep. Feigenholtz's constituents support her because of her stance on humanitarian causes: the rights of women, gays, etc. This response makes one wonder if she is also dissing those people behind their backs. Anyone who supports Sara Feigenholtz should be seriously questioning that support.

On another note, Baby Love Child, in her blog on this subject, raises an important point concerning HB 5428.

So now we’re left with a critically important question:

Does the American Adoption Congress actually support this bill that will do incredible damage to Illinois adoptee’s rights, *OR* was the bill’s passage built upon Melisha Mitchell lying and claiming to represent the AAC when in fact she had been dropped by the AAC as its one time Illinois state representative prior to the Judiciary Committee hearing?

Currently, the AAC website lists no state representative for Illinois and until recently made no mention of the bill it’s supposedly a proponent of in its legislative section. As the website stands tonight, a section on the bill has since been added, but makes no mention of any AAC support for it, nor any mention of AAC participation in the oversight committee HB 5428 would create.

I agree, this is a critically important question. Anyone who believes HB 5428 is a fair compromise should consider that the propaganda supporting this bill comes from people who have a vested financial and/or political interest in the bill's passage.

These incidents make it clear that the people who profess to speak on behalf of adoptees in Illinois do not speak for all adoptees, nor for the adoption community at large. I hope others will come to understand that no one can speak for adoptees except adoptees themselves, and that it's long past time our voices were heard.

Wolf In Sheep's Clothing: Adoptee Voices Negated In Discussion Of Illinois HB 5428

From Adoption Reform Illinois:

HB 5428 has passed the House and Senate. Our goal now turns to stopping it at the Governor's desk. Please contact Illinois Governor Pat Quinn NOW and ask him not to sign this bill into law. This bill has been touted as restoring the rights of adult adoptees--but equality should be for ALL adoptees.

Time is of the essence so calls are best, but anything you can do will help.

Talking points when contacting the Governor:

* Identity is identity, whether you are adopted or not.

* ALL adoptees, all people, deserve equal treatment under the law.

* The state of Illinois cannot afford to waste money on this expensive and ineffective bill.

Office of the Governor

Pat Quinn

207 State House

Springfield, IL 62706

Phone: 217-782-0244

TTY: 888-261-3336

There is also a web form:

http://www.illinois.gov/gov/contactthegovernor.cfm

HB 5428 has been slipped through the Illinois legislative process faster than bran muffins through your digestive tract. As of today the bill has passed the Senate and is on its way to the Governor's desk. Please see contact info above and ask Gov. Quinn to veto this bill.

This bill has been portrayed as a "victory" for adoptee rights. If that is so, why were adoptee voices so completely negated in its discussion? Why the secrecy surrounding the bill? Why grease it through the process?

The answer is because this bill is a wolf in sheep's clothing. HB 5428 grants some adoptees access at the expense of others. Sponsor Rep. Sara Feigenholtz and her BFF Melisha Mitchell (paid searcher and presumed author of the bill) say that only a very few people will be denied access under this bill. But, as I said before regarding my first-hand experience at the Senate Judiciary Commitee hearing:

What's ironic is that she [Sara Feigenholtz] was all about the rights of adoptees. The good news is, the legislators are starting to understand why adoptee rights are important. Feigenholtz's testimony was full of the message we want to get across: why adoptees deserve the same rights as everyone else, why lack of access is discriminatory, etc. The bad news is that HB 5428, like everything else Feigenholtz has introduced, fails to fulfill that. If everyone deserves equal rights, then EVERYONE deserves equal rights, bar none. But Feigenholtz is very good at convincing people that it's okay for the lizards to eat a few humans if the rest get to survive.

The voices of adoptees, first mothers, and other interested parties have not been heard:

• The bill was introduced under cover of secrecy. No one knew it existed except those of us on the lookout. Only one tiny article was original posted about it and that in a St. Louis newspaper. If this is really about adoptee rights why didn't Feigenholtz have a great big press conference when she introduced her bill? Because she knew that would only invite public discussion and opposition. She wanted it passed under the radar.
• Important dates concerning the bill have been fudged or conveniently not posted until the last minute. On Sunday, March 21st, as I was updating the Adoption Reform Illinois web site, I checked the status of the bill. It said it had received second reading in the House on 3/18/10 and was up for third reading on 3/23/10. The very next morning I received a news item saying the bill had passed the House. When I checked the status again, it had been retroactively changed to say the bill had passed the House on 3/18/10 and arrived in the Senate that same day. Mention of a third reading in the House on 3/23/10 was eliminated. This is not a mistake or merely failure to include all relevant information. You don't say a bill is up for another reading on 3/23/10 if it's already passed on 3/18/10.
• Adoptees were shut out of testifying at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on 4/13/10. The bill's Senate sponsor, Sen. A. J. Wilhelmi, was allowed to pick who got to testify. While three people testified for the bill, only one adoptee was permitted to testify against and her testimony was misconstrued as supporting the bill instead of opposing it.
• The bill was voted upon without the Senate Judiciary Committee taking the time to read the submitted written testimony, which included many letters from adoptees, first mothers and others opposing this bill.
• The bill was then whiplashed through the Senate. Committee hearing 4/13/10, second reading 4/20/10, third reading 4/21/10 and vote that same day.

Again, why silence the voices of opposition? Because all the major adoption reform organizations are against this bill. Sara Feigenholtz and her fellow wolves knew that if the sheep found out what was really going on they would band together and successfully oppose, as we did against HB 4623 in 2008. The only way to pass her bastardizing legislation was to shroud it in secrecy.

News media, like our legislators, has accepted Token Adoptee Feigenholtz's word that this legislation is a "victory" for adoptees. The coverage of opposition (for example here, here and here) has been largely ignored. The St. Louis Dispatch didn't even mention their own article concerning opposition in their coverage of the bill's Senate passage.

I ask our legislators and the media: If this bill really is about adoptee rights, why are so many adoptees against it? If it's true, as Sara Feigenholtz testified at the Judiciary Committee hearing, that access to one's original birth certificate is "a human right," that "the laws that protected [us] from society inadvertently protected [us] from each other," then why do we need 80 pages to restore rights that Maine did in two pages and Oregon did in a single paragraph?

Answer: Because HB 5428 is not about adoptee rights. Please understand this. You have been deceived by the wolf in sheep's clothing. Look under the skin at what is really going on here.

This is the testimony I submitted on behalf of Adoption Reform Illinois. Please contact Gov. Quinn TODAY and ask him to oppose HB 5428.

As representative of Adoption Reform Illinois, and as an adult adoptee who has used the Confidential Intermediary program, I come to attest that fiscally and morally, we must oppose HB 5428.

To single out people for different treatment is to create an unconstitutional minority. There's a difference between the right to identity and search or reunion. Mothers can say no to contact without signing a binding veto that prevents adoptees from obtaining their original birth certificates.

This bill criminalizes adoptees for what non-adopted people call “genealogy.” Meanwhile, it holds the state harmless for mistakes and mandates a slap on the wrist for intermediaries who break the rules.

Some adoptees cannot afford the CI program, or are not accepted into it. The sole entity contracted to provide these services has pre-approval over petitions before the judge sees them. Worse, there is no oversight nor accountability. The advisory group proposed in this bill is stacked with entities that benefit financially from adoption. The bill enshrines mutual consent registries in law even though they have been shown not to work.

My experience is a case study in how the process can fail. My application was initially rejected because I was adopted out of state. After hiring an attorney and gaining admission, I found the program fatally flawed. The CI program refuses to disclose its procedures, so there is no way to determine what is being done on one's behalf. When my identifying information was disclosed without my consent, I had no higher authority to which I could appeal.

The Child Welfare League supports the rights of adult adoptees. Research from the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute shows that restoration of adoptee rights “is a matter of legal equality, ethical practice and, on a human level, basic fairness.”

Regardless of one's opinion on adoptee rights, Illinois cannot afford to spend unnecessary funds. On that basis alone, HB 5428 should be opposed. Restoring adult adoptee access results in no spending increase. The state could actually make money by allowing adult adoptees to use the same procedures as everyone else.

We hope you will work with us to restore equality for all Illinois citizens regardless of adoptive status. Thank you again for your time.

Leaving Adoptees Behind: My Experience At The Illinois HB 5428 Hearing

From Adoption Reform Illinois:

Illinois HB 5428 has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. It will be heard in the Senate today, Thursday April 15, 2010. Please contact the Illinois Senate NOW and ask them to oppose. This bill has been touted as restoring the rights of adult adoptees--but equality should be for ALL adoptees. HB 5428 divides adoptees into haves and have-nots leaving some behind. This is discriminatory and unjust.

Talking points when contacting legislators:

* Identity is identity, whether you are adopted or not.

* ALL adoptees, all people, deserve equal treatment under the law.

* The state of Illinois cannot afford to waste money on this expensive and ineffective bill.

Contact info for senators available on our web site:

http://www.adoptionreformillinois.org

or the ILGA web site:

http://www.ilga.gov/senate/default.asp

As many of you know, I went to Springfield this week to testify against Illinois HB 5428, a bill that claims to support adoptee rights while doing the exact opposite. If you still think compromise legislation is the answer -- if you think it's okay to leave some adoptees behind -- please take something away from my experience.

Going to Springfield was not an easy decision. I have two small children, a business to run, and limited finances, but I felt obligated to go not only for myself but on behalf of those unable to make it. So on a gorgeous spring morning I packed up a cooler of caffiene, downloaded my Weird Al Yankovic collection to my iPod, and headed out. (Nothing like Weird Al to keep you entertained on the flat, soporific stretch between Chicago and Bloomington-Normal.)

I brought with me the testimony of many birth mothers, adoptees, and others who, like me, believe that any legislation that leaves some adoptees behind is bad for everyone. A big thank you to those who sent letters, wished me luck, or otherwise supported me personally and the Adoption Reform Illinois coalition I went to represent.

First thing I learned: Parking in Springfield SUCKS.

Second thing: The staff at the Capitol are super-nice. From the security guards who pointed me in the right direction to the elderly gentleman manning the door of the room in which the meeting was held, they helped make my trip just a little smoother.

That's where the niceties end. Once the meeting started I began to get that sinking feeling you get when you're watching the original V and the spaceships show up. You want to scream: "They're lizards in human skins!" but everyone wants to believe that the kindly Visitors are here to help. Except they're not, and you're on the menu.

HB 5428 was the first bill heard, because there were "so many people from out of town and out of state." Senator A.J. Wilhelmi, Judiciary Committee Chairperson and Senate sponsor of HB 5428, yielded the chair to Senator Don Harmon so he could sit in the hot seat with Sara Feigenholtz and Rep. Terrence Martin of Alaska, who was brought in by the Feigenholtz team as a proponent of the bill.

When you arrive you sign a little slip that says who you are, who you represent, whether you're pro or con and if you want to submit oral and/or written testimony. Harmon read off the list of these people. Proponents: Terrance Martin, the organization Shiva Siv (sp?), Linda Coon from the Chicagoland Bar Association, Julie Tye of The Cradle (an adoption agency), Melisha Mitchell of the American Adoption Congress (sic), George Rudis of Illinois Dept. of Public Health (who runs the Illinois registry), a representative of DCFS. Opponents: Tom Nolan, Christopher Brown (husband of adoptee Gay Brown), Gay Brown, Mary Lynn Fuller of Illinois Open, Rev. Bob Vanderberg of Concerned Christians America, Mary Dixon of the ACLU, Ralph Rivera of Right To Life, and me for Adoption Reform Illinois sponsored by the Green Ribbon Campaign For Open Records.

Senator Wilhelmi started off by expounding on all the "good" Sara Feigenholtz has done for adoptee rights and what an honor it's been to work with her. Everyone sees her as a "champion" of adoptee rights, except those of us left behind by her compromises. Then he turned it over to Feigenholtz who talked about "wearing her heart on her sleeve" and "begging for human rights." She whined about being called a "traitor to the Adoption Reform Movement" but felt that she was striking a balance by honoring the voice of the majority. Small consolation to those in the minority.

For those of you reading, if you don't already know: I am in that minority. My birth mother has filed the denial of contact. So hearing that it's okay for people like me to be left out so others can have access does not sit well with me. And I speak as someone who used to believe that intermediaries were the answer, that compromise was necessary and fair, until I got screwed by the process and realized that it's really all about politics, influence, and making money off adoption records access. All of this became even more clear to me as I sat and listened to the committee meeting.

Feigenholtz pointed out that confidentiality is a myth because adoptive parents can obtain the decree of adoption which states the birth parent names on it. This became quite a contentious point later. She also mentioned that if a child surrendered for adoption is not adopted, the record is never sealed, and that some adoptive parents choose not to seal the file.

What's ironic is that she was all about the rights of adoptees. The good news is, the legislators are starting to understand why adoptee rights are important. Feigenholtz's testimony was full of the message we want to get across: why adoptees deserve the same rights as everyone else, why lack of access is discriminatory, etc. The bad news is that HB 5428, like everything else Feigenholtz has introduced, fails to fulfill that. If everyone deserves equal rights, then EVERYONE deserves equal rights, bar none. But Feigenholtz is very good at convincing people that it's okay for the lizards to eat a few humans if the rest get to survive.

Rep. Martin of Alaska spoke of his experience in an orphanage in Baltimore and his struggle to gain access to his origins. "It's all about truth," he said. Julie Tye of the Cradle spoke about how adoptees aren't trying to "stalk" birth parents. "They don't do that," she said. No one mentioned the adoptees left behind by this legislation. Next, Senator Harmon allowed Senator Wilhelmi to choose who got to testify and suggested he pick one person from each of the two opposing camps: those who feel the bill goes too far (e.g. Right to Life, ACLU) and those who feel it doesn't go far enough (like Adoption Reform Illinois). I thought this was inappropriate because it allowed the sponsors of the bill to choose who got to speak.

Ralph Rivera of the Right To Life movement got his ass handed to him over the matter of purported confidentiality because it had already been established that adoptive parents have access to the birth parent names via the adoption decree. He doesn't like the retrospective aspect of the legislation although he would be fine if it were prospective, in other words if birth mothers got to choose at the time of relinquishment if they want later contact. Yeah, yet another thing to burden a woman who's immediately post-partum; a lifetime decision on contact. Ms. Dixon of the ACLU questioned whether adoptive parents actually know the birth parents' names and pointed out that adoptive parents almost always opt for sealed records. (I bet most of them are never told there is a choice.)

Something Ms. Dixon said is important for every adoptee. She spoke of the legislative intent of sealing records from the general public -- and said that the adult adoptee IS INCLUDED in the general public. She didn't share what she'd been smoking.

Next they called oral testimony from someone who believes the bill doesn't go far enough. That person was Gay Brown, an adoptee who flew in from New Jersey to testify. She spoke of her need for birth certificate access because of her medical condition in which she needed to be tested for the breast cancer gene. Her insurance wouldn't cover it because she couldn't prove anyone in her family has it. She said, "Answers could save my life, and my daughters'."

With respect to Gay, medical necessity is a red herring that only encourages legislators to opt for conditional legislation. Because if all we need is medical, then it's easy to condone things like registries and confidential intermediaries, even though they're expensive and not available to everyone. It's easy to say, "Okay, we'll give you the information, but only if it's redacted." It's easy to continue to deny our civil rights to access our original birth certificates.

My biggest disappointment was when Senator Harmon asked Gay, "As Senator John Cullerton [Sara Feigenholtz's mentor and current Senate President] used to say, do you think this bill is bad, or is it better than we have now?" She said, "Perhaps," and they swung right into the vote. In other words, the oral testimony that was supposed to reinforce the position that everyone deserves equal rights was basically negated.

The committee voted without reading any of the submitted written testimony, and the measure passed 6-3. Voting for were Don Harmon ("Step in the right direction"), Ira Silverstein (a sponsor), Terry Link (spoke of his experience as an adoptive uncle and favorably toward the concept of adoptee rights), Michael Noland ("the benefit to society outweights the possible detriment to birth parents"), Kwame Raoul, and Edward Maloney. Voting against were Randall Hultgren, Kirk Dillard ("I'm not ready to be on board this bill, but after meeting with my constituents I might change my mind"), and Matt Murphy. There were two abstentions (I believe Dale Righter and William Haine).

The second reading in the Senate is today, April 15th. This thing is being lubricated through the process as quickly as possible because Sara Feigenholtz and her allies know that time allows opposition.

Once again, I find myself not only fighting people who believe adoptees have no rights but also those who believe in adoptee rights but think conditional access is okay and we can go back and fix it later. What if there isn't a later? Don't you think they will grandfather in anybody who's had a disclosure veto filed against them? My rights may be gone for the rest of my lifetime, but I'll be damned if I sit by and allow it to happen. I encourage those of you in other states to think long and hard before agreeing to compromise. You may never get another chance, and you are selling out your fellow adoptees and possibly yourself in the process.

All people deserve equal, unfettered access to their original birth certificates without having to go through expensive and ineffective intermediaries. As I said, the legislators understand why adoptee rights are important. What they don't get -- because they haven't had the opportunity to listen to anyone other than the Feigenholtz team -- is that rights belong to everyone, without exception.

Post-meeting fun: meeting Sara Feigenholtz and her right-hand gal Melisha Mitchell in person. Melisha says she reads everything people say about adoption reform in Illinois, so let me say a big online howdy and hope you're enjoying my blog.

Please contact the Illinois Senators TODAY and ask them to vote NO on HB 5428. Ask them to enact legislation that truly honors the civil rights of ALL adoptees. Use Maine as an example. And speaking of Maine, a big shout-out to Paula Benoit who took time out of her busy life to submit written testimony and coach me on speaking to legislators.

Contact Illinois Senate TODAY: Oppose HB 5428, Leaves Some Adoptees Behind

I will be blogging about my experience at the Illinois Senate this week opposing HB 5428, a bill that claims to be about adoptee rights but instead divides us into haves and have-nots. But I wanted to get this advisory out immediately. The Senate will discuss this bill TODAY. Please write ASAP and ask them to oppose this bill.

*** Please distribute freely ***

Dear Adoption Reform Illinois supporters,

HB 5428 has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. It will be heard in the Senate today, Thursday April 15, 2010. Please contact the Illinois Senate NOW and ask them to oppose. This bill has been touted as restoring the rights of adult adoptees--but equality should be for ALL adoptees. HB 5428 divides adoptees into haves and have-nots leaving some behind. This is discriminatory and unjust.

Talking points when contacting legislators:

* Identity is identity, whether you are adopted or not.

* ALL adoptees, all people, deserve equal treatment under the law.

* The state of Illinois cannot afford to waste money on this expensive and ineffective bill.

Contact info for senators available on our web site:

http://www.adoptionreformillinois.org

or the ILGA web site:

http://www.ilga.gov/senate/default.asp

Thank you for your help!

Why Adoptee Rights Depend On Stopping Illinois HB 5428

Illinois HB 5428, a bill that severely curtails adoptee rights, is currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee. A meeting will be held Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 2:30pm at Capitol 400 in Springfield, Illinois to discuss the bill. From the Adoption Reform Illinois web site:

We welcome anyone who can attend (you do not have to speak). We also welcome written testimony, regardless of whether you are in Illinois. You can send it to Adoption Reform Illinois at info@campaign4openrecords.org. Please include your name, address, phone number and email address. We suggest you limit to one page and include any personal experiences you have either with Illinois in particular or sealed records in general. If we receive your testimony by Monday night we will submit it to the legislators on Tuesday.

Adoption Reform Illinois has some talking points on our web site, as well as our position paper (PDF) which explains why we oppose HB 5428. We also encourage you to call or fax the Senate sponsors and members of the Judiciary Committee to express your opposition to this bill.

Why is it important that we stop Illinois HB 5428?

If HB 5428 is enacted in Illinois, it will impact adoptee rights across the country. Do you really want to be considered a criminal for simply pursuing your own genealogy, even if you don't contact anyone? Do you want to support a bureaucratic nightmare that exists only to make money at your expense?

What's so bad about this bill?

From my blog entry Illinois HB 5428: Toxic To Adoptee Rights, Makes It A Crime To Search:

First, there is the way IL HB 5428 is being slipped under the radar... It has already been fast-tracked through a House vote of approval, and is currently in the Senate's Assignments committee.

Next, there is the unprecedented level of bureaucracy this bill creates -- because the more bureaucracy, the more opportunities to charge you for your own information. HB 5428 introduces no less than five levels of disclosure veto (mislabeled "preferences"), ranging from "access if your Mommy approves" all the way down to "F*** you." It goes so far as to mandate modification of vital records, permanently erasing adoptee identities. Adoptees who have already been shafted by disclosure veto remain screwed.

IL HB 5428 puts the very same people who run Illinois' mismanaged registry and CI program on the council overseeing it.

HB 5428 calls for state money to advertise the program. It's all about profit at a time when our state can't even pay its own bills. And it's all about obscurity at a time when the citizens of Illinois are trying to shine some light on the corrupt politics in this state.

And if that's not bad enough... IL HB 5428 would make it a CRIME to pursue your own search via non-identifying information (damages plus $10,000 minimum punitive fine).

Isn't it better that some adoptees have access than none?

From my blog entry Compromise Legislation: Why Some Adoptees And Not Others?

If you are an adoptee who has original birth certificate access, find out what laws in your state allow you to do so. Do those laws deny the rights of your fellow adoptees? How does that make you feel? And if you support conditional legislation, either deliberately or because you haven't really thought about it, ask yourself why. Why is it okay for some adoptees to have access and not others? What makes a person born on this date better than someone born on that one? Why are adoptees in one state more deserving than those in another?

Are you willing to leave people behind? What if you turn out to be one of them?

Can't we just go back and make it better later?

Legislators don't revisit legislation like this. If HB 5428 is passed, it will set adoptee rights back decades in Illinois and elsewhere. From my blog entry Think Before You Support Compromise Adoption Reform Bills:

Baby steps are not needed to achieve clean original birth certificate access. It's been done in Maine. It's been done in Oregon. IT CAN HAPPEN. But you have to work at it, and if your nice clean bill gets lobotomized, you have to take the higher ground, kill it and start again.

Look to your left. Look to your right. One of your brethren in adoption is going to be left behind if you compromise. Ask yourself if you actually want to support a bill that means getting your information at the expense of someone else. And remember, that someone else could easily be you.

NOT ONE STATE that has enacted compromise legislation has EVER changed it later to clean birth certificate access. Once you have the compromise you are stuck with it. The politicians consider it a done deal and won't revisit it. You'll have shot yourself in the foot for nothing.

Compromises in one state bleed over onto others. Legislators ask, if it works for this other state, why shouldn't we do it that way? It makes it harder to enact clean legislation elsewhere.

There are politicians and lobbyists who want you to compromise because it's a way for them to pay lip service to reform while not actually doing anything. In other words, it's a ploy to get us to be good little bastards and birth mommies and go away. Post-adoption services exist to make money, period. They do not exist to help you. They do not exist to restore your civil rights. Don't buy into the rhetoric. Demand clean legislation, each and every time.

Adoption records access is not about medical history, search and reunion or anything else. It is about identity. It is about the right to be treated equally. Don't get caught up in the arguments. Take it back to basics and stay focused.

I urge all of you to contact Illinois Senate sponsors and Judiciary Committee members and express your opposition to this bill. There is also a petition on Change.org you can sign. And you are welcome to join our Adoption Reform Illinois coalition.

Illinois HB 5428 must be defeated for the good of ALL adoptees, not just those deemed worthy by arbitrary bureaucrats. I'll be reporting on my trip to Springfield and my experience testifying against this atrocity of a bill.