The United States According to Bastard Nation

The BASTARDIZED states of Alabama, Alaska, Oregon, Kansas, New Hampshire Maine and Rhode Island are the only U.S. states where adult adoptees have unrestricted access to their own original birth records! Join the fight to stamp out the seal of supreme Bastardy on the rest of the nation!

Bastard Nation is dedicated to the recognition of the full human and civil rights of adult Adoptees. Toward that end, we advocate the opening to Adoptees, upon request at age of majority, of those government documents which pertain to the Adoptee’s historical, genetic, and legal identity, including the unaltered original birth certificate and adoption decree. Bastard Nation asserts that it is the right of people everywhere to have their official original birth records unaltered and free from falsification, and that the adoptive status of any person should not prohibit him or her from choosing to exercise that right. We have reclaimed the badge of bastardy placed on us by those who would attempt to shame us; we see nothing shameful in having been born out of wedlock or in being adopted. Bastard Nation does not support mandated mutual consent registries or intermediary systems in place of unconditional open records, nor any other system that is less than access on demand to the adult Adoptee, without condition, and without qualification.

Ohio: Bastard Bard Mary Gauthier to perform in Columbus May 18!

Save the date!

 Distribute Freely!

I first ran into Mary  over 10 years ago on WCBE.  I’d never heard of her.  I don’t remember the name of the song that was played and the word “adoption” wasn’t mentioned once. But Wowza!   I shouted  ”that’s about being adopted.” It was.  And I googled her. Since then I’ve been a big fan.  Her May 2010 CD The Foundling, is a tour d’ force of her own adoption experience:

The  songs (on The Foundling) tell the story of a kid abandoned at birth who spent a year in an orphanage and was adopted, who ran way from the adopted home and ended up in show business, who searched for birth parents late in life and found one and was rejected, and who came through the other side of all of this still believing in love

–but speaks to us all no matter what our experience.

It was named 3rd top CD of the year by the LA Times.
… Continue Reading

Update on Ohio SB23: Passes out of committee with amendments

Ohio Report: Proponent Testimony for SB23, April 17, 2013

I’m late  in getting this posted, but I wanted to file a short report on the April 17 hearing for SB23 at the Ohio Senate Medicaid, Health, and Human Services Committee. You can also read an update on the ROAR site (Update #13).

Wendy Blitzer Barkett

This was the first proponent hearing (the sponsor hearing was held on February 13). and consisted of two groups of witnesses.  The first were adoptees, some from out of state; the second “the experts.”

Kicking off the hearing was adoptee poet Wendy Blitzer Barker  who came all the way from Texas to tell her story and support the bill. She was followed by Jeffrey Costello (Atlanta),  Erin  Hopkins McHugh, Ohio firefighter  Stephen Kelly, and Julia Derry.  Some told jerk-around stories relating to their individual probate court request for non-ID, which indicated that some courts are or have been in the past, out of compliance with current Ohio non-ID laws. And  I was beginning to think I’d heard it all!
… Continue Reading

Write Washington Governor Inslee Today! Kill HB 1525!

Washington HB1525 passed the Senate and is on its way to the governor’s desk.  If signed, it will promote and continue the state’s sealed records system and deny the right of all Washington adoptees to their original birth certificates.  As other state’s  restore adoptee rights and open our OBCs,  some Washington adoptees will find the right to their OBC subject to the whim of third party approval and comfort and will have no chance of ever getting it.  

Don’t let this happen!

Write directly to Governor Jay Inslee and tell him why HB1525 is bad for adoptees, their families and the State of Washington.  Contact information for him is here.  (a template for email)  There is also information for phone and fax contact at that link.

Phone:  360-902-4111
TTY/TDD users should contact the Washington Relay Service at 711 or 1-800-833-6388.

Fax:   360-753-4110

Email a copy of your note to  Insle’s senior polilcy adviser Andi Smith at andi.smith@gov.wa.gov

We have only a couple days to get this message to the Governor’s Office.

Below is a copy of Bastard Nation’s letter to Governor  Inslee sent on April 17. 

Send us a copy of your letter  to comments below, and  we’ll  post it here.

Kill HB1525!

Dear Governor Inslee:

Bastard Nation, the Adoptee Rights Organization, opposes the passage of HB1525 We have submitted both written an oral testimony in opposition to this bill and its SB5118 companion.

HB1525 is promoted by sponsors as an “adoptee rights bill” that will allegedly make available to adoptees upon request, a copy of their original birth certificates. Nothing could be further from the truth. HB 1525 does not restore the right of Original Birth Certificate (OBC) access once enjoyed by all persons born and adopted in the state. It make access conditional by segregating the “worthy” adoptee from the “unworthy” by means of an Affidavit of Disclosure/Disclosure Veto and a misnamed “Contact Preference Form.”
… Continue Reading