Our Mission

Bastard Nation advocates for the civil and human rights of adult citizens who were adopted as children. Millions of North Americans are prohibited by law from accessing personal records that pertain to their historical, genetic and legal identities. Such records are held by their governments in secret and without accountability, due solely to the fact that they were adopted.
Bastard Nation campaigns for the restoration of their right to access their records. The right to know one’s identity is primarily a political issue directly affected by the practice of sealed records adoptions. Please join us in our efforts to end a hidden legacy of shame, fear and venality.

Adoption in everyone’s interests

From Wilmington, DE newspaper. Sunday, April 26, 1998

Adoption in everyone’s interests: Secrecy and speed in the Uniform Adoption
Act deny children’s legitimate rights

by Mary-Lee Lutz

Opponents of the Uniform Adoption Act, or Delaware House Bill 365, are
being portrayed as a group of whining adoptees who can’t find their birth
mommies. Nothing could be further from the truth. Adult adoptees care
deeply about the children who will be adopted now and in the future. We
accept our responsibility to protect them from the frightening potential
for exploitation inherent in this bill.

But our concerns are also for our own rights. Adult adoptees should have
access to their original, unamended birth certificates in the same manner
as any other citizen.

One of the arguments raised by those oppose opening birth certificates to
an adult adoptee is that doing so violates a birth parent’s right to privacy.

There is a distinction to be made between privacy and secrecy. The sealed
records system has always been based on secrecy. As long as this cloak of
eternal secrecy remains, an aura of shame clings to adoption. … Continue Reading