Letters to the Editor San Francisco Examiner

Adoptees’ campaign for the right to their birth records

Although I am 44 years old, it no longer surprises me to see myself referred to as a “child” or to have a cutesy-pie baby graphic accompanying an editorial on the right of adult adoptees to access the documents recording their own births (“Fight over adoption secrecy,” Feb. 22). The idea that adult adoptees are perpetual children is one that is promulgated over and over again by the mass media, which ought to know better.

These sorts of demeaning representations are part of the reason I joined Bastard Nation two years ago. It did surprise me to see the author imply that my organization is somehow “outing their own mothers.” This is both inaccurate and insulting.

Bastard Nation’s mission is narrow and very public. We stand for the right of every person to access the documents recording his or her own birth. We also stand for the … Continue Reading

Fight over adoption secrecy.

San Francisco EXAMINER EDITORIAL WRITER Feb. 22, 1999

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Adoptees’ drive for right to identify birth parents can conflict with elders’ need for privacy

IN APPROVING a two-sentence initiative last November, Oregon voters set off a 21-year time bomb. Explosions are already being heard.

Measure 58 would allow anyone 21 or older who was born in Oregon to obtain a copy of his or her original birth certificate. Sounds simple enough. But until now, that right has been denied to people who were adopted, because on that certificate are the birth parents’ names.

The process in Oregon is basically the same as it is in 48 other states. Once an adoption takes place, a second birth certificate is created that lists the new parents. The original certificate is sealed away, and the adoptee cannot see it without a court order. Alaska and Kansas have open access to adoption records. Tennessee passed such a law in 1996, but it is stalled in the courts.

The Oregon measure is also on hold because a group of birth mothers has sued, arguing that state statutes promise them confidentiality and to break that promise would be unconstitutional. … Continue Reading