Bastard Nation hit the American Bar Association Annual Meeting the weekend of August 2nd with informational pickets and leafletting slamming the ABA's endorsement of Article 6 of the the 1994 Uniform Adoption Act.

On Saturday and Sunday more than a dozen Bastard Nationals, including all members of the triad, handed out leaflets to over 400 lawyer/delegates attending the program, "Family Law in the 21st Century." One side the leaflet read ABA + UAA = NO WAY! and explained our opposition to the anti-adoptee provisions in Article 6. On the other side of the leaflet were the exact words of the offending Article 6. Pickets reading "How would you like YOUR records sealed for 99 years?", "Open Records for a Adult Adoptees is a Civil Right" and other slogans were held aloft for all to see.

BNers were, on the whole, warmly received by the attorneys, a good many of whom stopped and voiced support for our cause, including a visiting lawyer from Australia, whose wife, Pauline Ley, worked on the Victoria Open Records law which opened birth certificates unconditionally to all adult adoptees. Pauline searched us out the second day of our picket and supported our stand for open records for adult adoptees, unconditionally and without compromise, saying, "Absolutely, it's the only way to go."

Bay Area Bastards Ron Morgan, Deb Schwarz, Damsel Plum, Denise Castelucci, Jeanne Clark, Jim Ansbro, Janine Baer and Larry Fojtik were among the picketers, as were supporters from the triad and our families. Randy Shaw's publicist dropped by and left some materials for us to review on how to increase public awareness of our issue.

As usual a great time was had by all Bastards.

The quote of the weekend came from one of the attendees, a member of the ABA House of Delegates that endorsed the UAA in '95, "Where were you guys when we voted on this? Nobody told *us* it was going to be controversial!?!?"

On a personal note, it never ceases to amaze me how little people know about our issue. Even lawyers, some of whom practice family law, responded to our presence with comments like, "But can't you get your records when you're eighteen?" We've got a lot of work to do to bring the public around.

Ron Morgan
Proud Bay Area Bastard