Below is the action alert our friends at The Adoptee Rights Law Center sent out over the weekend. Join us in killing this horrible horrible horrible bill that is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee on Monday, March 11.The action alert is self-explanatory.
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Virginia: House of Delegates Passes HB550. On to the Senate!
Yesterday the Virginia House passed HB550 66-32. The bill restores the right of all Virginai-born adopted people to obtain their Original Birth Certificates upon request at the age of 18. There was no floor debate. Oddly, more Republicans supported it than Democrats. The bill now goes to the Senate.
Continue readingBastard Nation Action Alert: West Virginia HB4815 and SB153. DO NOT PASS. Reactionary and Dangerous
HB4815 is a confusing bill that requires adult adoptees to apply UNSUCCESSFULLY to the West Virginia Mutual Consent Registry for their identifying information BEFORE they can apply for their OBC.SB153 is another nonsensical bill that redacts by default, all identifying information on the OBC unless a biological parent specifically authorizes, via a Department of Health consent form, the release of the genuine unredacted document. The bill restricts OBC access and will set a reactionary legal precedent: no other state redacts OBCs by default.
Continue readingMichigan: On the Winning Track
On November 8, less than a month after the bills were introduced, both bills were voted favorable out of the Committee on Families, Children, and Seniors. The next day, the House passed both bills, 99-8, and it was transmitted to the Senate. The Michigan legislature, for all intents and purposes, is now in recess so we will have to wait until next year to seal the deal.
Continue readingMichigan: Bastard Nation Letter of Support For HB 5148 and HB 5149
We support HB5148 a “clean bill” that allows all Michigan-born adoptees, their descendants or legal representatives to obtain the adoptee’s original birth certificate without restrictions or conditions upon request at the age of 18, The bill contains a voluntarily optional Contact Preference Form which allows biological parents to record if the would like contact, but does not control the release of the OBC.
We support HB5149 which eliminates current court and Central Adoption Registry control over the release of the OBC. It retains biological parent denial of identifying information requests already on file, BUT that request does not restrict OBC access. No release vetoes can be filed after July 1, 2024.
Continue readingHow to Say Nobody Cares About Adoptee Rights Without Saying They Don’t
Yesterday I did a few legislative updates, and it really struck me while doing them–as if I didn’t already know this–that hardly anyone cares about adult adoptees or adoptee civil rights–especially those who have the “authority” to fix things legally such as policy and lawmakers. When compared to the speed which Safe Haven Baby Box legislation passes, records access for adults, even with the successes of the last couple of years, runs a very poor second.
Continue readingFlorence Fisher, 1928–2023. We Stand on Her Shoulders!
The outrage is that we must respect the righs of the adoptive parents and the birth parents. What about the rights of the adut adoptee being conditional on the whims of other people?
Continue readingJuly 1, 2023: 2 New States Join the Bastard States of America!
On July 1, 2023, Vermont and South Dakota became the latest states to unseal without condition or restriction, the Original Birth Certificates of their state-born adoptees. And there’s more to come!
Continue readingMinnesota Becomes 15th State to Acknowledge Adoptee Birth Record Equality
Minnesota’s long history of sealed records and complicated, confusing, convoluted “rules,” including an incomprehensible intermediary system that made it nearly impossible for adoptees to obtain their Original Birth Certificates, ended Wednesday when Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz signed SF2995 an omnibus health bill that contained OBC access provisions. Those provisions came from the earlier stand-alone SF279 stuck in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee for carryover to the next session. The Minnesota Coalition for Adoption Reform (MCAR) and the Adoptee Rights Law Center directed by Minneapolis attorney Gregory Luce, negotiated with legislative leaders to get the provisions added and onto the floor of both Houses which passed the bill on May 22, 2023, the last day of the session. (Senate: 34-32; House 69-64)
Continue readingCalifornia AB1302: Bastard Nation Letter of Opposition to House Health Committee
AB1302 is clearly adopteephobic, discriminatory, and frankly bigoted– and it clearly was written with no adoptee input. It has no support from any adoptee rights, adoption reform, or child welfare organization in the country. If this bill were about any other marginalized group and written without any input from them–African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, women, queers, trans, Jews, Muslims, disabled, it would never see the light of day.
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