Oregon continues to lead the way.  This just in from Ron Morgan:

SB 623 is now Measure 623- it was signed by Governor Kitzhaber on Thursday, June 6, 2013 and will be effective January 1, 2014. At that time Oregon adult adoptees may access their adoption court file upon request, complementing the right to access granted by 1998′s Measure 58.

More to follow…

While Washington state lawmakers continue to sweep  its state’s bastards under the rug like pesky little dust bunnies dirting up the Statehouse. the Oregon House today unanimously  passed SB623.  Enacted in the spirit of Bastard Nation and Helen Hill’s Ballot Measure 58, the bill expands the right of all Oregon adoptees to acquire, upon request, the contents of their adoption file-- a right that no other state (so far!) recognizes. In other words, Oregon has swept away statutory adoption secrecy  by opening the files and trusting the parities involved to leave their axes at home.

Adoptees:

•  the age of OBC access will be lowered from 21 to 18.
•  the entire adoption file, except for the Home Study, will be made available to the adoptee upon request at the age of 18 without a court order.
•  the Home Study may be released by court order for “good cause”.

Birthparents:

•  original parties to the adoption may view and copy documents in the court adoption file to which they were signatories. Under existing law birth parents must petition the courts to gain access to documents they were required to sign, and often are rejected by courts under the onerous and undefined “good cause” doctrine. The new law would provide these documents upon request.

SB623 had NO opposition. Governor John Kitzhaber, who was governor during the M58 campaign,. says he will sign the bill.

You can hear the floor debate and vote here . It starts about 50 minutes in.

Details on how the law will be implemented should be released sometime this summer

I have to go to work in the middle of the night so I’m closing for now  I plan to write more about this later.

In the meantime, Bastard Nation congratulates Oregon–its adoptees, its first and adoptive families,  the legislature–and Bastard God Ron Morgan– for standing up and leading the way for the rest of the country.  If Oregon, why not the rest of the country  Use Oregon as an example!

BN cheering squad

…Marley Greiner, Exe, Chair

 

 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.

My personal favorites are the title cut and “Blood is Blood”.  What bastard can’t  appreciate the absurdity of: adoptaspeak:

An excellent interview with Mary was published in Pennyblack Music.com.

Mary is a big supporter  and active member of the adoptee rights movement. During the 2010 National Adoption Month she blogged:

There are so many people involved in the Adoptees Rights Movement. There are birth mothers who have grown and changed and come to a place where they want to meet their children, or have lost the chance to meet their own but recognize how valuable the knowledge of origin could be to the children who do seek. There are adoptees who are working together to counteract the shame and deep loss they’ve experienced, and to co-create a world where children are no longer seen as commodities. There are adoptive parents who see in their children their true natures, and honor them by letting the children keep their original names, taking them to where they came from, keeping in contact with birth parents when possible, showing them, quite literally, that their love for them does not hinge on them pretending to be something they are not.

These brave souls are working towards one of the last to be recognized civil rights issues – the right for human beings to know their origins, for all adoptees to know where they came from, to have unrestrained access the their own birth certificates. As of now, we do not have that right. In all but 6 states, adoptees birth records are sealed shut by the state, and upon adoption birth certificates are re-issued…. with adoptive parents names on them.

Of course Mary is about  and writes about much more than adoption. She’s a story teller with a genuine voice, no matter what he subject. Her work is admired by Bob Dylan and Tom Waits Between Daylight and Darkwas universally praised:

“If she keeps this up, one day she may assume the mantle of Johnny Cash,” raved the New York Daily News.  The Boston Globe praised Mary’s “particular blend of toughness and vulnerability that puts her in a league with Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earle.

Mary will perform at: 

Columbus Performing Arts Center

549 Franklin Avenue

Columbus, Ohio 43215
8:00 PM

(For old timers, it’s the Shedd Theater at the Old Players Theatre)

Go here for ticket information and orders.

Bastard Nation supports Mary Gauthier and her work.  If you’re in the Columbus area we hope to see you there!

….Marley Greiner
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

]]> http://www.bastards.org/ohio-bastard-bard-mary-gauthier-to-perform-in-columbus-may-18/feed/ 0 http://www.bastards.org/update-on-oiho-sb23-passes-out-of-committee-with-amendments/ http://www.bastards.org/update-on-oiho-sb23-passes-out-of-committee-with-amendments/#comments Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:10:29 +0000 maddogmarley http://www.bastards.org/?p=4601

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!

Elizabeth Samuels

Paula Benoit

These witnesses were followed by Professor Elizabeth J Samuels  (University of Baltimore Law School) presenting the history of sealed records in the US and former Maine State Senator Paula Benoit sponsor of the bill that restored the right to OBC access in her state. Also Betsy Keefer Smally, IHS Adoption Training Managing and Ohio Adoption Planning Group co-chair.

Kayla Smith (ORTL), Kate Livingston (Ohio Birthparents Group)

Finally, former opponents-turned-supporters took the podium. Catholic Conference of Ohio Government Relations Director Jim Tobin, laid down his one-page testimony and simply said,  ”it’s the just thing to do.”  He was followed by the new Ohio Right to Life Legislative Director Kayla Smith, backing up the House testimony of  former ORTL Leg Director Stephanie Ranade Krider. Smith’s  testimony ramped it further, though, taking up facts adoptee rights activists have used  for years, usually to no avail:

Legal guarantees could never have been made to these mothers to ensure their children would never have access to their original birth certificate. Again, this was not the intent  of the law even in 1964 when it was enacted, but the law always provided that adoptees, at age 18, could petition the probate court that sealed their records to release them if the court found good cause.

Obviously, in politics, source means everything

You can read written (and presented) and submitted testimony at the ROAR link above.

Washington State pols take note:  the committee was more than supportive, so much so that Sen. Charleta Tavares asked “How can we make this bill better?  How can we make it easier.”  Yikes!  If she’d asked me, I’d have said, “Amend to exclude all 1996 Disclosure Veto language and void the handful of vetoes filed under the1996  DV provision. Restore the right of all Ohio adoptees, not just most.”

But nobody asked me.

Another hearing is scheduled for Wednesday April 24 where amendments pertaining to Department of Health/Vital Statistics procedures for OBC release will be discussed, and then probably voted out. The companion HB61 has already passed the House.

I’ll be there.

NOTE:   This is not a Bastard Naton bill; simply a report on the hearing.

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.”

Briefly:

• The Affidavit of Non-Disclosure/Disclosure Veto (DV) creates and maintains a special third party privilege for birth parents that no one–parent or otherwise in the entire United States–-possesses: to bypass state law and to personally bar the state from releasing another person’s birth certificate to the person to whom it pertains. The current law has permitted DVs for those adopted since 1993, but according to testimony from the Washington State Department of Health and verified by email to our Washington representative Lori Jeske. only four (4) had been filed, in those 20 years, and those were only filed June 2012 , which suggests an attempt to derail last year’s similar legislation.

• The misnamed Contact Preference Form (CPF) in the current legislation serves as the exact opposite of its original and legal purpose and intent. A genuine CPF, passed in other states allows biological parents to voluntarily voice their preference for contact with the adoptee, without any legal ramifications. A “no contact” preference, does not bar release of the OBC; it only serves as a preference for personal contact for the person filing it.

Adopted adults, especially since 9/11, are increasingly denied passports, drivers licenses, pensions, Social Security benefits, professional certifications, and security clearances due to discrepancies on their amended birth certificates, and their inability to produce an original birth certificate to remedy the problems. Proposed changes in passport application regulations will make it literally impossible for some adoptees to ever receive a passport without an accessible paper trial to the OBC.

Adoptees without a genuine original birth record could soon be barred from running for public office. Last year, at least 10 states, introduced legislation requiring presidential and vice-presidential candidates to present their original birth certificates to appropriate authorities to prove citizenship eligibility for office. Some of these bills go farther, mandating anyone running for office to prove an identity through an original birth certificate. It is no stretch to think that someday soon adoptees could be barred from voting due to lack of “legal birth certificates.”

Should these rights and entitlements be nullified for adoptees because OBC access might make some people “uncomfortable?” Why should the “preference” of four anonymous persons in the state hold the rights of all Washington adoptees hostage?

The irony of this is that the birth certificates of of adopted persons are not sealed until the time of adoption finalization, and if a child is not adopted, the OBC remains open and available to the relinquished-for-adoption person. If the adoption is disrupted or voided, the the OBC remains open and available to him or her. Moreover, the Internet and other technologies have made adoption secrecy and anonymity moot.

HG1525 is a horrible bill. It is is a greatly damaged bill that does not speak for nor support Washington’s adopted population, nor their biological or adopted families. The bill instead supports special interests and anonymous fear mongers.

Within the next few years the OBCs of adopted adults will continue to be unsealed throughout the country. Washington, as a progressive state, should be happy to be in the forefront of change, not lagging behind in a misguided attempt to preserve special privilege over rights.

The right to an OBC is not about reunion. It is about the restoration of the civil right of adoptees to acquire their own OBCs upon request. Veto HB1525 It’s the right thing to do!

Sincerely yours,

Marley Greiner
Executive Chair
Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization
www.bastards.org

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.

The Ohio House today voted 94-1 with 2 abstentions to pass HB61 which restores the unrestricted right of OBC access to those in Ohio adopted between January 1, 1964-September 17, 1996.  It’s companion in the Senate is pending. Sadly, the bill did not pick up the ’96′s who will still be subject to a Disclosure Veto (DV) already in place for that access tier..

The truth is that Ohio Legislative Services, which vets all bills, refused to OK challenging  the DV law that amounts to an agreement between the State of Ohio and a handful of cowardly biological parents who demand that the government  grant them a special privilege to hide their identities from their adult offspring.  This “agreement” is quite different from the blanket sealing of OBCs with no legal  ”agreement,” despite what opponents claim and we have shown repeatedly holds no water.  No one knows how many shirkers are on file here, but the number 20 has  been tossed around the last couple of years. I believe DVs can be removed from 1996 law, but the legal arguments need to be developed more fully, and the big fat arm of  Legislative Services needs twisted.  I also believe that the foolishness of OBC access for all but a  minuscule number of bastards will within the next few years be recognized. for the absurdity it is.   There is time to save those few kids who have been black-holed since they won’t even be eligible for access for  another couple years. Perhaps I am too hopeful.

I’ve been attending the HB63 hearings and reporting on them here (see March 2013 posts below), but when I checked today on the progress of the bill to the House floor, I didn’t see anything.  Otherwise, I’d have been there.  The naysayer was Ron Amstutz. (R-1-Wooster). I’m not sure who the abstentions were, but I don’t see Matt Hoffman on the voting roll today and I know he objected..Hoffman, you may remember, was the chief  smirk and eye roller when I testified in favor of HB 7  five years ago.. He also claimed that he and his brother (a Quad A lawyer) routinely  told their bio clients that their names would never be released to anyone, including their dirty little bastard.. It’s our little secret.

A proponent hearing for companion SB23 is scheduled for April 17 in the Senate Medicaid, Health, and Human Services Committee. Some of the state’s staunchest anti-abortion advocates and the President of the Senate are sponsors. I don’t see it flunking.

This is such an incredible sea change and it  says something about the perceived power of Ohio Right to Life  (many years ago a corporate lobbyist told me ORTL was full of hot air and had everyone fooled) and the Ohio Catholic Conference at the Statehouse. Without their opposition, OBC access appears to be the no   brainer we know it is..  Now they need to get on board for the 96ers.

Current OBC bastard activists as well as deformers  need to take a good look at what has happened here.

Any attempt to create new segregations and blackoles must be met with  brass  knuckles and a Spartan refusal  to retreat.  A handful of ’96s are what happens when you let deform through the door under the excuse of  ”baby steps” or we’ll- pick-them-up-later or whatever they want to call it.   It’s bad enough that old bad laws are still in place, but new DV and other restrictive legislations make a joke out of adoptee rights and tie the hands of activists to finish the job  If one Bastard is left behind, then we all are and the battle continues when in fact, it should be over.  The failure to include the ’96s, for no matter what reason, cannot be seen as permission for other states to do the same.  Ohio has along-established unique three-tired system that many states don’t have and will be difficult go get rid of..  If the 1996 compromise had not  been made 16 years ago, today the road to victory would be clear and not littered with the bodies of  left behinds.  Ohio, instead,  would be on the way  to being the 8th free state of Bastard America.. There is no excuse today for any state movement to accept and promote new restrictions.  If you take them now, you’ll pay for them later.

Marley Greiner
Executive Chair, BN

…and these bills won’t do it!

The State of Washington continues to prohibit adult citizens who were adopted from unrestricted and unconditional access to their own original birth certificate.

In the 1940s the state starting sealing some birth certificates and over time started sealing all original birth certificates belonging to adopted citizens. In 1993, the WA State Legislature begrudgingly agreed to “allow” some adult citizens who were adopted, access to their original birth certificate if they were born after Oct 1, 1993. Legislators also included a special privilege that would allow one or both natural parents to file what’s known as the “Affidavit of Non-Disclosure” form that allows only a natural parent the special privilege to prohibit the release of the original birth certificate to the person requesting a copy. Since this special privilege was created 20 years ago only four (4) Affidavits of Non-Disclosure have been filed with the state. The first of the four forms was filed in June of 2012. What’s interesting to consider is while this form/special privilege has been available for the past 20 years, only four citizens have ever used that form, yet WA State Legislators are certain this form is necessary. Necessary for who? It’s starting to look like a special perk for legislators not citizens. Hmmm…

Despite these four forms filed since 1993, literally thousands of adult citizens in WA State are prohibited by state law from accessing a copy of their very own original birth certificate. Something fishy is definitely going on in the capital and there’s a strong likelihood the only people who desperately want this special privilege to prohibit someone else from accessing their own original birth are legislators themselves.

For those who thinknatural mothers and/or fathers have some sort of “privacy rights”, it’s been well established in case law that a birth is both a private and public event and in no way can or should a state imply or lead anyone to believe the state can guarantee their anonymity by sealing an original birth certificate from the person it belongs to. In other words, the natural mother’s “right to privacy” is a myth.

During this legislative session, there are two bills (HB 1525 and SB 5118) being quietly slid through committees in an effort to keep the privilege out of the public eye. The Senate bill at one point was a bill that would restore the rights of ALL citizens to have unconditional and unrestricted access to their original birth certificate, but somebody on the House side must have called in a favor to get the Senator sponsors to amend the bill to include disclosures and restriction, hence keeping the discriminatory restrictions on the books.

Washington’s neighboring states of Oregon and Alaska do not prohibit anyone from accessing a copy of their original birth certificate. Is the sky falling? Is there a huge public outcry from natural parents demanding state legislators seal birth certificates? No there isn’t.

Does a week go by without a news article of someone finding a relative, discovering they work with a sibling they haven’t seen for 50+ years? No. Reunions happen all the time in states where these reuniting family members can connect. Keeping an outdated, archaic law on the books for four people who think they have special privileges makes no sense. Our State Legislators surely realize if the voters of Washington State can vote into law Marriage Equality, Death with Dignity and personal use of marijuana…what do you think the odds are these same voters will in fact overwhelming support the right of all citizens, age 18 and older, having the same right to unconditional and unrestricted access to their own original birth certificate? Odds are pretty darn good and a bet I’d be happy to place. And those four Affidavits of Non-Disclosure that were filed in the last 12 months are virtually null and void.

At any time the law can be changed. The siblings, aunts or uncles, grandparents or whoever can search for a relative lost to adoption and again, the Affidavit of Non-Disclosure is worthless. To think that prohibiting an adopted citizen from accessing their original birth can prevent someone else from identifying them as a biological relative is misleading. Not to mention when even one person is prohibited by state law from accessing a copy of their original birth certificate, it puts the adoptee and their biological relatives (siblings, cousins, etc.) at risk of incest.

Legislators know good and well that passing a law that does not apply to ALL citizens is blatant discrimination, a waste of taxpayer’s time and money, and misleads citizens into thinking the state can guarantee a person’s anonymity while putting biologically related citizens at risk of incest.

All State Legislators must amend out all the restrictions and conditions in both SB 5118 and HB 1525 to ensure ALL adult citizens have unconditional and unrestricted access to their own original birth certificate…or kill the bills. This 70 yr old discriminatory law needs to end this legislative session. For additional information, please join Bastard Nation Adoptee Rights Organization.

Washington Battleground: The Annual Murder of Adoptee Rights Continue

http://bastardette.blogspot.com/

Public testimony by citizens demanding legislators remove all restrictions and conditions. The only supporters of sealed birth records are in fact, legislators themselves. Watch the testimony given by both citizens and two legislators and you’ll see what we mean.

House Judiciary Public Hearing on SB 5118

http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwliveplayer&%3BeventID=2013030177

Senate Human Services and Corrections Public Hearing on HB 1525

http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwliveplayer&%3BeventID=2013031090

….Lori Jeske

Lori Jeske sits on the Executive Committee of Bastard Nation and serves as treasurer.  She was adopted in Washington State.

Below is Bastard Nation’s testimony in opposition to SB5118 submitted to the House Judiciary Committee for the March 26, hearing.  It it somewhat different from last week’s  SB 1525. Both bills are bad, each in their own way

SB 5118

Testimony
Adoptee access to their own original birth certificates