What you Can Do Today

Action needed to support adoptee rights bills !!!Click on the Action Alert button above to make a difference today! Your short letters or calls DO make a difference. Support the right of adult adoptees to equal treatment under the law today.

On the Cover of the Rolling Stone!: Read Randy's Sullivan's The Bastard Chronicles in issues 862 & 863 of Rolling Stone Magazine (Feb 15 & 22 issues)

Membership Drive: Increase the visibility of Bastard Nation's message in your community. Learn how to set up an outreach table at a community event, distribute literature and membership flyers (download and print PDF : 2.6MB, Zipped PDF : 868K), and meet new prospective members.

CALIFORNIA: Legislative push to get open records in the state of California. Visit the CA Open 2001 website for details.

Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 Enacted!

Washington, DC -- Bastard Nation is pleased to announce that the United States Senate enacted the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 and ratified the Hague Convention in Respect of Intercountry Adoption on Wednesday, September 20, 2000. The Hague Convention is an international treaty that establishes a global regulatory framework for what has been, up until now, the wild-wild-world of intercountry adoptions. The Act empowers the U.S. government to participate in this regulatory framework and provides specific protections for the rights of American adoptees placed on countries other than their country of birth.

A Bastard Nation legislative team has been working since the summer of 1999 to ensure that the rights of intercountry adoptees are upheld and respected by the U.S. government. We were successful. Specifically, as enacted, the Act requires that the U.S. government preserve the adoption records of intercountry adoptees, and it also provides that such federally-controlled records (maintained by the Department of State) will remain accessible to adult adoptees. Individual states remain free to design their own policies concerning records under their control. Earlier versions of the legislation tried to permanently seal federal adoption records and force the states to seal their records as well. See our International Pages for a history of Bastard Nation's involvement the Hague Convention.

Bastard Nation's political adviser, Albert Wei, worked in close collaboration with Fred Greenman, the American Adoption Congress's legislative counsel and now a Bastard Nation member, and Maureen Hogan of AdoptAmerica Advocates throughout the drafting and lobbying process. To read the bill go to thomas.loc.gov and search for HR2909.

ALABAMA: On Tuesday, August , a law went into effect restoring adult adoptee access to original birth certificates and adoption files! For details, email Sandra Pears-Wilson at msmarvin@hiwaay.net On May 15th, Alabama, which in 1991 was the last state in the U.S. to deny adoptees access to their own records, became the first to open them unconditionally by legislative action. All adults in Alabama who have sealed original birth certificates will be able to request these in writing and begin receiving them on August 1, 2000. In addition to the sealed birth certificate, any evidence of the adoption contained within the same file will be released as well. Read about it here!

OREGON: June 12, 2000 The full U.S. Supreme Court denied a renewed motion to stay Measure 58. The appeal was referred to the full court by Justice Thomas after Justice Sandra Day O'Connor refused to sign an emergency stay on May 30. Measure 58 went into effect on May 30th at 5:01pm and the first adoptee original birth certificates were mailed out on June 2nd. News stories and editorials about Measure 58 and the adoptee rights movement are appearing in the press. Read all about it!- Oregon Adoptee Rights homepage.

Conferences & Events: Check the Events Page for listings of upcoming adoption-related conferences and events. Archived materials from previous conferences can be found there as well as on the BN Activism Page.

Interact: Resources for interacting with other Adopted Citizens on the Internet. Email lists, live chat, Usenet, Public guestbook postings.

The Bastard Nation Boutique!
Where you can order BN tee-shirts, pins, bumper stickers and literature.