Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization
PO Box 4607
New Windsor, New York 2553-7845
bastardnation3gmail.com bastardnation@bsky.social
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TO: Members of the Virginia House of Delegates
FROM: Marley Greiner, Executive Chair
RE: Support for Passage of HB2093: Restoration of Right of Virginia-born Adoptees to their Original Birth Certificates
DATE: February 1, 2025
Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization is the largest adoptee civil rights organization in the United States. We support only full unrestricted access for all adopted persons to their original birth certificates (OBC) and related documents. We are a core partner in the Capitol Coalition for Adoptee Rights (Maryland, Virginia, WDC).
We support passage of HB2093 as written.
Current Virginia law severely limits adopted people from obtaining their OBCs and other adoption information. Adoptees must petition a court for release of the information for “good cause” or a state agency can release it, again for “good cause.” “Good cause,” however, is not defined by law and is left up to individual interpretation. Both processes are humiliating, archaic, time-consuming, infantilizing, and rarely successful. They can also be expensive. The Not Adopted, of course, do not have to withstand bureaucratic scrutiny to receive their birth certificates.
HB2093 does away with this very limited current legal process and restores the right of all Virginia-born adopted people to obtain their OBCs upon request at the age of 18 with no restrictions or conditions. The adoptee would simply fill out a form and submit it directly to the appropriate department for a nominal fee.
HB2093 is not about search and reunion, though search and reunion can happen The bill is about civil rights.
Adopted people in 15 states have unrestricted access to their OBCs Not one single negative report about unsealing has been published. Access has been normalized. Adoptees are treated just like the Not Adopted and like the Not Adopted no one denies that they have a right to those records and information.
A similar bill to HB2093 passed the Virginia House last year, but was tied up in the Senate and never reached a floor vote.
Please vote DO PASS on HB2093. It’s the right thing to do. Thank you.
