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The deeply moving and award-winning film "Secrets and Lies" has a scene in which an adoptee is given her original birth records by a government employee. The records are open in England. But most people don't realize that in our country adoption records are closed in all but two states – Kansas and Alaska. Unlike other citizens, adult adoptees are forbidden access to their original birth certificates, which are sealed by law. They are given falsified birth certificates on which the names of their birth parents are replaced by those of their adoptive parents . This was allegedly done to protect adoptees from the shame of their "illegitimate" status. But it has had the effect of cutting them off from knowledge of their origins. In many nations, adoption records were never sealed. Scotland opened its records in 1930. England in 1975. Why are the records still sealed in most of the U.S.? Well-funded lobbies representing traditional adoption agencies along with some adoption lawyers have a vested interest in keeping the records closed. They are pushing a "Uniform Adoption Act" that would seal adoption records for 99 years. And, in some instances, that would hold adoptees criminally libel for contacting their birth mothers. As you saw in the movie "Secrets and Lies," the desire to search has nothing to do with one's feelings for one's adoptive family. It has to do with issues of identity -- with answering the primal question: Who are the parents who brought me into this world? Some adoptees need their medical history. Others want to know their biological and ethnic heritage before they start a family. Some choose not to search for fear of hurting their adoptive parents or that they will "disrupt" their birth parents' lives. Many adoptive parents are not threatened by their children searching, and even assist them. They learn that their children often feel closer to them after they have solved the riddle of who they are and where they come from. It is time that adopted people, whether they wish to search or not, should have the legal right to make that choice. It is time to get humane open records laws passed in each state. It is time to end an adoption system of secrets and lies. To find out more about adult adoptee rights and how to help get open records laws passed, contact Bastard Nation at 415-435-796O. Visit our website at http://www.bastards.org/. Thank you.