Adoptees Make Progress in struggle to be heard

Adoptees make progress in struggle to be heard

The Columbus Dispatch/Opinion: Friday, March 7,1997

A recent Associated Press article in The Dispatch tells only part of the story of the successful adoption-triad’s protest against American Greetings, “Sis, even if you were adopted, I’d still love you” card. This protest is the latest example of the power of grass- roots activism nurtured on the Internet, where immediate communication can create a forum not only for discourse but social action. 

Members of the country’s fastest growing adoptee-rights group, Bastard Nation;; the Adoptees Internet Mailing List and readers of the ‘Net news group alt.adoption and other cyber groups were alerted to this card. Within minutes of the posting of the American Greetings’ 1-800 number and email address, phone calls were made and emails sent to the company in Cleveland. Within a week or so, American Greetings agreed to discontinue the card, a decision that cost the company $10,000 but also demonstrated that it listens to the public. 

Those not involved with adoption issues may see the card as harmless, but it graphically portrays the pernicious, stereotypical view that adoptees are damaged goods. The message that adoption is something shameful that must be hidden is perpetuated in the archaic practice of states sealing the original birth certificates of adoptees, thus making us the only class of people born in this country who are denied legal access to our own birth certificates and histories. 

We feel that this protest and its conclusion equal one small step in the battle of adoptees to take back our heritage and claim our civil rights. 

Marley Elizabeth Greiner
Executive Chairman
Bastard Nation
Columbus 

© Copyright 1997 by The Columbus Dispatch