Bastard Nation supports the Adoptee Citizenship Act 2019/2020, the amendment to the Child Citizenship Act of 2000. We believe:
Continue readingBastard Nation History, Analysis, & Endorsement of Adoptee Citizenship Act, 2019-2020
Category: News
New York : Update on OBC Access and Orders–NEW YORK CITY
The processing time for opening a sealed record and preparing for issuance is sixteen weeks. I cannot provide a time frame as to when we will resume normal business functions at this time. I understand that adoptees have waited many years to obtain their pre-adoption record, NYC apologizes for the interruption in services and appreciates your understanding during these challenging times.”
Continue readingNew York: Update on OBC Access and Orders–NEW YORK STATE
The Pre-Adoption Birth Certificate Unit at the NYS Bureau of Vital records has been up and running for several weeks. Currently, they are experiencing significant delays in processing orders for Pre-Adoption Birth Certificates. At the direction of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Executive Order 202, pertaining to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, offices are currently operating with reduced staff and resources. Due to the research needed to locate and fulfill an order, their limited staff is still working to process the remaining orders. Depending on volume of forthcoming inquiries received from the public, they are currently processing 200-300 orders per week. They have continued to process applications in the order in which they were received. We all appreciate everyone’s patience as the Bureau of Vital Records works to fulfill the high volume of requests for Pre-Adoption Birth Certificates.
Continue readingBastard Nation Action Alert: Massachusetts H1892/S1267. Contact MA Senate Today! Vote Do Pass
The bill needs to be brought to the Senate floor for a vote.
We urge you to:
1) Write, e-mail or call members of the Senate and urge them to bring the bill to the floor and to vote DO PASS!
2) Ask friends and family in Massachusetts to contact the Senate. The more legislators hear from constituents, the greater the chance of success!
Continue readingMassachusetts: House passes OBC Access for All. On to Senate!
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, when all legislation this year seemed lost–the Massachusetts House this morning passed H1892 to restore OBC access to all Massachusetts adoptees. (No vote stats known yet). It now moves to the Senate.
Continue readingBastard Nation Action Alert: Don’t let ancestry.com purge DNA matches
Ancestry.com has announced that it plans in August to purge its smaller matches –6-8cM- segments. In other words, ancestry.com DNA customers are about to lose a substantial number of family members/DNA connections from its customer’s DNA matches.
In general, this is a terrible idea, but specifically, these smaller matches are the exact place where African American and mixed Native Americans find their ancestral connections. This change will also affect adoptee connections.
Continue readingFramed in Bigotry and Discrimination: A look at Trump’s Executive Order: Strengthening the Child Welfare System for America’s Children.
The emphasis in the Executive Order is not some abstract improvement, but the creation of a robust evangelical-coded “faith-based” equalization in child welfare. The EO promises to increase much-needed child welfare improvement not through government initiative, but through taxpayer-funded tax-exempt so-called “faith-based” partnerships with private religious child welfare organizations and corporations including churches, para-churches, and ministries. Moreover, the EO promises “faith-based “foster and adoption recruitment.” This suggests nonsensically that the lack of “faith-based partnerships” keeps children stuck in state foster care when they could be transferred to the Christian adoption market if that market were more open and availab
Continue readingGood News from Missouri: Reclaim the Records takes down bureaucratic secret keepers
In 2016 Reclaim the Records, using the Missouri Sunshine Law, requested a simple database extraction of state birth and death listings from January 1, 1910-December 31, 2015. According to Reclaim the Records attorney, Bernie Rhodes, the extraction should “take only a few keystrokes” to complete. DHSS , however, for reasons unknown, responded with a “backdoor denial.” It first demanded $1.49 million to fulfill the request, crazy-claiming compilation would take over 35,000 staff hours at $42.50 per hour (!) When Reclaim the Records balked, the fee was lowered mysteriously to a still high $5000. Then, DHSS rejected the request in full and ran to former Missouri Registrar Garland Land for advice on how to keep the birth and death indices from public perusal.
Continue readingBastard Nation Action Alert and Letter: Kentucky HB447 Baby Drop Box Bill. Do Not Pass
The Kentucky Legislature has been closed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is scheduled to re-open (as of this writing) on April 14, 2020. We don’t know if that will happen, but now …
Continue readingUtah continues to deform
This week Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert signed two bills that continue to abrogate the rights of Utah–born adoptees.
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