Kate was an adoptee rights pioneer. She served as the president of the American Adoption Congress in the late 1980s and early ’90s when it was.one of the few rights organizations around.. In 1999 she founded the Consortium for Children in San Rafael. California. to provide support and technical assistance to both public and private child welfare agencies.to create. positive outcomes for children and their families. thrown into “the system.”
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Massachusetts: Bastard Nation Testimony in support of H1892/S1267–unrestricted access for all
Since then Maine, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Colorado, and New York, (one of the tightest sealed states in the US) have unsealed OBC s, and in some cases related records to their adoptees wthout restriction. With the overturning of sealed records laws, changed social and cultural mores, inexpensive DNA tests, social, media, and a large corps of “search angels,” the days of secret and sealed adoption are over, Massachusetts has no state interest in keeping its adoptees and their records segregated and divided by age and adoption date.
Continue readingAction Alert: Massachusetts H1892/S1267 Fill the gap. All MA adoptees deserve their OBCs
H1892 and S1267 are currently in the Joint Committee on Public Health. These companion bills are clean and probably the shortest OBC access bill in history. When enacted the gap between the haves and have nots, the worthies and the unworthies, will be closed, and the right of all Massachusetts adoptees, without restriction, to their own OBCs will be restored.
Bastard Nation has supported these bills and similar bills for years. Unfortunately, they are a low priority and are left to die at the end of each 2-year session. This discrimination has got to stop.
Continue readingBastard Nation Letter to PEI Assembly: Reject Bill No 29
Bill No. 29 clearly holds PEI’s adopted citizens to a greater set of birth record access requirements than the not-adopted who can access their record for the asking, Disclosure and contact vetoes, fines and jails cells all go against best practice adoption standards. These provisions are not only insulting to PEI’s adoptees, but are cruel and ugly. They pathologize adoptees and adoption as social institution. They make adoption and adoptees shameful and suggests to the public that we are dangerous.
Continue readingAction Alert URGENT! Prince Edward Island Bill 29. Contains veto and criminalizes contact. Vote No!
In the name of “adoption reform, the Prince Edward Assembly is attempting to sneak a bill through that will continue to abrogate the right of the province’s adoptees to access their Original Birth Certificate, without restriction or conditions. A final vote can take place as early as this coming Tuesday, November 26.
Continue readingNew York State FAQ on OBC access
The Adoptee Rights Law Center has released an updated FAQ on S3419, the New York law scheduled to go into effect on January 15, 2020. that restores the right of all New York Adoptees to access their Original Birth Certificates.
Continue readingBastard Nation Statement: Cuomo Signs Historic Adoptee Rights Bill. Leaves No One Behind!
Bastard Nation, the Adoptee Rights Organization is delighted that New York governor Andrew Cuomo today signed S3419. This historic bill restores the right, of Original Birth Certificate (OBC) access to all the state’s adoptees without restriction or condition– a right once held by all New York adoptees. It passed both Houses in June, and although we were confident that Gov. Cuomo would sign the bill, it was a long, nail-biting wait.
Continue readingt’s been almost four months since passage of S3419, New York’s historic equal rights legislation. Yet one critical step remains: making sure Governor Andrew Cuomo signs S3419 into law. While the bill is not yet on his desk, we have continued to let him know how important this bill is for all of us. That’s where you also come in, likely again.
Even if you have done so already, contact Governor Cuomo once more to request that he sign S3419 into law. The bill will end more than eight decades of secrecy surrounding adoptees’ original birth certificates. It’s important for all of us to contact him. It’s important now whether you have contacted him before or whether have never contacted him at all. Your voice has made a difference in the past and it continues to make a difference today.
Continue readingMontgomery/Weprin Letter to Andew Cuomo regarding A5494/HB3419
New York Senator Velmanette Montgomery and Rep .David Weprin sent this letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo requesting his immediate signing of S5494/HB3419.
Continue readingWe’ve been assured by top officials in New York that there is zero confusion between S3419, our adoptee rights bill, and another bill related to termination of parental rights.
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