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Michigan: Bastard Nation Letter of Support For HB 5148 and HB 5149

November 12, 2023

We support HB5148 a “clean bill” that allows all Michigan-born adoptees, their descendants or legal representatives to obtain the adoptee’s original birth certificate without restrictions or conditions upon request at the age of 18, The bill contains a voluntarily optional Contact Preference Form which allows biological parents to record if the would like contact, but does not control the release of the OBC.

We support HB5149 which eliminates current court and Central Adoption Registry control over the release of the OBC. It retains biological parent denial of identifying information requests already on file, BUT that request does not restrict OBC access. No release vetoes can be filed after July 1, 2024.

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How to Say Nobody Cares About Adoptee Rights Without Saying They Don’t

November 8, 2023

Yesterday I did a few legislative updates, and it really struck me while doing them–as if I didn’t already know this–that hardly anyone cares about adult adoptees or adoptee civil rights–especially those who have the “authority” to fix things legally such as policy and lawmakers. When compared to the speed which Safe Haven Baby Box legislation passes, records access for adults, even with the successes of the last couple of years, runs a very poor second.

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Legislation, News

Minnesota Becomes 15th State to Acknowledge Adoptee Birth Record Equality

May 25, 2023

Minnesota’s long history of sealed records and complicated, confusing, convoluted “rules,” including an incomprehensible intermediary system that made it nearly impossible for adoptees to obtain their Original Birth Certificates, ended Wednesday when Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz signed  SF2995 an omnibus health bill that contained OBC access provisions. Those provisions came from the earlier stand-alone SF279 stuck in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee for carryover to the next session. The Minnesota Coalition for Adoption Reform (MCAR)  and the Adoptee Rights Law Center directed by Minneapolis attorney Gregory Luce, negotiated with legislative leaders to get the provisions added and onto the floor of both Houses which passed the bill on May 22, 2023, the last day of the session. (Senate: 34-32; House 69-64) 

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California AB1302: Bastard Nation Letter of Opposition to House Health Committee

April 18, 2023

AB1302 is clearly adopteephobic, discriminatory, and frankly bigoted– and it clearly was written with no adoptee input. It has no support from any adoptee rights, adoption reform, or child welfare organization in the country. If this bill were about any other marginalized group and written without any input from them–African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, women, queers, trans, Jews, Muslims, disabled, it would never see the light of day.

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Legislation, News

SB64: The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, March 29, 2023

March 30, 2023

SB64 should have passed the House. The bill was a shoo-in. It had no organized opposition. Even traditional opponents agreed to remain neutral. The bill zipped through the Senate and the House Judiciary Committee unanimously. But then something happened. A small group of politicians found the right of their own state’s adopted people to obtain their own Original Birth Certificates “troublesome.” and “problematic,” or something worse. I don’t know their objections (I can guess) or who they are, though it is likely that House Speaker Jon Burns was among them. Did at least some of them have “a little something” to hide? Whatever was going on, they decided to keep Class Bastard Georgia in line. If SB64 isn’t heard and doesn’t exist on the agenda then adoptees don’t.

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Legislation, News

California AB1302: 2nd Bastard Nation Letter of Opposition

March 20, 2023

I really have no idea what the purpose of this bill is or why it has been brought forward, but it is clearly adopteephobic, discriminatory, and frankly bigoted– and it clearly was written with no adoptee input. It has no support from any adoptee rights, adoption reform, or child welfare organization in the country. If this bill were about any other marginalized group and written without any input from them–African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, women, queers, trans, Jews, Muslims, disabled, it would never see the light of day.

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California AB1302: Already restrictive adds more restrictions and massive burreaucracy. Act Now!

March 18, 2023

In other words, in order to protect the “privacy” (don’t they mean anonymity?)  of biological parents from their own offspring, the State of California, upon receipt of an adoptee request for their OBC, would send to the parents at “the best available address” a  Registered or Certified letter with restricted receipt requiring a signature, enclosing a notice of the request and a birthparent permission slip. A “reminder notice” will be sent 150 days later, if the original letter generates no response.

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