These legal procedures in the current law are archaic, humiliating, time-consuming, infantilizing, in the extreme, and rarely successful. They can also be expensive. The current law promotes the pernicious idea that adopted people are dangerous—so dangerous– that they cannot be trusted with their own birth certificates and personal information about themselves less they harm others. The Not Adopted, of course, are not mandated to withstand bureaucratic scrutiny to receive their birth certificates.
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Bastard Nation Emergency Action Alert: Keep Adoptee Rights Safe in Oregon. Stop Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
Oregon is by far, the gold standard for adoptee equal rights in US. The Oregon adopted automatically expect to be treated with dignity and respect.
This record is now in danger with the introduction of HB 2901, a bill to legalize the use of Safe Haven Baby Boxes sanitized as “newborn safety devices”. A previous bill went nowhere. This bill has legs, and it is moving fast–reportedly a bi-partisan priority.
Continue readingOregon: Bastard Nation Letter in Opposition to HB2001–Safe Haven Baby Box Bill
Over 25 years ago, our Ballot Measure 58 restored the right of all Oregon-born adopted persons the right to obtain their OBCs without restrictions or conditions. Thousands of Oregon adoptees and their biological families have benefited from that measure. Since then Oregon had led the nation by passing further legislation to secure openness and transparency in its adoption system, access for the adopted and their biological parents to adoption files and courts records, and to dispel overall adoption shame and hypocrisy of the past and into the future. Oregon is by far, the gold standard for adoptee equal rights in US. The Oregon adopted automatically expect to be treated with dignity and respect.
It is with great alarm then that legislators are proposing—and apparently making it a priority– to take a backward step and promote the secretization of adoptees, their records and histories with the introduction HB2901. This bill authorizes the use of “newborn safety device,”popularly known as “Safe Haven Baby Boxes” that allow parents—that is, overwhelmingly
Continue readingVirginia: Bastard Nation Letter of Support to the House HHS Committee for HB 2093. Clean OBC bill
Current Virginia law severely limits adopted people from obtaining their OBCs and other adoption information. Adoptees must petition a court for release of the information for “good cause” or a state agency can release it, again for “good cause.” “Good cause,” however, is not defined by law and is left up to individual interpretation. Both processes are humiliating, time-consuming, infantilizing, and rarely successful. They can also be expensive. The Not Adopted, of course, do not have to stand bureaucratic scrutiny to receive their birth certificates
Continue readingA Brief Memoir: Bill Pierce, Me, and AdoptaTalk with God
One day he told me that he was ready to die more or less, and couldn’t wait to get to heaven “so I can talk to God about adoption for eternity.”
Continue readingMari Tatlow Steed: Invitation to Celebration of Life, November 9, 2024
Please join us in celebrating the life and life-changing adoptee justice activism of Bastard Goddess Mari Tatlow Steed. The event will take place on November 9, 2024 in Philadelphia. You can join us in person or by remote.
Continue readingMari Tatlow Steed, 1960-2024 — Rest in Peace
We are heartbroken. We have lost our beautiful Mari–our friend, our comrade, a true bright star. A force to be reckoned with here, Ireland, and wherever the adopted fight for justice.
Continue readingAction Alert: GO FUND ME: Help Mari Steed Get the Care She Deserves
“Unfortunately I have bad news regarding Mom. This past week she was diagnosed with Stage-IV Liver cancer and the prognosis is short” ..We are now calling on all our Bastard Nation peeps to share this and the GoFundMe
Please help if you can, Bastards! Show Mari Tatlow Steed and her family some love and support !f you can’t donate then send them all tons of Bastard love and light.
Continue readingJames Hamilton: Rest in Peace
James M. Hamilton, after a heroic battle with cancer, passed peacefully at his home in St. Paul, Minnesota on Tuesday, June 18. Jim was our friend and ally, a husband and father, a lawyer, a world traveler, and adoptee rights and adoption reform soldier. An honorary Bastard God…Jim was our friend. He always had time to talk to people . He opened his home and his heart to his extended adoption-related family and to us. He believed in us. His friendship, support, and work gives the lie to the “evil adopter” trope that a certain band of online adopted people carry. He loved us and we loved him. Hopefully, we are all a little smarter and even nicer because of Jim.
Continue readingMinnesota: OBCs Open on July 1. Join the Run-up Events!
July 1 is just around the corner –and Minnesota adoptees will be able to obtain their Original Birth Certificates. No exceptions. No conditions. This has been a long time coming . The law that kept OBCs sealed was the most complicated convoluted secret and sealed records system in the US. Minnesota-based Greg Luce, founder and director of the Adoptee Rights Law Center and the Minnesota Coalition for Adoptee Rights navigated the 2023 campaign that cracked the vault. Two events are scheduled to explain, educate, and celebrate the new law.
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