Category: News

Action Alert, Legislation, News

Action Alert: Louisiana HB450 going for floor vote. Contact now–DO PASS

March 22, 2022

Tell the  House to retain the original language of the bill– pass the bill as written  Keep your letter short and concise. If you are a Louisiana-born adoptee tell them. If you are adopted, tell them. If you have a Louisiana connection, tell them. If you are a birthmother, tell them. Remember, this bill is about adoptee civil rights and the restoration of the right for all adopted people to obtain their own original birth certificates. It is not about search and reunion, claims of birthmother “confidentiality,” or abortion.

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Louisiana HB 450: A giant step for Louisiana. Passed out of Civil Law and Procedure Committee

March 21, 2022

This morning, (March 21) the Louisiana House Committee On Civil Law and Procedure voted DO Pass on HB 450, a bill to restore the right of all Louisiana adoptees, at the age of 24, to obtain their original birth certificates upon request without restrictions or conditions.  Due to the state’s “forced heir” law, peculiar to Louisiana, we are stuck with the age 24 timeframe, but all adoptees are covered. An attempt to amend the bill with restrictions was not accepted. We want to thank our friends Kenny Tucker  (who btw, hosted BN’s 2002 conference in NOLA) and Elise Lewis for their hard work on this bill, and the bill’s sponsor Rep. Charles Owens…Below is our submitted testimony.

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Legislation, News

Vermont HB 629 passes House; on to Senate

March 18, 2022

In a remarkable turn-around the Vermont House today passed HB 629 .a bill that restores the right of all Vermont-born adoptees to obtain their Original Birth Certificates without restrictions or conditions.  The bill also separates OBC access from the Adoption Registry, and does away with Disclosure Vetoes regarding OBC access currently on file. This is the first time that we know of where a restricted bill transformed into a clean bill and passed. The vote was 149-1.

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Legislation, News

Idaho SB 1320: Bastard Nation Letter to House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee–Vote No

March 17, 2022

Bastard Nation and its members oppose SB1320 due to its discriminatory treatment of Idaho-born adoptees and its eccentric attempt to include the OBCs of intercountry adoptees whose records are maintained by the federal government.

As a prospective-only bill, SB1320 affects no adopted people living today; only those not yet born or even conceived. The law would go into effect technically around the year 2040 and leave everyone born and adopted before then locked and stuffed into the same black hole and Adoption Registry file cabinet that they are now.

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Action Alert, Legislation, News

Action Alert: Idaho SB 1320 – Do Not Pass!

March 9, 2022

If you are reading this, it’s time to contact the Idaho House to oppose discriminatory SB1320, which would fail to restore access to any of thehttps://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2022/legislation/S1320/ estimated 59,685 adult adoptees of Idaho! SB1320, like the failed HB59 last session, is prospective (only for future adoptions). It also allows unacceptable restrictions (such as birth parent redactions). Help us say no in Idaho to SB1320, and appeal for clean adoption reform!

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Legislation, News

Vermont Update: (1) Bastard Nation Joins New England Adoptee Rights Coalition; (2) Last House Judiciary hearing on HB 629

March 8, 2022

Bastard Nation is happy to announce that we have joined the New England Adoptee Rights Coalition (NEAR) as a core member. Other  core members  are  the  Vermont Adoptee Rights Working Group and Adoptee Rights Law Center…Tomorrow, (March 9, 2022) the Vermont House Judiciary Committee will hold probably its last hearing on HB629 and a vote should be taken.

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Vermont HB629: Bastard Nation Testimony in Opposition, February 16, 2022 REVISED

February 17, 2022

Bastard Nation and its members oppose HB629 as written due to its discriminatory treatment of Vermont-born adoptees. While the bill does away with its date-based “permission slip” (birthparent consent for release) it retrains the substance of that restriction by allowing birthparents to veto the release of the document. The bill, therefore, does not restore the right of Vermont adoptees to obtain their own birth certificates without restriction or condition. The bill, in fact, codifies favors for some over inclusive rights for all. It maintains the current sealed and secret adoption system established 75 years ago by the Vermont legislature at a time when adoption and adoptees were considered shameful—or at best, something to not be discussed in public.

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Action Alert, News

Vermont H629: Bastard Nation letter to House Judiciary. Let adoptees speak! #NoHearingsAboutUsWithoutUs

February 12, 2022

I urge the committee to re-think its hearing process and to hold at least one more hearing for the real experts to speak: adopted people.  Limiting adoptees to submitted testimony not only denies the objects of H629 critical face-to-face communication with the committee, but it also invalidates our lived experience. It trivializes our rights.  It silences adoptees and makes us invisible to the public and legislative eye. Mostly, it sends a bad message that the adopted people of Vermont don’t count.  Let us speak!

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Action Alert, News

Vermont H629: Emergency Action Alert and Bastard Nation testimony or #NoHearingsAboutUsWithoutUs

February 11, 2022

This week the Vermont House Judiciary Committee held two hearings on HB629.  These hearings, according to an email l received today from a  committee staffer, were not real hearings but information-gathering sessions featuring adoption  “experts.” These experts were limited to adoption attorneys and adoptacrats. (Adoption agency liability looms large in their imagination). The chair of the committee apparently does not view The Adopted as experts on our own lives and the abrogation of our own rights and barred all adoptees from giving oral testimony.  As one astute activist tweeted today:   If there are no adoptees speaking, there are no experts…Action Alert: NEED HELP ASAP with VT legislation. If you have the spoons and time today, would you please send a SHORT email to the VT House Judiciary Committee demanding they give a seat at the table to an actual adoptee (ME) to testify regarding proposed bill H629 (information follows)

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