Unfortunately, many adoptive parents did not research or verify citizenship status at the time of adoption or follow through on the citizenship process. Some say they were unaware of naturalization requirements and believed citizenship was automatic upon adoption finalization. Some claim to have been misled about citizenship procedures by their adoption agencies, courts, lawyers, or federal immigration authorities. Some believed that it was up to the adoptee, at the age of majority, to choose their citizenship status. In some cases, adoptive parents disrupted the adoption, and either “rehomed” the children they brought to the US or turned them over to the state foster care system where they lingered with no legal closure.
Continue readingCategory: News
We Lost Another One. In Memoriam: Addie Recoy (1965-2021)
Addie Recoy, longtime adoptee rights activist and Bastard National, passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer, She celebrated her 56th birthday two weeks ago. Addie didn’t like attention and didn’t want the seriousness of her illness made public. Only a handful of very close friends knew, about her condition, and her passing has been a shock to us all. I don’t know if an obituary will be published, (if it is, I will add it) but friends and colleagues are posting memories and condolences throughout social media. You can read some of their tributes on her Facebook page.
Continue readingIn Memoriam: Susan Friel-Williams (1954-2021)
Today we learned of the passing of Susan Friel-Williams on October 21 in Fort Myers, Florida. Susan was a veteran adoptee rights activist and searcher. whose work goes back decades.
Continue readingMassachusetts House passes H2294. Now it’s the Senate’s turn!
Today the Massachusetts House passed H2294, (Senate version is S1440), a bill to restore the right of all Massachusetts-born adoptees to their original birth certificates. Current Massachusetts law allows adoptees in the state to obtain their original birth certificates without conditions or restrictions at age 18 if they were adopted on or before July 17, 1974, or on or after January 1, 2008., This bill unseals records for those adopted between July 18, 1974, and December 31, 2008.
Continue readingIt’s Official! Rhode Island lowers OBC age to 18
Rhode Island has now officially decreased its age of OBC access from 25 to 18! Yay! The law went into effect immediately.
Continue readingArizona Under the Bridge
The bills from the beginning were pimped by the fake adoptee advocacy group Arizona Heritage (HA!) headed by adoptee-not-born-in Arizona-no-skin-in-the-game Britany Luna, MSW. The group went silent in public after the fix was in. Its Facebook page is now private, secret, or dead. Even more interesting the HA website hasn’t hype-hype horrayed their “victory!” The politically influential right-wing anti-abortion (and anti-queer) “traditional family values” crowd at the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) joined them in their adopteephobic scheme. CAP is funded in large part by the National Christian Charitable Foundation, an organization unded with money from Hobby Lobby.
Continue readingRhode Island dumps bad precedent. Lowers OBC access to age 18. On to governor
This week, on the heels of the official opening of OBCs for all in Connecticut Rhode Island lowered the age that its adopted class could receive their OBCs from 25 to 18, Now, this might not seem like a big deal to some, but it is.
Continue readingHappy Connecticut Day! OBCS for all starts today!
Today, July 1, is Connecticut’s Day!
Welcome to the Golden Circle! The Big Ten! The 10th State to acknowledge and restore the right of all its state-born adoptees to their Original Birth Certificates.
Continue readingLet’s finish the job! The Adoptee Rights Law Center has compiled a short update and pre-assembled tweets to send to Arizona lawmakers.
Go to: Tweet to Arizona Legislators,
Copy, Paste. Send.
We win when we work together!
Continue readingArizona: Please sign Joint Letter to Arizona lawmakers to reject SB1831/HB2921; guts adoptee rights
Bastard Nation has joined The Adoptee Rights Law Center call for adoptees and allies from across the country to stop the Arizona legislature from destroying the OBC rights of the majority of the state’s adopted class.
The proposed law black-holes all Arizona adoptees born between 1968-2021 from obtaining their original birth certificates without a court order.
Continue reading