Shea Grimm’s Response to Non-adoptees Misrepresenting “Adoptee Rights” Bills, 6 February 6. 1999
Subject: BEST: TxCare and CO bill
To: BEST@lakenet.org, txcare@aol.com
Cc: bbetzen@aol.com
With regard to Bill Betzen’s letter asking for support in getting
Colorado’s veto legislation passed, I note that on December 3rd, 1998, Bill
Betzen wrote to me on alt.adoption, in response to my assertion
that he supports veto legislation, that, and I quote:
“Shea, in no way am I in any way a supporter of veto legislation!”
With regard to Alicia’s refusal to say whether they will pull the
Texas bill if veto amendments are added,
the strategy, it appears, is to refuse to directly
say whether they will pull a bill if it contains vetoes, and instead
repeatedly insist that the answers are all clear somewhere, or that
everyone who knows them knows the answer, or say they won’t
answer because the person is not in Texas (and then when a
person IS in Texas, just ignore them altogether) or other equally
meaningless dodges that boil down to *non-responsiveness*. We
will only be able to judge them by their actions because clearly
what they *say* is irrelevant when it comes to their actual position.
Frankly, what bothers me most, is that neither one of these people
are adoptees, yet they are nearly solely responisble for lobbying in
their respective states, legislation that they claim to be “adoptee
rights” legislation, while absolutely refusing to be accountable to
the adoptee community at large. Texas adoptees have spoken out
in the TxCare survey saying they want the bill pulled if it contains
vetoes. Adoptees across the country have spoken out in letters to
the editor, TV shows, and articles to say that they are OPPOSED
to veto legislation. I call now for non-adoptees, who for whatever
reason are determined to do what they think is best for us instead
of what we WANT, to either listen to the people for whom you are
so patronizingly alleging to be helping, or get out of adoptee rights
legislation altogether.
We will be sending out action alerts to call for a defeat of the
Colorado bill, which violates basic principles of equal protection by
denying one set of adoptees unconditional access to the
government record of their birth, and allowing future adoptees
unconditional access. These types of bills, perhaps more than any
other, do the most damage by establishing a “black hole” for
existing adoptees, and ensuring that they will never receive due
process and equal treatment under the law.
Shea
