Georgia is 1 step closer to being the 16th state to acknowledge the right of adopted people to their own Original Birth Certificates!
On April 2, the last day of the 2025 session, the House passed SB 100 (Andee’s Law) by a vote of 145-14. The bill restores the right of all Georgia-born adoptees at the age of 18 to their OBCs without restrictions or conditions. Earlier the Senate passed the bill unanimously 55–0. Access also applies to a deceased adoptee’s parent, sibling, or descendant.
A huge thanks to lead bill runner Georgia Alliance for Adoptee Rights (website) (Facebook), persistent sponsors Sen Randy Robertson (R-Catula). and Rep Joseph Gulett (R-Ackworth) for carrying it in the House and the staunch support of Rep Lisa Campbell (D-Kennesaw) and Rep Anne Allen Westbrook (D-Savannah)
(Here is the link to the Senate debate and vote. (Courtesy of GAAC)
Gov Brian Kemp has 40 days to sign the bill and is expected to do so. The law would be effective on July 1, 2025.
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The battle for Georgia has been long and hard. Records were sealed 64 years ago, in 1961 and I remember 4 attempts to unseal. There might have been earlier campaigns.
Over 25 years ago I appeared on a Georgia radio show with a couple of Georgia adoptee activists and an opponent from the Georgia House who said truly dumb things and had no compunction about making himself a public nincompoop. As I remember, he didn’t like the idea of OBC access–period– but he conceded to maybe being amenable for prospective access; thus, keeping those born before the cut-off deep in the black hole. When asked the hypothetical: if f twins placed for adoption, 1 born just before midnight at the cut-off deadline and the other just after midnight, should the “older” one’s OBC remain secret and sealed. He responded “absolutely”! This is what we have been up against. Honestly, I am happily astounded that HB100 passed and by so much. Time is on our side, but the work is hard, and patience wears thin.
I have a special interest in Georgia. Back in THAT day I lived in SOWEGA aka Southwest Georgia–in Radium Springs and later Albany. In THAT day when segregationist Lester Maddox, who passed out ax handles during his campaign, was governor. On the last day of the legislative session, when business was finished for the year, the House had a tradition of erupting into a frat boy party at the clang of the bell. Viking Distillery “Georgia’s only legal distillery” furnished the booze and bunnies from the nearby Playboy Club furnished the fun. Apparently, this annual festivity had gone on for years without notice until it was. RIP. But if ever there was cause for a bacchanal this year, SB100 is it!
New York Adoptee Rights Coalition
