Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization
PO Box 4607
New Windsor, New York 12553-7845
bastardnation3@gmail.com
bastards.org 614-795-6819 @BastardsUnite
__________
Testimony
In support of
SB 250
AN ACT RELATING TO DOMESTIC RELATIONS — ADOPTION OF CHILDREN {LC753/1} (Reduces age [of OBC access] from 25 to 18.)
Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee
February 25, 2021
Submitted by Marley Greiner, Executive Chair
Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization is the largest adoptee civil rights organization in the United States. We support only full unrestricted access for all adopted persons, to their original birth certificates (OBC) and related documents.
We are happy to support the passage of SB 250. The bill reduces the age qualification for Rhode Island-born adoptees to obtain their OBC without restriction or condition from the current 25 to the age-of-majority 18.
In 2011 we supported S478 Sub AA, which restored the right of all Rhode Island-born adoptees to their Original Birth Certificates, and we were happy the bill passed. We did not, however, support the -age of-25 limitation. Instead, we urged that the age be reduced to 18—the age of majority for not adopted Rhode Islanders–to fall in line with other states, whose records had been unsealed. The age discrepancy set a bad precedent, and continued to treat the state’s adopted and not adopted differently. Unfortunately, that change didn’t occur.
But it can now!
We are thrilled that the time has come to bring Rhode Island into line with other states that restored OBC rights before and after the Rhode Island bill passed into law.
Moreover, we are pleased that under the bill language, “an adoptee born on or after July 1, 2021 shall have unrestricted access to their original certificate of birth from the date of birth.”
This is a wonderful addition that guarantees that no future Rhode Island adoptee will be erased from their own vital record at any time. This change puts Rhode Island at the forefront of adoption reform and adoptee civil rights engagement.
We urge you to vote DO PASS on SB 250. The bill is a non-controversial, cosmetic change to Rhode Island’s already affirmed belief that adopted people should receive equal treatment under law. Its passage will keep Rhode Island ahead of the game in recognizing the right of adoptees to their state-generated record of birth, It’s passage can serve as a model for other states.
Thank you.
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Bastard Nation is dedicated to the recognition of the full human and civil rights of adult adoptees. Toward that end, we advocate the opening to adoptees, upon request at age of majority, of those government documents which pertain to the adoptee’s historical, genetic, and legal identity, including the unaltered original birth certificate and adoption decree. Bastard Nation asserts that it is the right of people everywhere to have their official original birth records unaltered and free from falsification, and that the adoptive status of any person should not prohibit him or her from choosing to exercise that right. We have reclaimed the badge of bastardy placed on us by those who would attempt to shame us; we see nothing shameful in having been born out of wedlock or in being adopted. Bastard Nation does not support mandated mutual consent registries or intermediary systems in place of unconditional open records, nor any other system that is less than access on demand to the adult adoptee, without condition, and without qualification.
