SB64: The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, March 29, 2023

SB64 should have passed the House. The bill was a shoo-in. It had no organized opposition. Even traditional opponents agreed to remain neutral. The bill zipped through the Senate and the House Judiciary Committee unanimously. But then something happened. A small group of politicians found the right of their own state’s adopted people to obtain their own Original Birth Certificates “troublesome.” and “problematic,” or something worse. I don’t know their objections (I can guess) or who they are, though it is likely that House Speaker Jon Burns was among them. Did at least some of them have “a little something” to hide? Whatever was going on, they decided to keep Class Bastard Georgia in line. If SB64 isn’t heard and doesn’t exist on the agenda then adoptees don’t.

Day after day, the clock ticked down to the end of the 40-day session. An SB64 floor vote was expected; then postponed. Day after day adoptees and friends trudged to Atlanta or tuned in online for the vote.

Silence.

We sat through countless resolutions, debates on fishing rights, cannabis growers, bail reform, and a lot of things that we wondered why there had to be a law about. while our rights sat fittingly in limbo with the souls of unbaptized infants and things and people cast into neglect and uncertainty.

Forgotten? Surely we could not have been forgotten. There are tens of thousands of us. The bill is a shoo-in.

Action Alerts went out, emergency emails sent; emergency phone calls made to Speaker Burns’ office. What’s the hold-up? Where’s the vote? The bill is a shoo-in.

Silence.

And we waited and waited and waited some more. Surely we would be heard on the last day of the session when everything is rushed and pushed and pimped by sponsors and special interests.

The bill is a shoo-in.

More Action Alerts, and emergency emails, and phone calls.

Silence.

Lunch break. Dinner break. Mac & Cheese, Cornbread. Bathroom break We waited, sure of our call

It never came.

SB64 was a shoo-in, and we were shoeless.,

SB64 was gagged and tossed, and at least for this year, is dead. Georgia is a carry-over state. Next year SB64 will be sent to the House Rules Committee and hopefully (unless is ruined) onto the House floor again. Like the bad pennies bastards are, we will be back.

The Georgia Alliance for Adoptee Rights which Bastard Nation supported and worked with, did a tremendous job., especially for their first time out. GAAR did nothing wrong. They did everything right. They played by the Smart Bastard Book. They have nothing to be ashamed of; no one does except that small group of politicians who decided undercover that Georgia adoptees just don’t count. That the identity of Georgia’s adopted folks is the private property of the State of Georgia, never to be turned over to adoptees themselves.

This of course isn’t the first time this has happened. Most recently, Massachusetts activists spent years of carry-overs, circumvention, and disregard before their bill passed in 2022, but they never gave up as they sat in limbo or were smashed into the wall. Neither will Georgians.

Right now what hurts is the total political erasure of adoptees from the psyche of a small band of elected individuals who can with impunity negate the civil rights of adoptees in their state and believe that they can eradicate the meaning of SB64, adopted people, and their lives simply by ignoring them.

Thankfully, their time will soon be gone, and ours is here.

• Bastard Nation’s Last Email to the Georgia House. What’s the Hold-up? March 29, 2023
• Bastard Nation Legislation 2023 page
  Bastard Nation Georgia State page