Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization
bastards.org 614-372-5535 @BastardsUnite
May 28, 2019
Bring AB5494 – restoration of right of adoptees to receive unrestricted and unconditional access to their Original Birth Certificates – to the Codes Committee agenda as soon as possible.
Dear Speaker Heastie:
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.
Bastard Nation is a founding member of the New York adoptee Rights Coalition and has worked to secure equal OBC access in New York for many years. We fully support AB5494 as written, to restore the right of all New York adoptees, without restriction or condition, to access a copy of their Original Birth Certificates upon request.
For over 80 years New York’s adoptees have endured a humiliating, frustrating, costly, and rarely successful process when they request their OBCs. The state’s access system, established when Franklin D Roosevelt was president, is clearly antiquated, illogical, and discriminatory, and keeps nearly all adoptees unable to acquire their own OBC. The law sends a message that adoption and adoptees are shameful secrets.
AB5494 recognizes the absurdity of this practice and archaic social ideology. The bill is simple, inclusive, transparent. It follows the process that nine states have successfully implemented.
Please bring this bill to the Codes Committee agenda as soon as possible. The bill has overwhelming bipartisan support in the Assembly and is awaiting a floor vote in the Senate where it is expected to pass. This bill is a direct result of the Governor’s veto of regressive legislation in December of 2017 and his subsequent mandated workgroup.
Let New York be a leader in adoptee equality and adoption reform.
Yours truly.
Marley E, Greiner
Executive Chair
New York Adoptee Rights Coalition
