Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization
PO Box 4607
New Windsor, New York 2553-7845
614-795-6819
bastardnation3 @gmail.com bastardnation@ bsky.social
____________
TO: Members of the Utah House of Representatives
FROM: Marley Greiner, Executive Chair
RE: Support for Passage of: HB 129–Restoration of Right of Utah-born Adoptees to their Original Birth Certificates
DATE: February 3, 2025
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 support passage of HB 129 as written.
Current Utah law limits adopted people from obtaining their OBCs and other adoption information by requiring consent of biological parents to the release the documents. If both parents appear on the OBC and one does not give consent, that name will be redacted. This procedure is humiliating, archaic, infantilizing, and out-of-step with current post-adoption practice. The Not Adopted, of course, do not have to withstand government scrutiny to receive their birth certificates and no one asks why they want them.
HB 129 does away with this legal process and restores the right of all Utah-born adopted people to obtain their OBCs upon request at the age of 18 with no restrictions or conditions. The adoptee would simply fill out a form and submit it directly to the appropriate department for a nominal fee.
Utah has a national reputation as an “adoption friendly” state, but the current records law is not adoptee friendly. By law, the Utah adopted are kept in perpetual childhood considered too immature or even dangerous to own their own birth records and know their own histories.
There are many laws that protect minors that drop off the books once they reach the age of majority. The state may argue that records are sealed to protect “the best interest of the child” but HB 129 is about adults who voluntarily seek out their records and documents and don’t need or want state interference, intervention, and protection. How is denying personal knowledge of themselves not in their best interest?
There is no state interest in keeping Original Birth Certificates and other documents pertaining to their births and adoptions sealed from adult adoptees to whom they belong. Moreover, the state does not have a right or duty to mediate and oversee the personal relationships of adults. The debate on the release of OBCs to its adopted citizens is a small v big government issue. Adoptee records access is a win for small government.
Adopted people in 15 states have unrestricted access to their OBCs and other material. Two never sealed records, and the others passed laws similar to HB 129 with massive bipartisan support. Not one single negative report about unsealing has been published. Access has been normalized. Adoptees are treated just like the Not Adopted and like the Not Adopted no one denies that they have a right to those records and information. I cannot tell you how thrilled Adoption Land and Utah adoptees would be to have Utah join that esteemed group of states that acknowledge adoptee equality under law.
Please vote DO PASS on HB 129. It’s the right thing to do!
