Category: Legislation

According to the Texas legislative website, HB2725 has not been recommended for passage and is not being reported out favorably by the Public Health Committee

This week has been a busy one for adoptee rights activists around the country, Instead of a short  Facebook and Twitter blurb noting legislative updates, we thought we’d give a fuller examination of what went down.

There is no state interest in keeping original birth certificates sealed from adult adoptees to which they pertain. Nor does the state have a right or duty to mediate and oversee the personal relationships of adults. Those who claim a statutory right to parental anonymity through sealed records promote statutory privilege and state favoritism. A half-million Texas adoptees are denied birth record access. Think about this: That is more than the population of Arlington or Corpus Christi. SB2725 will give them full rights and privileges.

Is Gladney saying, with the save-face caveat (or warning?) that disclosure “may” be dependent on state laws–which of course, Gladney can influence in Texas and perhaps in other states?While making adoptive parents the domestic gatekeeper, is Gladney saying that it is OK for adoptees (usually) 18 and over to get access to the OBC, court records, and other recordsIs Gladney back-door endorsing the QuadA endorsement of record access?

So here it is: a clear, concise explanation and timeline of Texas access law  in the newly-published report, Texas: Setting the Records Straight, released by the Texas Adoptee Rights Coalition in March 2019.

There is no state interest in keeping original birth certificates sealed from adult adoptees to which they pertain. Nor does the state have a right or duty to mediate and oversee the personal relationships of adults. Those who claim a statutory right to parental anonymity through sealed records to them promote statutory privilege and state favoritism. 30,000 Connecticut adoptees were left behind in 2015. The passage of SB972 brings them back.

The core problem though is that H597 posits birth record access as an individual personal desire or cute curiosity rather than a civil right and political issue. H597 conflates “reunion” with rights. Through the FARR mandate, and even a reunion requirement outside of FARR, it holds Florida adoptees and their families hostage to archaic laws and customs. The bill treats adult adoptees like children, promotes continued shame in adoption, and maintains the iron lock of the state on our birth records and personal autonomy. None of this is related to adoptee civil rights and is an insult to every Florida adoptee. It is about Big Government.