Capitol Coalition for Adoptee Rights Maryland Action Alert Bastard Nation is a proud core parter with CCAR Get It Right: Make Maryland Next posted on February 13, 2020 Distribute Freely! Maryland has …
Continue readingCategory: Legislation
Wisconsin’s SB521/AB579 Will be Amended with Restrictions
We listened to this radio interview last week, with little surprise. Over the last few weeks, FB posts indicated that some Wisconsin adoptees were not only unhappy with workaround companion bills SB521/AB579 that would release the Report of Adoption court form with birthparent names included but keep OBCs sealed to protect birthparent identity. Are you confused? We are. (Remember the current bill does not contain restrictions).
Continue readingAdvocates Ask for Wisconsin Bill to Die
Five state and national adoptee rights organizations have requested that Wisconsin legislators set aside two bills that were recently heard in Senate and Assembly committees. The bills, analyzed here, seek release of a court adoption form, deliberately ignoring the issue of releasing an adopted person’s own original birth certificate.
Continue readingCheck Out the Bastard Nation New York Campaign Victory Archives
Bastard Nation has published the largest collection of historical documents, pictures, and videos from the victorious New York S3419 campaign that opened all New York OBCs without restriction on January 15, 2020
Continue readingNew York Adoptees: The Countdown is Over– OBCs Officially Open
Now the day has arrived–January 15, 2020–and you can receive your OBC and related documents without restriction, without condition, without groveling.
Continue readingUpdate: New York Release of OBCs
We are ten days away from the effective date of historic legislation that allows any and all New York born adult adoptees to apply for and receive a certified copy of their own original birth certificates.
Continue readingUrgent: Help Our Nova Scotia Friends Today. Take the online survey for records access
Distribute Freely Nova Scotia is one of two Canadian provinces that still maintain a totally sealed records system. No province is totally unrestricted.. The NS Assembly will soon be considering changing its access law …
Continue readingNew York: NYARC Update on January 15, 2020 OBC access
We have been given limited information from our DOH contacts—as others may have received—that the state and city are both “diligently” working on the application forms but such forms are not yet available or fully developed. We have been advised that there will be a webinar with all applicable agencies sometime during the week of 1/6/20 to help make the process more efficient.
Continue readingWhat in the World is Wisconsin Doing?
If passed, instead of receiving their Original Birth Certificates upon request, Lucky Bastards will receive a court -generated document– a copy of their Report of Adoption.form, The form is routinely sent by the court to the Wisconsin Office of Vital Statistics after an adoption is finalized, to request the Amended Birth Certificate be issued–if the adoptive parents have requested a new certificate. It includes the names of the child, birth and adoptive parents and other OBC information.
Continue readingMassachusetts: Bastard Nation Testimony in support of H1892/S1267–unrestricted access for all
Since then Maine, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Colorado, and New York, (one of the tightest sealed states in the US) have unsealed OBC s, and in some cases related records to their adoptees wthout restriction. With the overturning of sealed records laws, changed social and cultural mores, inexpensive DNA tests, social, media, and a large corps of “search angels,” the days of secret and sealed adoption are over, Massachusetts has no state interest in keeping its adoptees and their records segregated and divided by age and adoption date.
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