HB 1237: MISSOURI COMPROMISE REDUX

Happy New Year--Not!

Missouri Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-O'Fallon) (below right) has pre-filed HB 1237, a "records access" bill in the Missouri House. To no one's surprise it contains a disclosure veto. And all records will need to be released through the court. This is is progress? Tomorrow is the first day of 2010, not 1957.

Here are the changes laid out in the official bill summary:

The bill changes the laws regarding the release of identifying
information by:

(1) Allowing a court to release it to an adopted adult without the consent of the biological parents in certain instances;

(2) Requiring a biological parent to file an affidavit that refuses to authorize the release of his or her identifying information with the court in order for the information not to be released to the adopted child. Currently, a biological parent must file an affidavit to allow his or her identifying information to be released;

(3) Allowing identifying information to be released if the biological parent is deceased and removes the requirement that the information is necessary for health-related purposes;

(4) Allowing release of identifying information concerning an adult sibling without the consent of the adult sibling and without a court finding that the information is needed for health-related purposes; and

(5) Repealing the requirement that the Children's Division within the Department of Social Services attempt to make confidential contact with a biological parent or adult sibling
who has not given consent of the release of identifying information when a possible match has been made in the adoption registry.

The entire bill is here.

The relevant part reads:

7.] If, within three months, the child-placing agency or juvenile court personnel reports to the court that it has notified the biological parent pursuant to subsection 5 of this section, the court shall receive the identifying information from the child-placing agency. If an affidavit duly executed by a biological parent authorizing the release of information is filed with the court or fails to file an affidavit with the court, the court shall disclose the identifying information as to that biological parent to the adopted adult, provided that the other biological parent either:

(1) Is unknown;

(2) Is known but cannot be found and notified pursuant to section 5 of this act;

(3) Is deceased; or

(4) Has filed with the court an affidavit authorizing release of identifying information or fails to file an affidavit with the court. If the biological parent [fails or refuses to file] files an affidavit with the court [authorizing] refusing to authorize the release of identifying information, then the identifying information shall not be released to the adopted adult. No additional request for the same or substantially the same information may be made within three years of the time the biological parent fails or refuses to file an affidavit authorizing the release of identifying information.

The bill is promoted by Missouri Open Records Effort (MORE) and AAC member Carolyn Pooler. I don't see a webpage for MORE, but its Facebook page is here. Two years ago Pooler caused a big stir when she got into it with Rep. Rep. Connie "LaJoyce" Johnson, sponsor of that year's attempt, and Johnson pulled the plug. Pooler may very well have had good reason to disagree with Johnson, but unfortunately she failed (as far as I can tell) to ever inform Missourians what it was. So did Johnson.

Then there is current sponsor, lame duck Cynthia Davis. Here is her wiki profile.

Davis made national news in June 2009 when she attacked a state-funded summer lunch subsidy for poor children (1 in 5 Missouri children fall below the poverty line) claiming that "hunger can be a positive motivator" for getting people to find jobs and that meal programs "could break apart more families." After lecturing her constituents on the benefits of nutritious home-cooked meals, she suggested that older children get a job at McDonald's to scarf up free food. Later Davis attempted to backtrack, claiming she'd been misquoted, but her quotes came from her own newsletter.

oops!

Here are editorial responses from the Warrensburg Daily-Star-Journal, and StLouisToday.com (St. Louis Post Dispatch) to this officious tightwaddery. Even the LA Times got into the act.

Missouri Democratic leadership demanded unsuccessfully Davis' removal as chair of the Standing Committee on Children and Families

Keith Oberman gave Davis his Worst Person in the World Award (starts at 1:40) on June 22, 2009 calling her a "menace to society."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Stephen Colbert suggested that Davis' political career hadn't gone beyond the Missouri House due to the "anti-motivating habit of eating." I tried to embed that video here, but it created havoc on formatting. You can find it here.

Then there's sex!

Fired-Up Missouri treats us to a 2006 email Davis sent to a fellow Republican regarding sex, contraception, and the poor:

When I was listening to the debate last week I wondered what kind of man would want to enjoy free sex and then expect her to provide for her own contraceptives? These are the kind of men who want free whores. Any man who would be so low life as that does not deserve to have any woman love him. Smart women will stay away from men who use them and abuse them. Why is it that most of the e-mail letters I get on this topic is from men? I have concluded that the chemicals and drugs are their way to have all the goodies and not pay the price. When you encourage this behavior, you create more of it. In other words, if the state starts paying for contraceptives we will have more babies than if we just teach people to not expect free prostitution from poor people. Don't you think having to pay child support for the next 18 years is a suitable disincentive?

Sound and respected sponsorship is absolutely essential in getting a records bill passed. Missouri Compromisers can't even come up with that. Is this all bastards are worth? Let this bill rot in committee.

According to Missouri clean-records-bill leader Lindsay Woodside, (see FB page) Open Missouri and the Missouri Adult Adoptee Rights Coalition does not support HB 1237 as currently written. Neither does Bastard Nation.

MASHA ALLEN TERMINATED AGAIN! FAITH ALLEN WALKS AWAY

BIG news on Masha Allen (born Mariya Nikolaevna Yashenkova) tonight.

On December 3, 2009 Faith Allen's parental rights were been terminated! Masha is once more an "orphan." Twice adopted. Twice terminated.

Custody was returned to Cambria County Children and Youth Services. Masha's whereabouts and physical and emotional well-being are unknown.

Masha's newest attorneys Francis P. Maneri and Darren Summerville have filed a motion in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey to appoint Masha's current Pennsylvania State guardian ad litem, Timothy J. Sloan, as her new representative party in the Federal complaint.

From the language of the motion, it appears Faith Allen (right) terminated her parental rights voluntarily and walked out the door. If I learn more I will post it here.

We hope that this new development marks the beginning of justice for Masha, though no amount of money can ever compensate her seemingly never-ending abuse, pain, neglect, and exploitation at the hands of Matthew Mancuso, Faith Allen, the adoption industry, venal courts, social workers, and politicians. We hope Timotohy Sloan does right by her. As I wrote a few years ago, Masha is "the Rosetta Stone of corrupt international adoption."

I have been covering Masha's horrific case since 2005. Rather than sifting through Bastardette posts, you can find them all in my much smaller blog dedicated to Russian adoptees abused and murdered by their new forever parents Nikto Ne Zabyt--Nichto Ne Zabyto

Links to other sites covering Masha:
Pound Pup Legacy: Masha Allen Page (many links to resources including an expose of grifter Allen)
Child Law Blog, James Marsh
Baby Love Child (use search engine)

also see Congressional Hearing: Exploitation of Children on the Internet: Follow-up Issues on the Masha Allen Adoption

The entire motion can be found on Marsh's blog. I am re-typing relevant parts below.

MASHA ALLEN, by her, Parent and
Guardian FAITH ALLEN, Plaintiff,

v

FAMILIES THRU INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION
INC. , Defendants,

and

FAMILIES THRU INTERNATIONAL
ADOPTION, INC., Third Party Plaintiff,

v

ADAGIO HEALTH, INC. (formerly
known as Family Health Council, Inc, and
trading as Family Adoption Center, Third
Party Defendant

Civil Action NO:
08-4614 (JHR)(AMD

PLAINTIFF'S MOTION TO
AMEND/SUBSTITUTE/ADD
PARTIES

Motion Returnable: February 1,
2010

...By law, Masha is legally incompetent to maintain a lawsuit. At the outset of this litigation, the proper representative party Plaintiff was Faith Allen, Masha's adoptive parent. Factually and legally Faith Allen's ability to maintain this lawsuit has changed, necessitating this Motion. Plaintiff respectfully asks that this court allow amendment of the pleadings to reflect a new representative party Plaintiff, Timothy J. Sloan. Mr. Sloan has been and continues to be Masha's guardian ad litem based upon a pending action in the Juvenile Court in the Cambria County, Pennsylvania Court of Common Please ("Juvenile Court").

Alternatively, under Rule 17(s) Plaintiff asks that this Court appoint Mr. Sloan as a guardian ad litem in this matter, to prosecute the litigation in Masha's Allen's best interests.

1. Faith Allen is No Longer Masha Allen's Proper Representative

Faith Allen, as Masha Allen's Parent and Guardian, initiated this litigation on September 15, 2008...On or about August 18, 2009, Faith Allen freely and voluntarily executed a consent to adoption with respect to Masha pursuant to 23 Pa C.S.A. 2711. Because Faith Allen did not revoke this consent to adoption within the statutorily allowed 30-day revocation period, it became irrevocable subject to narrow exceptions The Orphan's Court with jurisdiction over the matter has now terminated Faith Allen's legal rights as a parent to Masha Allen. Dec. 3 Order of the Court...

For several years Masha Allen has been subject to the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court division of the Common Please Court. As part of these proceedings, attorney Timothy J. Sloan was appointed and has continuously served as her guardian ad litem. These proceedings remain open and Mr. Sloan remains Masha's guardian ad litem.

Plaintiff's counsel has explained the status of the present litigation to Mr. Sloan who has agreed, pending this Court's permission, to serve as Masha Allen's party representative going forward. Plaintiff respectfully requests such relief.

II. Amended Under Rule 15 is Necessary and Proper.

Leave to amend should be freely given when justice requires. Fed R. Civ P 15(a))s). Plaintiff Masha Allen asks that leave be granted to amend the pleading to reflect Timothy Sloan becoming Plaintiff's party representative as her guardian ad litem. Such and amendment has become necessary give the legal impossibility of going forward in this matter with the current party representative, Faith Allen.

Faith Allen's parental rights, including the right to serve as Masha Allen's legal representative have been terminated. Masha Allen , a minor, cannot bring this lawsuit in her individual capacity. Rule 17, of course, allows an unrepresented minor to sue through her guardian ad litem. Fed. R Civ.p 17(c). Mr Sloan has been Masha Allen's guardian in a different litigation for yearsw, and is well situated to represent her interests in this matter. ...

...Faith Allen's actions have effectively stranded Masha Allen in this litigation, as Faith is no longer a proper party representative. But Mr. Sloan is, either in his current capacity or as appointed by the Court....

GLUG GLUG GLUG: NCFA TAKES NOSEDIVE

Congratulations, faithful readers!

Due to your diligence, the National Council for Adoption is heading for an end-of-the-year nosedive.

I received a follow-up e-beg letter today, (see here for original post on NCFA e-begging) informing me of NCFA's still dire need. I won't post the whole sad tale since I don't want to depress you so shortly after Christmas.

Here is the relevant part:

Dear Marley,

There's still time to give to NCFA and help children find families through adoption! With your support, we've already raised over $20,000 towards our goal of $60,000. But in order to reach our goal, We need your help now more than ever! To those of you who have already given, thank you for your support

Keep up the good work! Hold those purses and wallets close! Lock up your credit cards and checkbook! Don't let NCFA get its hands on your hard-earned money. They already have your birth certificates.

And remember: Friends don't let friends give to NCFA (as if any of your friends would!)

MELE KALIKIMAKA; MERRY CHRISTMAS

Admittedly, Bastaradette has a warped view of Christmas. Whenever we think of Christmas we think of Hawai'i. This comes from an early and incessant exposure to the Andrews Sisters hit Christmas Island. We also like Leon Redbone's version, but somebody stole our tape at an office Christmas party years ago, and the version isn't on YouTube.

Despite knowing better, we spent the other evening on YouTube looking for a good video of Christmas Island. Unfortunately, none we found were acceptable for a high class blog like The Daily Bastardette.

What we did find, though, is Puka Shells by Ukulele Ray and the KoKoNutz:

Puka shells
Puka shells
It's Mele Kalikimaka time in the islands...

(not to be confused with Arthur Lyman's Puka Shells)

So, kick back with a Suffering Bastard, or two or three, and enjoy.

NCFA HITS UP BASTARDETTE FOR MONEY

The National Council for Adoption sent me an e-beg letter today. Can I help NCFA raise $60,000 by the end of the year? Tax deductible, of course! I wouldn't mind this end-of-the-year shill so much (everybody does it), except for this claim:

For thirty years the National Council For Adoption has been the authoritative voice for orphans around the world as well as U.S. infants and children waiting to be adopted out of foster care. Today the need to advocate is greater than ever. Consider that intercountry adoption has plunged 27% since last year, 123,000 children in foster care are waiting to be adopted, and the adoption tax credit--which makes adoption affordable--is scheduled to end next year.

Something like this can only come from the under-30 crowd that predominates NCFA today who are either unaware of their company's history or are intent on reinventing it. Ignorance is bliss.

Those of us who have been around adoption deform longer than some of the current NCFAnoids have lived can tell you that until recently foster care lived on food stamps in NCFA's basement. NCFA was formed specifically to keep bastards and their records separated by state fiat and push HWIs into the market. Care to read their incorporation papers? I've got 'em. So now that NCFA is losing on that front (and others such as open adoption, single parent and gay adoption) they've hit on another survival stream.

Records were certainly sealed before NCFA came along. If by some divine intervention (Dr. Pierce once told me that if God told him to advocate records access he would), NCFA would miraculously change course, records would still be tough sell in lots of states.

NCFA created contemporary opposition ideology and language. Scratch ACLU and you find NCFA. Scratch the Bishops and you find NCFA. Scratch Planned Parenthood and you find NCFA. Scratch Right to Life, the American Life League, the Eagle Forum, NOW, L-d-S Social Services, and you find NCFA.

The barn door shut a long time ago, and even if NCFA wanted to, it couldn't call the cows back in. That's our job.

Sidenote: Amanda Marcotte has an entry today on RHReality Check about how the Catholic Church and its rightwing friends make everything--even football--about abortion. No mention of the Church's adoption and adoptee hammer and nail, but it's always good to see that others are on to them:

To ask the question is to miss the point, as anyone who has dealt with the Fetus People can attest. They haven’t met many issues they can’t make about abortion. It’s an all-purpose stand-in for everything that right wing reactionaries wish to attack---witness, for instance, Chuck Norris implying that giving people more access to general health care is the same thing as aborting the Baby Jesus. If mammograms and blood pressure medication are the same thing as abortion, then surely hiring a pro-choice football coach is abortion.

Marcotte isn't far off. A state sponsored smoking cessation program for women was deemed to be really about abortion by our Ohio Statehouse Cave Men

NOTE: I obviously feel off the branch I went out on. I'm working on making it up.

ADOPTEE RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN ISRAEL?

Does anyone know about the adoptee rights movement in Israel? I didn't know there was one until tonight when I found this video --Israeli Adoptees in own voices-- on YouTube. It's all in Hebrew, but I'm guessing by the graphics (inlcuding the use of the Origins logo) that records or the treatment of bastards in some other way is problematic. This article in the May 31, 2007 Haaretz Searching for Alma, about Rony David Schwartz's search for his first mother, doesn't mention anything about records access, but Schwartz had his mother's name all along. There's an email addy with the video and I ithink I'll follow through on this.

WHILE GERMANY DEBATES, LITHUANIA LEGALIZES ANONYMOUS ABANDONMENT

While Germany debates the ethics and legality of anonymous baby dumping, Ecumenical News Service reports that the Lithuanian government, in conjunction with the country's Catholic bishops, has opened baby hatches in the capital city Vilnius and Klaipeda, the country's only seaport.

The first hatch is located in a "special room" in the Vilnius Babies' Foster Home. Babies left will be cared for on the premises. Parents and family members will have three months to visit and reclaim the infant before the state takes permanent custody.

Although the "windows of life," as the hatches are called, were instituted in response to four alleged cases of neonaticide in 2007, they are clearly being marketed as an anti-abortion measure. Richardas Doveika (right), assistant to the secretary of the bishop's council says, "The church, as a preacher of life, always blesses every pro-life initiative." The bishops, he says, are considering adding "windows" in church-run hospitals throughout the country, but offers no evidence of need. In fact, I have been unable to find any statistics on the number of abandoned newborns or neonaticides in Lithuania other than the reference to the 2007 cases.

Petronele Valatkeviciene, director of the foster home, unaware or uncaring of the German (and elsewhere) build-it-and-they-will-come experience, doesn't believe the "windows" will increase the number of abandoned newborns in the city."The most important thing is to guarantee that unwanted babies are not left unattended or even killed."

The US State Department says about 30 Lithuanian children a year are funneled into the US via adoption. The US Consulate in Vilnius warns, however, that the Lithuanian government scrutinizes closely all adoptions to the US.

And it should. The Open Door in Thomasville, Georgia, the agency that handled the adoption of Jacob Lindorff, later beaten to death by his new forever parents, is one of the US agencies handling Lithuanian adoptions. (I have a couple updates on the Lindorff case Ill be posting this week). Bethany is another.

GOING OUT ON A LIMB: A POST A DAY--MAYBE

As I wrote on FaceBook yesterday, Bastardette is going out on a limb and will attempt to post an entry every day until the end of the year. There's certainly enough to write about. And even with the November NaBloPomo, I still need to catch up.

Today's is up, though I may post a second one if I start now.

The picture to the left is my Mad Men Yourself self-portrait. I don't smoke, but if things keep going the way they are in AdoptionLand I may take it up. And Mad Men withdrawal is wiping me out. Still.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM NCFA

Bastardette wants to share the Christmas card she got from the National Council for Adoption the other day.

Who ARE these people?

We used to say don't trust anybody over the age of 30. Most of NuNCFA is under 30. It almost gives me the creeps. Shouldn't they be out organizing troops for Sarah Palin or auditioning for Fox News readers?

Chuck and Rodney (both over 30) are the only ones we know amongst the happy Santas.

BTW, NCFA missed a big photo op by not featuring Rodney, the Red Nosed PR Flack. I heard from a errant sugar plum mouse that Rodney likes it when I call him that.



PS: I'd overnight some Krampus gear but New Jersey CARE got all of it.

BASTARD NATION SHOUT OUT!

Away with euphemisms!

Bastard Nation got a shout out today from Politics Daily Woman Up! blogger and poet Donna Trusell. Writing in The Difference between Skanks and an Escort (Thanks, Tiger!) Trusell says:

There was a time when an advocacy group called Bastard Nation would have been unthinkable. No, instead you'd see an unwieldy, alphabet-soup name like Adopted Children Together for Open Court Records (ACTOCR, with ochre wrist bands, perhaps).

Bastard Nation is a name for our times. Be bastard! Be bitch! Be proud! After all, half the world is an accident.

It's nice when somebody gets language.

Now, let's get some ochre wristbands!

Thanks, Donna!

NEW JERSEY: MY CAUSE IS BETTER THAN YOURS. ADOPTEES V GAYS

A letter in support (I think) of A572 appeared in Thursday's My NewJersey.com. The writer, Cpt. Peter W. Franklin, believes that adoptee rights are being run over by gay marriage rights. He writes:

After decades of debate and compromise, adoption reform should not be sidelined simply because a few prominent Democrat officials insist that this is the "right time" for gay marriage. I simply cannot imagine that denying someone the right to a ceremony can be as cruel and reckless as denying someone their true identity and access to family medical history.

The hierarchy of pain has been a big deal in AdoptionLand for as long as I've been around. We share Cpt. Franklin's pain that adoptee rights is not a priority issue with Joisy politicians--or even for the NJCare Krampi who claim to be the voice of NJ adoptee rights. Pushing one cause against the other, however, doesn't help anything. It only alienates. Who's to say whose "pain" is greater, or even if there is any "pain?" (Bastardette knows lots of painfree bastards,) There is no relationship between obc access and gay marriage for Pete's sake. Whining about somebody trying to get something that you have by default is petty, divisive, and harmful. Nobody is asking adoptees to stand aside for gays. Queers make A LOT more noise. And that's important.

It's the "right time" for gay marriage in New Jersey because queers in New Jersey have put their money and bodies where their mouths are, demanding marriage equality now--for everybody. They don't qualify which queers should be allowed to marry, what rules the state should set up to "protect" the community from them, or expect the state to launch an advertising campaign to warn off disapprovers. New Jersey queers don't leave anyone behind.

It's one thing to show up in Trenton (or any state capital) for 28 years and ask politely for our rights, kind sir. It's quite another to pour millions into a state, elect and unelect politicians, pound the press, and put the squeeze on.

BASTARD NATION'S LETTER TO NJ HOUSE SPEAKER JOSEPH ROBERTS, JR--PLEASE OPPOSE A 752. ADOPTEE DESERVE RIGHTS NOT FAVORS!

December 10, 2009

Dear Speaker Roberts:

Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization, the largest adoptee civil rights organization in North America opposes A752. We ask that this bill be left to die in committee at the end of this term, without a hearing. If it is heard and passed out of committee, we ask that the bill be voted down on the floor.

If passed, this bill will permit some New Jersey adopted adults to receive their true and accurate original birth certificates. Others, through the compromise language of this bill, will receive only a false and mutilated certificate with the name and address of the parent(s) bureaucratically excised by the Department of Health and Senior Services by order of the birthparent(s).

Bastard Nation rejects the special right of birthparents to remove their names from the birth certificates of their own adult offspring. No other parent has that right. Why should birthparents have different rules?

Since 1999 four states have restored to adoptees the unrestricted right to records and identity access: OregonAlabama, New Hampshire, and Maine through legislation. Why should New Jersey buck the tide and pass a bill that continues to treat adoptee access to their own birth certificates as a favor, not a right--a right that the non-adopted enjoy without a second thought.

If New Jersey’s adoptees deserve better than this. through state-wide ballot initiative, and

Yours truly,

Marley E. Greiner

for the Executive Committee:

Anita Walker Field, secretary

Patricia Marler, treasurer

Nina Greeley

Peter Mose

Marla Paul

NOTE: Go to the entry below for more on A762 and how you can contact Speaker Roberts.

NEW JERSEY: ANYTHING TO GET A BILL PASSED. WE LEAVE EVERYBODY BEHIND!

Just in time for Krampus (see below) we have New Jersey's A752 "adoptee rights" bill.

Sponsored by NJCare, (aka The Krampi) A752 (aka The Krampus Bill) is one of the worst throw-our-rights away bills on record. The bill, of course, contains the compromiser's favorite compromise, the "birthparent" disclosure veto.

But wait, there's more!

In order to make this veto work, the state extorts a family/medical history from closeted parents. Kind of a pay to play scam. If parents don't submit the government mandated snoop form in 60 days, then The Bastard gets the obc. Sounds like a violation of HIPAA to me.

But wait, there's more!

A752 also contains the whiteout "alternative" that will give adoptees, slapped with a veto, an "original birth certificate" that's been mutilated by a government censor with a glob of white-out smeared over identifying information including their own names, and the parental addresses at the time of birth.

But wait, there's more!

The Krampus Bill automatically seals the obc of all persons anonymously dumped under the state's "safe haven" law, even if one or both parents are identified on the obc (one of baby dumping's dirty little secrets). See, a safe haven dump, coerced out of a confused parent " is a legal assumption of an on file and notarzied "disclosure veto." Tough, but at least you weren't thrown in a dumpster. That receptacle is reserved for your rights.

Finally, Krampus includes a fiscal note of $90,000 from the General Fund to finance the cost of a national advertising campaign to warn biological parents that their bastard may be hunting them down with the adoptee-requisite drywall hatchet in hand. Be sure to get that veto on file while you still have your hands to write with.

If NJCare flushes away any more of our rights, the Catholic Bishops, NJ Right to Life, the ACLU, and the National Council for Adoption just might join hands with the Krampi in a ring-around-the rosie endorsement.

Well-behaved adoptees and their well-behaved b and a families subscribe to this piece of dreck, which if passed, will make it impossible for New Jersey to ever be a Free Bastard State along side Kansas, Alaska, Oregon, New Hampshire, Maine, and future states that value law and logic over money-bagged industrial lobbyists, urbans myth, cranks and the Catholic Church. Once those government "promises" are on the books, there's no way to undo them. Unlike authentic bastard/adoptee rights advocates, The Krampi leave a lot of us behind. After 28 years of pushing alleged adoptee rights bills in the Jersey Legislature, the folks at NJCare are just plain burnt out, but burn-out is no excuse for sell-out. No matter how much is thrown out, the Bishops et al don't care. They don't want anyone to have any records.

To add insult to injury, the burnt-outs have even stopped referring to their compromises as "baby steps" towards something bigger and better in the future. Perhaps they are upset since the bill hasn't had a hearing in nearly two years, and they find rolling over more comfortable than standing up. (The bill passed the Senate in 2006 and lame duck governor Jon Corzine reportedly says he'll sign it if it passes. ) Embracing the language and ideology of the enemy, much as deformers did in Massachusetts, Jersey deformers are now calling state identity erasure and fictionalized documents, ie, whiteouts and blacklists, "fair." As one Bastard National facetiously wrote today on our BEST list: "Disclosure veto bills are fairer than open records and birthparents need protection from adoptees." As I facetiously write today, it's fair to treat adoptees different from everybody else."

NJCare board member Carol Barbieri, writing in today's Asbury Park Press says of A752:

Similar bills had progressed that far before, passing in the Senate in 2004 and 2006 and in the Assembly in 1991 and 1994. Now adoptees fear that the current bill, A-752, might not come to fruition. That would be a shame, because it is considered by many adoptees and birthparents to be the fairest bill of its kind to them both.

For starters, it gives birthparents who wish to remain anonymous a year to file a notarized "request for nondisclosure" letter with the state. Their name and address will be omitted from the adoptee's original birth certificate. If a birthparent doesn't want contact from an adoptee, they will be left alone.

Currently no such protection for birthparents exists in New Jersey. Furthermore, if a birthparent wants to reunite with an adoptee, he or she gets to choose how they would like the initial contact to take place — directly or through an intermediary.

That big ol' Joisy bed is getting crowded, and it's getting harder to tell those supposedly on our side from those who aren't. Compare Barberi's commentary to that of the New Jersey reactionary opposition about previous look-alike bills, collected in my Dimwits: In the Words of 9 New Jersey Adoptee Haters. (These are representative. Check my original entry for more humdingers.)

Crazy Marie Tazy, Executive Director New Jersey Right to Life:
So, clearly, the intent of the law is to find birth parents. If the birth parent doesn’t wish to be found, I’m sorry, but I don’t think the state of New Jersey should allow that information.
NorthJersey.com, January 30, 2005

Lee Allen, then with the National Council for Adoption:
When we’re talking about this, everybody seems to identify with the so has rights. For many valid reasons, birth mother rights of the adopted person, but what is also important is to remember that the person who made the adoption decision als in particular chose to remain confidential…If she wishes to maintain her confidentiality, then legislation like this whittles down her choice to one. She can confidentially and privately choose abortion…Birth mothers that we speak to and represent--many of them have made their decisions based on trust. How can a bureaucracy in the State House wipe away the trust they’ve depended on?
NorthJersey.com, January 30, 200

Newark Star Ledger:
Adoptees say they have a right to their birth certificates, but those rights must be weighed against the rights of mothers, and in some cases fathers, who believed their decision to give up a child for adoption would remain confidential To come back decades later and retroactively strip them of that conditionality is unconscionable.
unsigned editorial, December 10, 2004 (link no longer working; hard copy my my possession)

The Big Tent: Alliance in Defense of Privacy in Adoption ie, Tom Atwood (NCFA--at time of writing), Rev. Bruce Davidson (Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry), Deborah Jacobs (NJ-ACLU), Marlene Lao-Collins (NJ Catholic Conference), Marie Tasy (NJ Right to Life)
Indeed, birth parents who consider placing children for adoption if S1093/S620 becomes law would no longer even have the option of confidentiality that is often at the crux of the adoption decision, virtually eliminating the option for a private adoption in New Jersey…While we sympathize with adopted people wanting to contact their birth parents, their interests must not negate the potentially oppositional interests of birth parents…We urge you to recognize the critical important of birth parents’ privacy and the threat to adoption posed by it’s violation. "Statement of the Alliance in Defense of Privacy Adoption," no date. (This statement has been taken down from the NJ Catholic Conference website and is not available anywhere else. I have a hard copy in my possession.)

Add to these, the op-ed piece by Patrick Brannigan, executive director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference that appeared in the May 10, 2008 Times of Trenton, now on the organization's website:

Certainly the court recognizes that the state has an obligation to protect the interests of all three parties. Judge Gruccio wrote, "The statues requiring that the records be sealed clearly serves the interest of all three parties in the adoption triangle: adoptive parents, natural parents and the child." (Mills v Atlantic City Department of Vital Statistics (1977))

Can it be any clearer that the Krampi of New Jersey are incompetent, tired, and do not represent the best interests of the adopted people of their state? That they will grovel in some far-fetched hope of getting even a tiny piece of their "mission" into law at the expense of the adoptee/bastard class? "Favors" are not rights. Have the Krampi no shame? Why are the state's adoptees letting them speak for them? (For those who wonder, there have been attempts by non-compromising bastards to bring genuine access to the state, but the inoffensive (to politicians) Krampi have an iron hand on the discourse and the statehouse gate that so far has been impossible to break. I was once told by a New Jersey "activist" to keep my mouth shut since Bastard Nation and I were ruining "it" for the rest. No doubt when they go down again, it will be our fault.

Thankfully, the Krampus Bill is in deep trouble right now. The bill must be passed by the end of the session, and Jersey has a lot more pressing issues to deal with. Like solvency and gay marriage. In a last ditch attempt to save the bill, NJCare is holding a "Write to Roberts" campaign urging us all to write to the New Jersey House Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr., urging him to give the moribund bill a hearing lest it die. Yesterday they apparently delivered a pouch of letters directly to his office in Brooklawn. (This information is from Facebook and not on the official Krampi site.)

We urge you to contact Speaker Roberts with your own message about this bill: let the Krampus Bill die. We don't expect you to hand-deliver your message, so here is the Speaker's mailing address:

Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr,.
Brooklawn Shopping Plaza
Rt. 130 South & Browning Rd
Brooklawn, NJ 08030
Phone: 856-742-7600
(No fax number listed)

I can't find an email for him, but you can email him via his web page: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/bio.asp?Leg=16 (cut and paste) Just hit the email link.

Please go to my entry Some adoptees are more equal than others bill passes New Jersey Senate for my comments when the Krampus Bill passed the New Jersey Senate. It goes into much more detail what is wrong with this abomination, how it continues to undermine the relationship between adoptees and the state, and the danger it holds for other states.

I also recommend today's blog entry by Triona Guidry (73adoptee),
Birth mothers who want privacy should support open adoption records for an excellent review of why records access protects the "privacy" of the secret parents deformers and reactionaries are so worried about.

I'll post BN's letter to Speaker Roberts tomorrow morning.

IT'S KRAMPUS TIME AGAIN!

I plan to post another entry today, but in the meantime....it's time for Krampus again.

This is my Krampus post from last year: Here comes Krampus I posted three Krampus videos with it. I've been searching all over YouTube for a new Krampus video for 2009, but all I can find so far are home videos of questionable artistic merit. I'll keep looking, but for newcomers, here's my favorite video from last year. It's so adoption related.

HOLIDAY SPECIAL FOR BIRTHPARENTS

Just in time for Christmas!

The perfect gift for closet-hiding birthparents leaving in fear that their bastard may return to piss of their porch or worse over the holidays.

Protect your 2nd Amendment Right to shoot your bastard before it shoots you!

THE BACK UP

Buy one for each side of your bed.

Don't let your bastard ruin your life!


Act Now!

SOS! NYT AND ABC FORUMS NEED BASTARD RESCUE

There's a good discussion on the New York Times Motherlode Adopted children, by the numbers. Blogger Lisa Belkin sure does know how to piss off bastards! Some of our friends are posting including regular Bastardette commenters. I've posted twice so far. My last response, which I'm re-posting here, is in a reply to #14 PW:

Based upon their negative comments, I am curious if the adult adoptee commenters feel they would have been better off had they NOT being adopted?

Here's what I said:

Whether someone feels if they'd been better off not being adopted isn't the point.

What we are talking about here is the systematic, state-facilitated erasure of identity and history from the adopted and the continued discrimination adoptees are subjected to as a result.

While there are definitely psychological/identity issues for many who are adopted, I'm speaking specifically of legal discrimination. First and foremost, the sealing of our birth certificates from ourselves. Adoptees are the only class of people who the government forbids from accessing their own birth certificates. The original birth certificates of adoptees are impounded by the state when an adoption is finalized, sealed, and held under lock by government authorities. States, in fact, keep the original birth certificates of adopted persons in a locked vault separate from the birth certificates of the not adopted.

The adoptee is then issued a state-forged document which may or may not be accepted by other government and private entities as valid. Passports, drivers licenses , professional certifications, security clearances, and pensions are all based on proof of identity. In some instances, these entitlements (and more) are denied adopted persons. Passports seem to a growing issue, and I'm seeing more reports of other "entitlement" access problems, too. When REAL ID and similar laws come into effect, every adopted person in the US, unless she or he can prove who they are--a state-forged document doesn't count--can be considered a security risk.

The bottom line is that adoptees are statute-created lab rats, the product of social engineering and eugenics, gone bad. Adoptees are subjected to government identity erasure, construction, and manipulation. It makes no difference if someone is in a "good adoption" or not. It's about state control of our identities, history, relationships--and civil rights.

Posts are moderated, so be nice!

There's also help needed on the Find My Family discussion board, especially this thread: Amended birth certificates are legalized, falsified documents. (I haven't posted yet myself, but will. I tried the other night, but CBS flagged "Bastard Nation" as an offensive word). watched last night's show. My only comment is: GAK! If you missed it you can watch it online.