No Justice for Masha: Part 937

Masha Allen continues to pawned through the US justice system.

James Marsh reported today on his ChildLaw Blog that Masha Allen's federal lawsuit has been dismissed due to, of all things, "failure to properly plead a basis for federal jurisdiction."

I don't know the details but according to Marsh:

Despite the trenchant involvement of a reconstructed legal team consisting of much-sought after guardian ad litem Cambria County bankruptcy attorney Timothy J. Sloan (who replaced Masha's former mother Faith Allen as lead plaintiff), Georgia attorneys David S. Bills (who blogs anonymously about Masha's case at poundpuplegacy.org), William Q. Bird and Darren Summerville (who were originally hired by Faith Allen who reportedly now lives in Georgia), and Pennsylvania First Amendment attorney Thomas Vecchio (who replaced renowned Philadelphia attorney Robert N. Hunn who withdrew under protest last year), Masha "did not oppose (and consents to) dismissal [of the lawsuit] without prejudice on ground of lack of subject matter jurisdiction." .

27 lawyers have been involved in this case, and still Masha can't get one splinter of justice. (Where are all those politicians who vowed to help her?) She turns 18 in August and will be out from under the thumb of the state then, with unfortunately, for what it's worth, no one to handle her legal affairs. We don't know what to expect. According to Marsh, Masha has vowed to keep her case going, but we have no idea where it may go. Or where she may go.

If Masha Allen, the victim of one of the worse child trafficking cases in US history, can't get justice, how can we expect justice for anyone "touched by adoption"?

NEW JERSEY UPDATE: Adoptees' Birthright Bill Reported Shelved Until Fall--But Act Now to Kill It

Unofficial word (that is, it's not on the New Jersey Leg website yet) is that the Adoptees' Birthright Bill has been shelved until fall. According to news distributed earlier today to various lists, rumors of Gov. Chris Christie's possible veto are very real. (Once it appears, I'll link the official notice of postponement here.) *NOTE--I received official notice this morning. (see end of blog)

The following message came from NJCare under Pam Hasegawa's signature. It reads in part:

From: Pam Hasegawa
To: jersey Ad-v cates. Jersey Ad-vocates , NJad pt _network , A N S Adopti n-N ws-S rvice , Ad ption Umbrell

After consulting with prime sponsors and other co-sponsors we reached a consensus that it is in our best interest to avoid a veto or conditional veto by the Governor. With at least one meeting scheduled with the Governor's staff next month, the Adoptees' Birthright Bill was removed from the board list of bills to be considered by the Assembly this Thursday.

Actually, Thursday has become a committee meeting day and the final vote on the budget will be next Monday. Then recess until September.

We will continue through the summer reaching out to legislators who have reservations, do more research (will need help with this), and will depend on your continued letters, prayers and encouragement as we look toward conversation with the governor's staff (and, hopefully, Governor Christie himself.

NJCare plans to work this summer to convince the Assembly and Christie to support the bill. We'll work, too: to kill it.

Bastard Nation was just about to send out a new action alert for you to contact the Assembly. We still want you to contact the Assembly (and Gov. Christie), so see the action alert directly below this blog for talking points.

BUT, with this additional information:

Bastard Nation has acquired a copy of NJCare's contact and head count list; that is, an indication where each Assembly member stands on the bill. Go here, print it out, and make contact.

Also, see BLC's blog: New Jersey S1406 (A1406/S799): Action Alert and Also Update, a detailed and thoughtful analysis of this greatly flawed bill's implications for New Jersey and the rest of the country.

The Assembly and Gov. Christie cannot hear enough from those of us who support real bastard rights and not sloppy seconds.

Say it loud and say it proud:

I'm a bastard. I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!

Session 2010-2011

The following bill(s) have been scheduled for a committee or a legislative session.
A1406:
6/24/2010 1:00:00 PM Assembly
The Voting Session has been Canceled.
The Assembly will have a Quorum Call at 100 PM
Assembly Chambers

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillView.asp?BillNumber=A1406

BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT: Please Write New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to Veto SCS799.1399

BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT
Please distribute freely!

Please take a minute to write short letter to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and ask him to veto SCS799/1399 if it reaches his desk. The bill passed out of the Human Services Committee on June 14. (NOTE: These are the numbers used by proponents. Two bills have been consolidated and are also known as SCS1406).

SCS799/1399, promoted as an Adoptee's Birthright Bill, sells adoptees down the river, by creating a new, special 12-month temporary ”veto right” for "birthparents;" thus, exempting the state's adopted adults from equal protection and treatment regarding the release of the government-generated public record of their births. Promoters of the bill have co-opted the language of the real adoptee rights movement and real obc access laws by equating their bill to Oregon's law, which through ballot initiative, restored the right of all that state's adoptees to the unrestricted right to their own original birth certificates.

New Jersey is a key state. If this restrictive legislation is enacted serious harm to the genuine adoptee rights movement throughout the country could occur.

Read SCS799/1399 here
Read SCS799/1399 statement here

SCS799/1399:

*includes a 12- month open enrollment period, starting after the Department of Health and Senior Services releases regs for SCS799/1399 implementation, that allows "birthparents," to file disclosure vetoes--wrongly called a "contact preference form"-- before obcs, past and future, are unsealed.

*authorizes the State Registar to replace the original birth certificate of those subjected to the contact veto/disclosure veto with a mutilated copy of the obc with all identifying information, including the address of the parent(s) at the time of birth (if they appear on the cert) deleted.

*requires "birthparents" who file a contact veto/disclosure veto to submit an intrusive and probably illegal medical and family history form to activate the veto.

*requires "birthparents" who file a contact veto/disclosure veto to fill out the same intrusive and probably illegal medical and family history form.

*seals by default all "safe haven" birth certificates, even though many "safe haven" babies are boarder babies, born to identified mothers and abandoned in hospitals shortly after birth. Some of these children may never be adopted and will never have a genuine birth certificate.

The fiscal note in the original bill has been removed, but the the sub bill mandates the Department of Health and Senior Services to mount an extensive media campaign to inform birthparents of their "special veto right" and other bill "initiatives."

A typewritten letter or handwritten letter,
no longer than 250 words, is preferable.

Use Veto SCS799/1399: The Adoptee's Birthright bill in the header and include your name and address.

Governor Chris Christie
PO Box 001
The State House
Trenton, NJ 08625-0001

If a letter is not possible, send an email through the template here.

Bastard Nation's letter:

Dear Governor Christie:

Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization, the largest adoptee civil rights organization in North America, opposes SCS799/1399: The Adoptee's Birthright bill. We ask you to veto it if it comes to your desk. The bill is currently awaiting a voice in the Assembly.

SCS799/1399 will permit some New Jersey adopted adults to receive their true and accurate original birth certificates. Others, through compromise language in this bill, will receive only a false and mutilated certificate with the name and address of the parent(s) bureaucratically excised by the State Registrar 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. Birthparents should not have different rules.

Since 1999 four states have restored to adoptees the unrestricted right to their own birth certificates: Oregon through state-wide ballot initiative, and Alabama, 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? Please veto SCS799/1399 and tell the legislature to return with a new clean bill that restores the right of access to all the state’s adopted citizens.

Yours truly,

Marley E. Greiner

Executive Chair

BASTARD NATION: New Jersey A1406/S799 - Submitted Testimony in Opposition

This is yesterday's submitted testimony in opposition to H1406/S799. I did not post this until this morning because I didn't want our testimony to be read by NJCare and supporters
beforehand. Unfortunately, the bill passed out of committee. More on that later.

New Jersey House Human Services Committee

SUBMITTED TESTIMONY
A1406/S799: Adoptees Birthright Bill

OPPOSE

Privilege is the opposite of right

Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization is the largest adoptee civil rights organization in the United States. We support full, unrestricted access for all adopted persons, upon request, of their own true, unaltered original birth certificates (OBC). We oppose A11406 and its companion bill S799 already passed in the Senate.

A1406/S799 permits some New Jersey adopted adults to receive their true and accurate original birth certificates. Others, through the compromise language of the birthparent disclosure veto, will receive only a false and mutilated government document 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 this special veto 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 rights and rules?

A1406/S799 is promoted as an “adoptee birthright” and OBC “access bill.” Unfortunately, it is neither. The bill reinforces out-dated adoption secrecy through the disclosure veto. It also seals by default, the OBCs of babies surrendered under the state’s “safe haven” program (apparently whether they are adopted later or not) even though a good number of these children are born to identified parents. What name and “official” state identity papers those never adopted will have is not addressed in the bill.

A1406/S799 requires birthparents, under specific circumstances, to submit a medical and health history to the state, a requirement that is most likely illegal under HIPAA and other privacy laws. No one has a right to anyone’s medical history. Medical histories have nothing to do with birth certificates and have no connection to right of all adopted persons to their own OBC.

Finally, A1406/S799 includes a fiscal bill of $90,000 to advertise the law if it is passed. At a time when Governor Christie is proposing massive cuts in education and social welfare programs and instituting wage caps, this advertising campaign is an unconscionable waste of taxpayer money.

For nearly three decades we have heard the claim that biological parents have been promised anonymity from their own offspring who were placed for adoption, yet not one document has ever been presented in New Jersey or any other state to show that so-called promise.
In fact, courts have found that “birthparents do not have any legal expectation of anonymity.” (Doe v Sundquist, 943 F. Supp. 886, 893-94 (M.D. Tenn. 1996)) (06 F.3d 703, 705 (6th Cir. 1997)) (Does v Oregon, Summary Judgment Oregon State Court of Appeals) (Does v. State of Oregon, 164 Or.App. 543, 993 P.2d 833, 834 (1999)). Moreover, OBCs are sealed at the time of adoption finalization not surrender, and the birth certificate of any child not adopted is left unsealed and available not only to him or her but to the public at large. If an adoption is disrupted, the birth certificate is unsealed.

Kansas and Alaska have never sealed original birth certificates. Since 1999 four states have restored to adoptees the unrestricted right to records and identity access: Oregon through ballot initiative, and Alabama, New Hampshire, and Maine through legislation. No statistics are available for Kansas and Alaska, but approximately 17,000 OBCs in the latter four states have been released with no reported ill consequences. Why should New Jersey buck the tide and pass a bill that continues to treat adoptee access to their own birth certificates as a privilege not a right--a right that the non-adopted enjoy without a second thought?

Rights are for all citizens, not favors doled out to some by government and special interest groups. A1406/799 does not restore the right to the OBC once enjoyed by all New Jersey adoptees.

Please go back and create a clean bill that restores the rights of all adoptees to full citizenship or kill this discriminatory bill that does nothing but grant privileges to some and blacklists others. New Jersey does not segregate rights by religion, ethnicity, age, or gender. It should not segregate rights by birth, adoptive status, or parental preference.

Vote DO NOT PASS on A1406/S799. All of the New Jersey's adoptees must enjoy equal protection, due process, and dignity. New Jersey adoptees deserve better than this!


Submitted by Marley Greiner
June 2, 2010
Executive Chair
Bastard Nation: the adoptee rights organization


Bastard Nation is dedicated to the recognition of the full human and civil rights of adult adoptees. Toward that end, we advocate the opening to adoptees, upon request at age of majority, of those government documents which pertain to the adoptee's historical, genetic, and legal identity, including the unaltered original birth certificate and adoption decree. Bastard Nation asserts that it is the right of people everywhere to have their official original birth records unaltered and free from falsification, and that the adoptive status of any person should not prohibit him or her from choosing to exercise that right. We have reclaimed the badge of bastardy placed on us by those who would attempt to shame us; we see nothing shameful in having been born out of wedlock or in being adopted. Bastard Nation does not support mandated mutual consent registries or intermediary systems in place of unconditional open records, nor any other system that is less than access on demand to the adult adoptee, without condition, and without qualification.

Orwellian Adoption Deformers: a quote

I am struck more and more by the Doublethink of adoption deformers. The ability to speak out of both sides of their mouths proclaiming "truths"to reputuate at will, and back again. I'm not going to write an essay here post a quote from 1984:

The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them....To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.

...Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, London, part 1, chapter 3, pp 32

You’ve taken something solid from me
Give me something to call my own
You sold something inside of me
Give me something to call my own

Somone is Stealing the Baby Safe Haven Signs of Boston!

Bastardette has gotten hi-jacked and backlogged. I'm trying to catch up. I'll start with something short.

******

Right before I left for the ASAC conference at MIT in May, They Whose Names Must Not Be Said sent a comment (unpublished) to the Daily Bastaradette regarding the outrageous theft of several Baby Safe Haven signs that mar the Boston and environs landscape. The ones that point "frightened" teens with no names to the nearest baby dump site. Included with the note was a link to a Boston Herald, story, Baby Safe Haven signs mysteriously go missing. The article, except for the first two paragraphs, the not-to-be-missed reader comments, and a picture of wowzsy BSH spokes-singer Rene Marcou freezing her bazooms off in front of a fire station, is in the Herald's paid archives now. (photo Mattthew West, Boston Herald). I've got the original, and now you can have the lowdown:

Three "Baby Safe haven" signs stripped from street poles near local hospitals have left advocates baffled over how, when and why they were removed....

...[the signs] are not just vital signposts, they have "historical significance"because they helped draw both local and worldwide attention to the Safe Haven law, which has saved 13 babies in the Bay States since 2004, said Michael Morrisey, co-founder of Baby Safe Haven New England.

Historical significance? The Old North Church, the Old South Meeting House, Boston Commons, Faneuil Hall, the Brattle Book Shop, Harvard Square, and Fenway Park have "historical signficance." Not electric yellow street signs showing "desparate parents" or their friends of friends where to dump and run an "unwanted" newborn.

The article goes on to tell us that the loss of such important historical artifacts would be made up for (sorta) at a fundraiser at Boston's Hard Rock Cafe on May 24.

Can I make this up?

I haven't heard how that went.

Oh, and one more thing. Desperate sign stealers can turn in their unwanted signs at any hospital: no blame, no shame, no name.

They Whose Name Must Not Be Said also sent me directions to the fire station closest to MIT. Now I don't know if this were a set-up to catch me and my Bastard minions stealing a sign in broad daylight (I left my all burglar tools at home) or just a friendly tourist tip. But, since one of my major goals in life is to see a BSH sign in person I followed the instructions hoping for the best.

After a walk here:

and here:

I finally found this:

followed by this:

and this:

and it's a great relief to know that MIT/Harvard area babies would not be left here:

Thank you They Whose Names Must Not Be Said for relieving my mind and helping me reach a goal otherwise unfulfilled.

BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT - STOP NEW JERSEY A1406/S799 TODAY!

Distribute Freely

BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT!

STOP DISCLOSURE VETO/WHITE OUT LEGISLATION IN NEW JERSEY!!!

ASK THE NEW JERSEY ASSEMBLY HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE:VOTE NO ON A1406/S799

DON'T LET PASSAGE OF BAD LEGISLATION IN NEW JERSEY THREATEN EFFORTS IN OTHER STATES FOR TRUE EQUAL ACCESS FOR ADULT

IT'S BACK!

A1406 (companion to S799 already passed in the NJ Senate) is scheduled for a hearing in the Assembly Human Services Committee on June 14.

Please contact committee members immediately and urge them to VOTE NO ON A1406/S799. See contact information below.If you are from or in New Jersey or have a New Jersey connection, be sure to mention it in your communication.

Be sure to put: "A1406 - opposition " in the header

A1406/S799 is: restrictive, discriminatory, creates a new, special and temporary ”right” for "birthparents," and exempts the state's adopted adults from equal protection and treatment regarding the release of the government-generated public record of their births.

The bill:

*includes a 12- month open enrollment period, starting after the Department of Health releases regs for A1406/S799 implementation, that allows "birthparents," to file disclosure vetoes before obcs, past and future, are unsealed

*authorizes the state to replace the original birth certificate, of those subjected to the DV, with a mutilated copy of the obc with all identifying information, including the address of the parent(s) at the time of birth (if it appears on the cert) deleted.

*requires "birthparents" who file a disclosure veto to submit an intrusive and probably illegal medical and family history form to activate the veto.

*requires "birthparents" who file a "contact preference form" to fill out the same intrusive and probably illegal medical and family history form.

*seals by default all "safe haven" birth certificates, even though most "safe haven" babies are born in hospitals to identified mothers.

*requires adoption agencies and adoption lawyers to receive a written veto status report from the state before they can release identifying information to adoptees

*requires the state to mount an "information" campaign to inform "birthparents" of their "protection" options

A1406/S799 IS NOT AN OBC ACCESS BILL.
A1406/S799 IS NOT ABOUT RIGHTS.
A1406/S799 IS ABOUT PRIVILEGE

Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization opposes legislation that denies any adult adoptees access to their own original birth records on par with all other citizens. Please let the Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizen Committee know that this issue is not about relationships between adoptees and their "birthparents." It is about basic human and civil rights and the relationship between adoptees and the STATE of NEW JERSEY.

The New Jersey state government should not be in the business of denying adult adoptees access to their own birth certificates in a misguided attempt to appease a mythical adversarial standoff between adoptees and birthparents.

Inclusion of a disclosure veto in this bill, even within the 12-month "window of opportunity" perpetuates the violation of adoptee rights by making unaltered birth certificate access a privilege not a right.

Forcing "birthparents," under certain circumstances, to submit mandatory health and family history information to the state is intrusive and probably illegal.

Passage of bad legislation is New Jersey could easily undermine efforts of dedicated reformers who are holding the line for adoptee rights in other states.

New Jersey's A1406/S799 is an abomination in light of the restoration of the right of original birth certificate access to all persons adopted in Oregon, Alabama, and New Hampshire, and Maine. Adult adoptees and all who support adoptee rights should stand united for unrestricted access laws and not sell out just to get a bill passed! Disclosure veto legislation is unethical and unjust!

Please e-mail the New Jersey Senate and urge them to VOTE NO ON A1406/S799

READ THE FULL TEXT AT: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2010/Bills/A1500/1406_I1.PDF

CONTACT INFORMATION.

The New Jersey Leg page has no list of email addresses, You need to go to each individual Rep member page and use the template http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/abcroster.asp

Human Services Committee:



Vainieri Huttle, Valerie - Chair
Rodriguez, Caridad - Vice-Chair
Angelini, Mary Pat
Biondi, Peter J.
Coutinho, Albert
Fuentes, Angel
McHose, Alison Littell
O'Scanlon, Declan J.
Tucker, Cleopatra G.
Wagner, Connie

Also write to Gov. Chris Christie

Proponents of A1406/S799 have asked supporters to sent letters of support to Gov. Chris Christie now. We urge you to do sent letters of opposition. Send letters no more than 250 words at this template: http://www.state.nj.us/governor/contact/

or contact him at:

Office of the Governor
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
609-292-6000

Bastard Nation has submitted opposition testimony to the Human Services Committee, but will ot post it until after the hearing. We have also sent a letter to Governor Christie.