Friday, September 07, 2007

Adoptees should know

John A Lepper, a Representative from Massachusetts, drew up an amendment to open birth certificates for adoptees born before 1974. It passed but was vetoed later....at least it's a start.

They did consider that women after 1974 thought their identity would be kept a secret ....huh? My biomom in the 60s was told it would always be a closed adoption - that no one could open the records..... I do think the adoptee should be over 18 when they get a bc or identifying info....but that's nuts.... no wonder it was vetoed ---they need to word this better.

6 comments:

BB Church's V-Blog Funhouse! said...

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed SB63 into law a couple of days ago, which opens records prospectively for adoptees born afte January 1, 2008, but creates a separate class of adoptees born before the cutoff date, who must now petition probate courts for crumbs. This bill is an insult to the dignity of all adult adoptees, by dividing us into the "deserving" and the "non-deserving" simply by accident of out birthdate.
The website for ABC, the organization responsible for advocacy for this abomination, lists no names so it's not clear who to hold to account. I'm not surprised.

petunia said...

Every little bit is something. These are people who have no real experience with adoption so they see it from the outside....you can't know about it or care much when you have no experience with it. They think they are doing a good thing by this - that's okay, let's be thankful for baby steps. All we can do is hope in the next few years that adoptees, biomoms and aparents get into government offices so we have people in there with the experience in adoption.

BB Church's V-Blog Funhouse! said...

Legislatures in Maine and New Hampshire manage to wrap their brains, arguably no more or less ignorant of the issues involved than those in Mass, and passed laws allowing unrestricted access to unaltered original birth certificates. Our gratitude for "baby steps" will be cold comfort to adoptees born on 11:59 on Dec 31, 2007, locked out of their OBC, when a baby born on 12:01, Jan 1, 2008 will be able to freely access theirs... This is inequity, and it's wrong to embrace it.
I don't blame the legislature in Mass, I blame the advocates for this bill who are at heart responsible for defining the issues and educating the legislators. That was their job and they failed.

petunia said...

BB, the kids that this affects right now are too young to care - by them passing this law now it allows a lot of people access and maybe in a few years even more will open up. I think BC shouldn't be available for kids until they're 18 anyway.

BB Church's V-Blog Funhouse! said...

Maybe in a few years things will open up..." I've been working on this issue for over ten years, along with many others who've devoted decades to it, and as long as people accept inequity, that's exactly what they'll get. On the other hand, if the work for equal rights, instead of accepting tiers and different classes of adoptees, then they'll get laws like Oregon, New Hampshire and Maine.

Gershom Kaligawa said...

exactly bb!
You support open records for ALL adoptees don't you petunia? Are you coming to the protest for Adoptee Rights?