BASTARD NATION PRESS RELEASE: MAINE RESTORES RIGHT OF BIRTH CERTIFICATE ACCESS!

BASTARD NATION PRESS RELEASE

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FREELY!

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

MAINE RESTORES THE RIGHT OF

BIRTH CERTIFICATE ACCESS!

LD 1084 PASSES OVERWHELMINGLY—GOVERNOR SIGNS

Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization congratulates Maine on becoming the fourth state since 1998 to restore the right of original birth certificate access to adult adoptees. Following in the footsteps of Oregon, Alabama, and New Hampshire (Kansas and Alaska never sealed records) Maine’s activist organization OBC for ME has shown that through focus, perseverance, and a refusal to compromise the rights of all for the privilege of a few, that a clean unconditional access bill can be passed. Overwhelmingly passed,

Despite naysayers, on June 18, near the close of the legislative session, the Maine House overrode and over ran the LD 1084's “Do Not Pass” recommendation from the Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary, 104-39. The next day, the Senate followed, passing, the bill 20-15. On June 20, the bill returned to both houses and passed “by the hammer” with no amendments. Bim! Bam! Boom!

Bastard Nation was highly critical of the 2006 records access campaign which began with a clean bill and finished threatened with compromises that made it unrecognizable. This time, OBC for ME (love the name!) ran a mostly under-the-radar operation. Activists emphasized the “localiness” of adoptee rights and the state’s responsibility to its adopted people.

LD 1084 had an extremely strong sponsor, Rep. David Farrington, and the quiet personal lobbying of adoptee Sen. Paula Benoit to shepherd it through with non-partisian support. Benoit’s dignified presentation for records access is credited by friends and foes of access with keeping the debate from the bitterness and acrimony that marked last year’s circus.

Rep. Farrington’s June 18 statement on the House floor ranks him as one of BN’s heroes, though we were not involved in the bill. You can listen to Rep.

Farrington and Sen. Benoit and other supporting speakers, along with a bit of anti-adoptee gas baggery (especially from the House side) at http://www.obcforme.org/.

Governor John Baldacci signed the bill on Monday, June, 25, 2007. It will take effect on January 1, 2009 and gives anyone adopted in Maine 18 and older, upon request, the right to their original birth certificate.

Bastard Nation salutes the come-backs kids of Maine! And we thank those legislators who agreed to undo the wrong done to Maine’s adoptees in 1953 when their records were sealed from them. Other states take note: You can win without compromising your principles and the rights adopted persons. Maine rocks!

Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization

PO Box 1469

Edmond, OK

email: bn@bastards.org

www.bastards.org

www.myspace.com/bnadopteerights




(some of the people from last year's Maine Campaign. Bobbi Beavers 2nd for, 2nd from right)

MAINE RESTORES ADOPTEE RIGHTS--UNRESTRICTED ACCESS

Yippee!!!

Bastard Nation is happy to welcome Maine as the 6th state to recognize the rights of adopted persons.

Today Maine Governor John Baldacci signed LD 1084, restoring the right of identity and birth certificates without restriction to adoptees 18 and older, born in Maine. The law takes effect January 1, 2009.

LD 1084 passed both houses last week by a huge margin. Although there was some talk of the bill on a couple lists, OBC for ME, the Maine adoptee rights organization, asked Bastard Nation to sit on the news until the governor signed it into law and they could make their own announcement first.

You can read about it here http://www.obcforme.org/

Bastard Nation congratulates Bobbi Beavers and OBC for ME for a job well done. They held the line and won.

BN's official statement will be released tonight and posted here and elsewhere.

Just a reminder. Hawai'i Governor Linda Lingle has until June 23 to announce if she is considering vetoing HB 1830, the latest incarnation of baby dump legislation in that state.

Gov. Lingle needs to know that the adoptee rights/adoption reform community on the Mainland does not support so-called "safe haven" laws which commodify newborns and their parents, promote anonymous baby abandonment as "just another choice," and undermine hanai. Gov. Lingle vetoed similar legislation in 2003 and has been the target of a pro-dump gang since. Read this "open letter" to the governor from one baby abandonment advocate.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Read the bill

Read Bastard Nation’s letter to Gov Lingle published here on May 22.

Read Bastard Nation's full action alert published here on June 9.

Read Gov. Lingle's 2003 veto statement posted by the American Adoption Congress here

Contact Gov. Lingle and key legislators.


TALKING POINTS:

• HB 1830 is not needed; newborn abandonment/neonaticide in the state is nearly unheard of. Since 1996 there has only been one prosecutable case...

• HB 1830 rejects and undermines the traditional Hawai’ian practice of “hanai”-- extended family and community care which insures that children, unable to be reared by their biological parents are lovingly kept within the family or close community where their identity and heritage remain in tact.

• HB 1830 eliminates”hanai” and the right of identity by denying the “safe havened” access to their original birth documents and heritage information.

• HB 1830 abrogates certain government benefits available to all Native Hawai’ians because the “safe havened” will be unable to prove Native ancestry.

• HB 1830 rejects informed consent and best practice standards of child welfare and adoption placement such as the collection of a full record of identifying information and social and medical histories.

• HB 1830 denies parents--particularly non-surrendering parents (usually the father)- due process by eliminating the ability to locate the dependency proceeding to which they are a party

Oppose HB 1830 and encourage Gov. Lingle to hold firm. We have been told that faxing is the best way to get legislators’ attention.

CONTACT

The Honorable Linda Lingle
Governor, State of Hawai’i
Executive Chambers
State Capitol
Honolulu, Hawai’i 96813
Phone:
Fax:
e-mail: governor.lingle@hawaii.gov

To forestall an override attempt contact the following key legislators who will decide whether to initiate an override. Explain why you oppose HB 1830 and include your letter to Gov. Lingle.

Colleen Hanabusa, Senate President
Hawai'i State Capitol, Room 409
415 Beretania Street
Honolulu, HI 96813
Phone ;
Fax
email senhanabusa@Capitol.hawaii.gov

Calvin K.Y. Say, Speaker of the House
Hawai’i State Capitol, Room 431
415 South Beretania Street
Honolulu, HI 96813
Phone ;
Fax
e-mail repsay@Capitol.hawaii.gov

Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland, Majority Whip (Democrat)
Hawai’i State Capitol, Room 226
415 South Beretania Street
Honolulu, HI 96813
Fax:

Sponsor:
Representative John Mizuno
Hawa’ii State Capitol, Room 436
415 South Beretania Street
Honolulu, HI 96813
Phone ;
Fax
e-mail repmizuno@Capitol.hawaii.gov

RADICAL ANTI-ADOPTION LAW TYPES ON MY SPACE: WHO'S THE RADICAL?

Cross-posted from BN MySpace.

**********
(above) Radical anti-adoption law types - Maine.

This weekend one of Bastard Nation’s opponents attacked us on their MySpace page calling us “radical anti-adoption law types.” We assume that they mean BN and our friends, too.

Our crime was sending out an action alert in which we requested that you join us and Hawaii’s adoptee rights organizations in contacting Governor Linda Lingle to voice your opposition to HB 1830 and ask her to once more veto safe havens.

(r) Radical anti-adoption law types - New Hampshire

At the bottom of their outburst our opponents republished the alert in an attempt, I suppose, to show their readers what kind of wild-eyed unreasonable, souls oppose government facilitated anonymous infant abandonment and in the larger sense, oppose identity theft through sealed birth records. We hope that their readers were curious enough to hunt us out and visit our MySpace page where they can see for themselves the face of the “radical anti-adoption law types” who inhabit BN MySpace. We hope that they went to your pages, too, and read not only your thoughts on adoption, but saw that you are no different from them except that your life has been impacted by adoption.

Radical anti-adoption law types - Massachusetts



When I look at the faces of adoption on our MySpace page, I don’t see any “radicals.” I see a lot of normal looking people who hold jobs, own homes, rear children, and pay taxes. I see a group of extremely creative, intelligent people who dare to question adoption industry-driven laws that seal public records and hide families from each other under the excuse of “privacy” and other spurious claims in order to keep their murky business activities safe from scrutiny. Is there any other “family practice” outside of adoption that promotes secrecy, forged public records, and anonymity and calls its “beneficiaries” ungrateful and radical?

Who’s the radical?

Radical anti-adoption law types"- Oregon: Max has his records. Why don't we?

BABY THIEF UPDATE: DOWNLOAD BARBARA RAYMOND INTERVIEW

Barbara Raymond author of The Baby Thief, appeared on the Diane Rehm Show today (June 7) for an hour-long interview that must have given the adoptacrats indigestion. If you missed it, you can download it at www.wamu.org/programs/dr

Once more, I can't speak highly enough of the book. Adoption secrecy is the legacy of The Baby Thief: Georgia Tann. Ask your local politician who supports sealed birth certificates why she or he endorses the crimes of Georgia Tann. Adoptees are not dirty little secrets. Adoption is not the witness protection program. Boot the identity thieves out of office.

BASTARD NATION ON NOW ON MY SPACE!

BASTARD NATION: the Adoptee Rights Organization is happy to now be on MySpace. And the page rocks! At least that's what our first visitors think, and it's only been up for an hour (as I write this). Please stop by. And if you're on MySpace, add us as a friend. If you're not on MySpace, start your own page and add us, pushy Bastards that we are!.

BNAdoptee Rights is not a replacement for our webpage It's an enhancement. And you would not believe all the Bastards, Friends of Bastards, and disgruntled adopted people--and first families--hanging out there.

www.myspace.com/bnadopteerights