Bastard Nation, the Adoptee Rights Organization, the largest adoptee civil rights organization in North America, urges the passage of Rhode Island S478 Sub AA, which restores the right of all Rhode Island adoptees to access their original birth certificates without restriction, upon request.We are, however, disappointed by the age qualification of 25, set by the Senate, since the House earlier had voted 66-0 for H5443 Sub A which authorized the access age at 18, the state's age of majority.
That said, lawmakers in both Houses have already decided that Rhode Island adoptees have a right, as they did until 1944, to their original birth certificates, so it is imperative to restore that right now, and get a clean law on the books and working.
We believe that in the near future, the access age set out in S478 Sub A should be and can be reduced to the age of majority in order for the adopted and not-adopted to be treated the same under law and policy regarding public document access. The age discrepancy sets a bad precedent.
We are grateful for the support Rhode Island House Members have shown in the past for adoptees and our rights. We trust this support will continue, even with a somewhat flawed bill.
We urge you to vote DO PASS on S478 Sub AA. It's passage will put Rhode Island in the forefront of adoption reform in the United States today.
Yours truly,
Marley E Greiner
Executive Chair
Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization
www.bastards.org
Office: PO Box 1469, Edmond, OK 73083-1469
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.
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