An open letter to those who will try to justify HB 2056 in PA. I have read that we don't understand because we were not there when they put in a clean bill and that they realized they wouldn't get the whole pie so they decided that they needed to get something for "most adoptees". I have also read that this is a "decent" compromise. Spare me.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. You don't need to be an "insider" to have a clue as to the legislative process. Putting in a clean bill that asks for "the whole pie" is no great feat, so stop patting yourselves on the back. Anyone can get a sponsor to submit a bill with minimal effort ~ it's how that bill comes out of committee and off the floor that counts. That is where the real work is done & most obviously, that is where this bill was such a failure. Decent? How can anyone call this bill decent? Not only have they screwed PA adoptees but they have taken a tool that many state groups are sucessfully using (the CPF) and turning it into a disclosure veto. That is the biggest slap in the face to those of us who have worked so hard to get clean bills passed. What part of the word "preference" don't they understand? A contact preference is just that...a preference. Now they have interchanged it with "veto" and pretend that they are one and the same! I get so angry when I read such ridiculous, self justifying posts. Look, they sold everyone out so don't try to tell us that "we don't understand" or "our state is different" or "this will help most adoptees" ...... we DO understand & that's why we are all so angry. We understand that you could have withdrawn your bill, we understand that you could have asked to have your bill killed, we understand that you took the easiest way out, we understand that you tried to sell us a crock of baloney with your veto dressed up in CPF clothing and most of all, we understand perfectly well that you sold out adoptees. We understand.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
DICTATORSHIP! DISCRIMINATION! (NON)DISCLOSURE! Ontario's Bill 183 Passes
From Anita Field:
OH. MY. GOD.
Ontario Bill 183 passed yesterday, November 1, 2005. It comes complete with a contact veto ($50,000 fine for any violation) and a disclosure veto which can be obtained by showing that disclosure of information will cause harm.
DICTATORSHIP! DISCRIMINATION! DISCLOSURE!
DICTATORSHIP
Dalton McGuinty, the Premier of Canada, commented to the press about the new bill: "We're saying to people `You've got a right to know but you don't have the right to a relationship."'
Premier Dalton McGuinty also said that Bill 183 “...allows information to be released while also giving people the tools they need to maintain their privacy.”
"We believe that we struck the right balance," McGuinty declared.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
DISCRIMINATION
Bill 183 contains both a contact veto, carrying a $50,000 fine for violation and a disclosure veto to be gotten by showing that disclosure of information will cause harm.
"If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other." - Carl Schurz
DISCLOSURE
Phooey! That’s what THEY say. Bill 183 is a NON-DISCLOSURE bill because it allows adult parties to an adoption to put a lid on the release of information. In my dictionary, disclose means to expose or reveal information - not to hide or prevent the flow of information.
"Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!" - Sir Walter Scott
I SAY: STAMP OUT DICTATORSHIP! DISCRIMINATION! (NON)DISCLOSURE
OH. MY. GOD.
Ontario Bill 183 passed yesterday, November 1, 2005. It comes complete with a contact veto ($50,000 fine for any violation) and a disclosure veto which can be obtained by showing that disclosure of information will cause harm.
DICTATORSHIP! DISCRIMINATION! DISCLOSURE!
DICTATORSHIP
Dalton McGuinty, the Premier of Canada, commented to the press about the new bill: "We're saying to people `You've got a right to know but you don't have the right to a relationship."'
Premier Dalton McGuinty also said that Bill 183 “...allows information to be released while also giving people the tools they need to maintain their privacy.”
"We believe that we struck the right balance," McGuinty declared.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
DISCRIMINATION
Bill 183 contains both a contact veto, carrying a $50,000 fine for violation and a disclosure veto to be gotten by showing that disclosure of information will cause harm.
"If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other." - Carl Schurz
DISCLOSURE
Phooey! That’s what THEY say. Bill 183 is a NON-DISCLOSURE bill because it allows adult parties to an adoption to put a lid on the release of information. In my dictionary, disclose means to expose or reveal information - not to hide or prevent the flow of information.
"Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!" - Sir Walter Scott
I SAY: STAMP OUT DICTATORSHIP! DISCRIMINATION! (NON)DISCLOSURE
Monday, September 19, 2005
IN REPLY TO A NASTY BLIZZARD BESIEGING TORONTO
From Bastard Nation Executive Committee member Anita Field to the Toronto Sun in response to a recent reprehensible article, Opening Old Wounds, authored by Christina Blizzard:
I write in angry reply to Christina Blizzard’s article in The Toronto Sun. "Opening Old Wounds."
Ms. Blizzard has shamelessly kicked off the new "adoption season," as she calls
it, with a poisonous article purporting to be about whether or not to issue
original birth certificates to adopted men and women. What she really tries to
do is to scare the bejesus out of birth parents and everyone else. She wants to
warn society that bill 183 just might be passed in a way that would let lose
those ungrateful adoptee- monsters.
We are not monsters! We are law- abiding men and women from all walks of life .
As a group, we have only one disagreement with the government. That is, the
government is withholding our original birth certificates and other personal
identity documents that rightly belong to us – the adoptees, the people about
whom those documents were created in the first place.
Adoptees vote, we belong to parent & school organizations, we run for office, we
pay taxes, we serve in the military, and we have families. The government is
treating adoptees differently as ADULTS because we were born on the wrong side
of the blanket.
What possible compelling interest can Ontario have for wanting to keep personal
identity information secret from adults who were adopted as children? State
secrecy should be reserved for urgent matters of security and not attempts to
regulate interpersonal relationships.
I write in angry reply to Christina Blizzard’s article in The Toronto Sun. "Opening Old Wounds."
Ms. Blizzard has shamelessly kicked off the new "adoption season," as she calls
it, with a poisonous article purporting to be about whether or not to issue
original birth certificates to adopted men and women. What she really tries to
do is to scare the bejesus out of birth parents and everyone else. She wants to
warn society that bill 183 just might be passed in a way that would let lose
those ungrateful adoptee- monsters.
We are not monsters! We are law- abiding men and women from all walks of life .
As a group, we have only one disagreement with the government. That is, the
government is withholding our original birth certificates and other personal
identity documents that rightly belong to us – the adoptees, the people about
whom those documents were created in the first place.
Adoptees vote, we belong to parent & school organizations, we run for office, we
pay taxes, we serve in the military, and we have families. The government is
treating adoptees differently as ADULTS because we were born on the wrong side
of the blanket.
What possible compelling interest can Ontario have for wanting to keep personal
identity information secret from adults who were adopted as children? State
secrecy should be reserved for urgent matters of security and not attempts to
regulate interpersonal relationships.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
COLORADO'S DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE
Posting for Anita whose computer suffers from extreme blogophobia!
COLORADO’S DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE
By Anita Walker Field
Legislative Declaration # 1Colorado HB 05-1287 was passed in June and is awaiting the governor’s signature. Here is the first sentence of the Legislative Declaration:
"IN 2005, THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY DETERMINED THAT IT WOULD BE BENEFICIAL TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ADOPTION TRIAD TO ALLOW EACH BIRTH PARENT THE OPPORTUNITY TO INDICATE A PREFERENCE REGARDING FUTURE CONTACT INCLUDING THE OPPORTUNITY TO AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE OF THE ORIGINAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE AND TO AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE OF HIS OR HER OWN CONTACT INFORMATION, AND TO PROVIDE A METHOD TO MAKE INFORMATION ABOUT MEDICAL HISTORY AVAILABLE TO THE ADOPTEE."
How does it make you feel to know that from now on in Colorado birth parents will have the opportunity to authorize the release of an adoptee’s original birth certificate? Or not!!
I must be naïve. I always thought that the state was responsible for issuing all birth documents.
Not anymore in Colorado. Birthparents who irrevocably relinquished all legal rights to their biological children at least 21 years ago will now, all of a sudden, be making a comeback. They will be sanctioned to make decisions about what documents their biological offspring should or should not get from the government.The State of Colorado sealed the original birth certificates and it is up to the state to unseal them. It’s never been up to birth parents. Colorado has passed the buck. They’ve gone into hiding underneath the birth mother’s skirts. Their new motto is: "Well golly gee – it’s not up to us – it’s up to your parents."
So all you Colorado adoptees – don’t be angry with your legislators who want to be reelected. Be angry at your birth parents who don’t want to see you or to give you any contact information.
LEGISLATIVE DECLARATION #2:
With the new bill, Colorado is looking out for the best interests of all us angst-ridden adoptees who might wreak havoc on the entire state if we were given our original birth certificates as quickly as all of the other citizens. What? You don’t believe me? Just look here - it says so right in the second sentence of the Legislative Declaration of HB 05-1287"
"IN ADDITION, THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY FOUND THAT A DELAYED IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ACCESS TO A BIRTH PARENT'S CONTACT INFORMATION WOULD ALLOW MEMBERS OF THE ADOPTION TRIAD TO AVAIL THEMSELVES OF RESOURCES TO ADDRESS ISSUES THAT MAY ARISE FROM SEARCHING FOR OR REUNITING WITH BIOLOGICAL RELATIVES OR FROM MAKING DECISIONS NOT TO PURSUE CONTACT OR INFORMATION."
What a bunch of psychological blabber is this. "The General Assembly found….." What they really found is that it is probably easier to get re-elected if they pass the buck on the adoptee rights issue.Hmmm. I wonder who told the General Assembly that we adoptees need more time to address personal issues? No matter who you are – birth parents, adoptive parents, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, judges, lawyers, adoption agencies – none of you has a right to place yourselves between adopted adults and the state. The state alone must come out of hiding and face up to what it did over a half century ago. They sealed all the adoption records. Now it’s time for them to unseal those records to all adopted men and women so that we can once again be treated equally under the laws. It’s the right thing to do.
P.S. Colorado adoptees who believe that this bill is going to give them unconditional access to open records have been hoodwinked and I feel sorry for them.
Colorado adoptees who think that it’s okay to settle for less than unconditional access - you’ve not only dug your own graves but you’ve also helped to throw dirt on the rights of adopted adults in states all around the country.
Adoptees everywhere: If you agree that adopted adults should have unconditional access to the unaltered original documents of their birth, then consider joining Batard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization. Help us fight back!www.bastards.org/members/join
COLORADO’S DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE
By Anita Walker Field
Legislative Declaration # 1Colorado HB 05-1287 was passed in June and is awaiting the governor’s signature. Here is the first sentence of the Legislative Declaration:
"IN 2005, THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY DETERMINED THAT IT WOULD BE BENEFICIAL TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ADOPTION TRIAD TO ALLOW EACH BIRTH PARENT THE OPPORTUNITY TO INDICATE A PREFERENCE REGARDING FUTURE CONTACT INCLUDING THE OPPORTUNITY TO AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE OF THE ORIGINAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE AND TO AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE OF HIS OR HER OWN CONTACT INFORMATION, AND TO PROVIDE A METHOD TO MAKE INFORMATION ABOUT MEDICAL HISTORY AVAILABLE TO THE ADOPTEE."
How does it make you feel to know that from now on in Colorado birth parents will have the opportunity to authorize the release of an adoptee’s original birth certificate? Or not!!
I must be naïve. I always thought that the state was responsible for issuing all birth documents.
Not anymore in Colorado. Birthparents who irrevocably relinquished all legal rights to their biological children at least 21 years ago will now, all of a sudden, be making a comeback. They will be sanctioned to make decisions about what documents their biological offspring should or should not get from the government.The State of Colorado sealed the original birth certificates and it is up to the state to unseal them. It’s never been up to birth parents. Colorado has passed the buck. They’ve gone into hiding underneath the birth mother’s skirts. Their new motto is: "Well golly gee – it’s not up to us – it’s up to your parents."
So all you Colorado adoptees – don’t be angry with your legislators who want to be reelected. Be angry at your birth parents who don’t want to see you or to give you any contact information.
LEGISLATIVE DECLARATION #2:
With the new bill, Colorado is looking out for the best interests of all us angst-ridden adoptees who might wreak havoc on the entire state if we were given our original birth certificates as quickly as all of the other citizens. What? You don’t believe me? Just look here - it says so right in the second sentence of the Legislative Declaration of HB 05-1287"
"IN ADDITION, THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY FOUND THAT A DELAYED IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ACCESS TO A BIRTH PARENT'S CONTACT INFORMATION WOULD ALLOW MEMBERS OF THE ADOPTION TRIAD TO AVAIL THEMSELVES OF RESOURCES TO ADDRESS ISSUES THAT MAY ARISE FROM SEARCHING FOR OR REUNITING WITH BIOLOGICAL RELATIVES OR FROM MAKING DECISIONS NOT TO PURSUE CONTACT OR INFORMATION."
What a bunch of psychological blabber is this. "The General Assembly found….." What they really found is that it is probably easier to get re-elected if they pass the buck on the adoptee rights issue.Hmmm. I wonder who told the General Assembly that we adoptees need more time to address personal issues? No matter who you are – birth parents, adoptive parents, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, judges, lawyers, adoption agencies – none of you has a right to place yourselves between adopted adults and the state. The state alone must come out of hiding and face up to what it did over a half century ago. They sealed all the adoption records. Now it’s time for them to unseal those records to all adopted men and women so that we can once again be treated equally under the laws. It’s the right thing to do.
P.S. Colorado adoptees who believe that this bill is going to give them unconditional access to open records have been hoodwinked and I feel sorry for them.
Colorado adoptees who think that it’s okay to settle for less than unconditional access - you’ve not only dug your own graves but you’ve also helped to throw dirt on the rights of adopted adults in states all around the country.
Adoptees everywhere: If you agree that adopted adults should have unconditional access to the unaltered original documents of their birth, then consider joining Batard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization. Help us fight back!www.bastards.org/members/join
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Ontario's "Anonymity" Commissioner Documents Her War on Adoptees
Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ann Cavoukian, Ph.D., has been waging a nasty smear campaign against Bill 183, which would open adoption information to adoptees and birthparents subject to a contact veto (punishable by fine if violated). While Bastard Nation is opposed to this bill because of the contact veto, Cavoukian's relentless war on this legislation has no doubt been damaging for future efforts. We encourage Canadian Bastards to respond to this nonsense, whenever it appears in the media.
Dr. Cavoukian, the Dr. Kevorkian of Ontario Adoptee Rights
You can see Dr. Cavoukian's anti-adoptee website at:
http://www.ipc.on.ca/scripts/index_.asp?action=31&P_ID=16185&N_ID=1&PT_ID=15&U_ID=0.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Craziness in the Ontario Media
Controversy surrounding Ontario's Bill 183, which includes open records provisions for both adoptees and birthparents, has led to publication of some of the craziest Op/Ed pieces on our issue that I have ever witnessed. And here I thought Canada viewed itself as more progressive-minded on social issues than the United States. Well not when it comes to adoptees and their records! On Friday, June 10th, Adam Radwanski of The National Post published an editorial ,which unfortunately is available for subscribers only. Heck, it might be worth subscribing just to see what other scary anti-adoptee nonsense Adam and his cohorts concoct in the future.
Just a few lines of what Adam said:
"Prompted by her latest round of questioning, Mr. McGuinty announced in November that his government would move forward with a new adoption disclosure law. And this March, it did just that -- introducing legislation to help adult children gain access to information about their birth parents, and vice versa."
(Um, "adult children"?????)
"There's no question that the initiative is well-intentioned, or that some of its end results -- notably increased access to family medical history -- would do considerable good. But those positives are overshadowed by the fact that, if implemented in its present form, the legislation threatens to shake Ontarians' trust in their province's government and system of law, spawn an array of personal heartbreaks and tragedies, and push prospective mothers toward ending their pregnancies rather than putting their children up for adoption."
(Yo Adam!! Adoptees and birthparents already find each other in Ontario, ALL THE TIME!!! Ain't nothing new, and it ain't dependent on this legislation! And, how odd that women aren't storming into the abortion clinics in Oregon, Alabama, and New Hampshire, which have all opened records unconditionally to adult adoptees since 1998.)
and..."True, birth control and legalized abortion have already drastically reduced the number of Canadian-born children put up for adoption. But for, say, a pregnant 18-year-old otherwise inclined to carry her child to term and let someone else raise it, how much more tempting will it be to terminate the pregnancy if she's now faced with the possibility of her life being torn apart when she's 36 and the kid turns up on her doorstep?"
(Adam... we're already ON the doorsteps... terrorizing birth mothers and chuckling while we watch the 18 year-old pregnant teens next door run screaming for the abortion clinics once they realize that the horror being visited on their neighbor could happen to them as well!)
For the record, Bastard Nation does not support Bill 183, because it contains an egregious provision that would allow birthparents to put adoptees under legal restraint, punishable by a huge fine ($50,000) if violated. That hardly smells like adoptee rights to us. Nevertheless, we are still outraged by the anti-adoptee nonsense being spewed forth by the media in Ontario and are concerned about its impact for future efforts at good reform.
Just a few lines of what Adam said:
"Prompted by her latest round of questioning, Mr. McGuinty announced in November that his government would move forward with a new adoption disclosure law. And this March, it did just that -- introducing legislation to help adult children gain access to information about their birth parents, and vice versa."
(Um, "adult children"?????)
"There's no question that the initiative is well-intentioned, or that some of its end results -- notably increased access to family medical history -- would do considerable good. But those positives are overshadowed by the fact that, if implemented in its present form, the legislation threatens to shake Ontarians' trust in their province's government and system of law, spawn an array of personal heartbreaks and tragedies, and push prospective mothers toward ending their pregnancies rather than putting their children up for adoption."
(Yo Adam!! Adoptees and birthparents already find each other in Ontario, ALL THE TIME!!! Ain't nothing new, and it ain't dependent on this legislation! And, how odd that women aren't storming into the abortion clinics in Oregon, Alabama, and New Hampshire, which have all opened records unconditionally to adult adoptees since 1998.)
and..."True, birth control and legalized abortion have already drastically reduced the number of Canadian-born children put up for adoption. But for, say, a pregnant 18-year-old otherwise inclined to carry her child to term and let someone else raise it, how much more tempting will it be to terminate the pregnancy if she's now faced with the possibility of her life being torn apart when she's 36 and the kid turns up on her doorstep?"
(Adam... we're already ON the doorsteps... terrorizing birth mothers and chuckling while we watch the 18 year-old pregnant teens next door run screaming for the abortion clinics once they realize that the horror being visited on their neighbor could happen to them as well!)
For the record, Bastard Nation does not support Bill 183, because it contains an egregious provision that would allow birthparents to put adoptees under legal restraint, punishable by a huge fine ($50,000) if violated. That hardly smells like adoptee rights to us. Nevertheless, we are still outraged by the anti-adoptee nonsense being spewed forth by the media in Ontario and are concerned about its impact for future efforts at good reform.
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