Tag Archives: adoptee rights

Adoptee Citizenship BEFORE Children in Family Security Act

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To our U.S. Congress: Pass the Adoptee Citizenship bill before even considering any other international adoption legislation.

A new bill, the Children in Family Security Act (CFS Act), has been introduced into Congress to “ensure a diplomatic focus on keeping vulnerable children in the security of a family.” My first impression, and I am not a lawyer, is that the bill would require the U.S. State Department to promote, as a diplomatic mission, the adoption of children from other countries to the United States.

The bill does not, unless I am wrong, focus on preserving families, preventing children from entering institutional care, finding in-country relatives to foster or adopt the children, providing micro loans to help families keep their children, or increasing funding for equitable medical care around the globe.

The CSF Act supporters are listed as the National Council for Adoption, American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, Bethany Christian Services, Nourished Hearts, Center for Adoption Policy, and Gladney Center for Adoption.

During National Adoption Awareness Month, I posted every day about adoptee-centric, adoptee-led organizations, I must point out that none of the above orgs are adoptee-led or adoptee-centric. Neither are they international birth parent-led nor international birth parent-centric. They are adoptive parent-centric and adoption agency/lawyer-centric.

Here’s the thing: I am an adoptive parent, and I love my children more than I can say. Like the sponsors and supporters of the CFS Act, I also support keeping children out of institutions. Primarily I support family preservation to do that, which is I realize an enormous task. I get that. And I argue that we need to re-adjust our priorities and our funding to eliminating the reasons children end up in institutions: poverty, lack of education, lack of decent or any health care, job training, child care.

Speaking of priorities, however, here is my take on the Children in Family Security Act. Don’t even begin working on that until the Adoptee Citizenship Act is passed, and all international adoptees have citizenship. All of them. Some don’t even know they are not American citizens. Bring the deported adoptees back home; some of them are in their 40’s and 50’s. Some have died by suicide; some have been killed. Congress: Prevent more deportations; prevent more families from being torn apart.

Then we can all turn to the CFS Act and other legislation.

First, though, if you’re going to promote international adoption, grant citizenship to all international adoptees.

https://www.blunt.senate.gov/news/press-releases/blunt-klobuchar-introduce-children-in-family-security-act

Bastard Nation: NAAM

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This is day 13 of National Adoption Awareness Month, so this is my daily post to amplify the voices of adoptees.

Some 25 years ago, my eyes began opening to many of the complexities of adoption. My children were all in elementary school, and I was working for the now defunct Joint Council on International Children Services, an umbrella group for international adoption agencies. In the mid-!990’s, Bastard Nation was founded, by and for adoptees, and I attended at least one of their early conferences. (In Virginia, near Dulles Airport? The mind fades.) I remember being initially startled by the boldness of the name: Bastards? Oh my. At the conference, I listened to the perspectives of adult adopted persons who wanted the same basic civil rights as we non-adopted people: the right to know who they are, the right to have their own unaltered birth certificates. I met folks and talked with them, getting to know them as individuals and hear their stories, their pain, their hopes. I attended workshops to learn about their advocacy plans.

Back then the Internet was a different animal, as was the adoption world. Bill Pierce of the National Council for Adoption (NCFA) held a lot of power in Washington, DC, with Congress, adoption agencies, and adoptive parents. Looking through “alt adoption” to see the arguments and online altercations was a slow slog. The pages themselves were gray and full of text only. Bill engaged with the Bastards, and there was something of a mutual respect there, if not admiration.

Bill died in 2004. NCFA has seen much change, in leadership and membership (so many agencies have closed!). Adoption itself has evolved as adult adoptees and birth parents have begun to speak out (and we adoptive parents have begun to listen and hear), and to bring about much-needed change.

Since its founding in 1996, Bastard Nation has stayed steadfast, unflinching, and true to its goals in its advocacy for adoptee rights. From their website: “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.”

There has been progress in improved access to Original Birth Certificates by adoptees; Bastard Nation provides a wealth of state law information. There remains a long way to go. Bastard Nation has also taken advocacy positions on adoptee citizenship/deportation. The organization remains tireless, irreverent, and deeply committed to ensuring that adoptees have no less than their full human and civil rights. Check them out on Facebook, buy some merch, and support their valuable work.

Adoptees United Inc: NAAM

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This is day 7 of National Adoption Awareness Month, so this is my daily post to amplify the voices of adoptees.

Adoptees United Inc. is an adoptee-founded and adoptee-led nonprofit that focuses on the legal rights of adopted people. They track and monitor adoptee rights legislation in all 50 states in the U.S. They also track federal and state legislation, such as citizenship, that affects international adoptees. Their Board of Directors is made up of adoptees (both domestic and international). Identity, U.S. citizenship, and equality for all adoptees is at the heart of their work. They “provide resources, advocacy, and support to organizations committed to these equal rights issues.”

The issue of identity (a complex issue) relates to something that we non-adoptees take for granted: Who are my parents? What are their names? What is the actual time and date of my birth? Across the U.S., different states have different laws regarding original birth certificates and access to them. Adoptees United tracks the legislation in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The issue of U.S. citizenship is an enormous one for perhaps thousands of international adoptees whose parents did not naturalize them and who are not American citizens, though they may think they are. Adoptees United provides information about the pending legislation, and they work with advocacy groups to support their capacity in pursuing legislative relief for all international adoptees.

The issue of equality for all adoptees is the heart to their work. They hope, as a relatively new organization, to become a “trusted national voice and a source of information and advocacy for issues impacting all adult adoptees in the United States.” The “central issue of equal rights applies to all adoptees…we will be more powerful if we come together as advocates, whether we act as colleagues, allies, friends, or supporters.”

You can support adoptee-led organizations during National Adoption Awareness Month by following them on Facebook and by attending their events. On November 29, Adoptees United will hold a panel discussion to answer the question “Who Do We Mean by ‘We?’ The Voices of Adoptees.” The panelists, all adult adoptees, will talk about the mistaken impressions of them by other adoptees, about how affinity groups have or have not been useful (when they were available), and about what changes they’d like to see in the adoption community. More information is available here.

Like all most nonprofits, especially new ones, Adoptees United would like to have a secure financial base from which to carry out their vision. You can donate to them here. Please donate to adoptee-led, adoptee-centric organizations whenever possible. That would be a great way to support adoptees during National Adoption Awareness Month.

New York State Passes Law Allowing Adoptees Access to Original Birth Certificates

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This is a big deal. Advocates in New York have been working on legislation like this for decades—a law that will allow adoptees born in New York State to access their original birth certificates when they are 18 years old. Today, the bill A5494 passed in the New York State Assembly, by a vote of 126-2 (wow!). Governor Andrew Cuomo has said he will sign it.

New York is now the tenth state that allows adoptees to access their own identity. If you are not adopted, and I am not, think about what this means: In 40 US states, you still do not have the right (or the choice) to learn your own identity. You have limited access to medical history and concerns. You are in the only group to be denied the civil and human right of knowing who you are, a right that we non-adopted folks take for granted.

In many places around the globe, adoptees are locating family as well as medical information through DNA testing. That can be helpful and it can also be expensive and complicated.

Search and reunion are also very complicated. Some adoptees never search; some see no reason. Some have a desperate need to search. Reunions can go really well. Not all do. Like every other aspect of family life, there are some amazing moments, some joys, some sorrows, some hard roads, some deep love.

Birth parents were never guaranteed that their children would not look for them or find them—they may have been promised, but the people giving the promise had no way to guarantee that, especially over time. I don’t minimize the complexity. I hope everyone who searches and is found also has counseling and support—I hope no one goes through this alone. Thankfully, adoptees’ voices are being heard, and the community has a lot more resources.

I’ll post more later. I wanted to get the word out today about this landmark law. That New York State has passed this law is the result of enormous work by many adoptees and birth parents. I hope that the successful passage of the law provides a model and precedent for adoptee rights in other states. As an adoptive parent, I feel so strongly that adoptees deserve to know who they are, to have access to their medical records, and to have the choice to search and get their questions answered.

Why Are American Adopted Adults Denied the Right To Know Who They Are?

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There is simply no good reason. As an adoptive parent of two sons born in the United States and twin daughters born in Ethiopia, I believe that adopted people have the basic human and civil right to know their original family, to know their original names, to know their medical history, and to choose whether they want to pursue a reunion, once they have this information.

Still, today, in 2017, no other group except American adult adoptees is denied the right to their original birth certificates, to know who their biological parents are, who their biological grandparents are, who their biological siblings are, what their ethnicity is, and what their genetic history is.

It astounds me how many non-adopted adults and how many adoptive parents are willing to continue to deny adopted persons access to information about who they are.

How about if we listen to adult adoptees, as well as the many organizations which represent them, as the best advocates for the right to their own birth certificates?

Right now, in New York State, Governor Andrew Cuomo is being urged by 45+ national and international adoptee organizations, as well as hundreds of individuals, to veto a bill that is costly (Adoptee Rights Laws estimates a cost of $6 million),  convoluted, and thoughtfully opposed by organizations such as the New York-based Donaldson Adoption Institute (DAI). Read the article “Give adopted people unencumbered access to their origins” by DAI chief executive, and adopted person, April DInwoodie. Read the list of adoptee organization and individuals who oppose the bill and urge Gov. Cuomo to veto it here. Information from New York Adoptee Equality is available here.

New York, and many other states, can enact far better, less costly legislation that is fair and transparent.

One commonly touted reason for opposing access to original birth certificates is that birth parents were promised confidentiality about the adoption. However, if they were promised this by a lawyer or doctor or adoption agency worker, it was an unenforceable assurance. There has never been any law that guarantees that birth parents would never be contacted by their children. It simply does not exist. In fact, adoption records were largely public until about 60 years ago. Records were sealed largely because of the stigma of illegitimacy then, but not to prevent people from contacting each other. Records have been unsealed in many states since, and judges can unseal records in emergencies. We have moved in the adoption community away from shame, secrecy, and lies, toward transparency, openness, and fairness. The Donaldson Adoption Institute’s report An Examination of the History and Impact Of Adult Adoptee Access to Original Birth Certificates provides detailed information.

Another common rationale is that allowing access to adopted persons will increase the number of abortions. There is little evidence for this claim. Further, abortion is an alternative to pregnancy, not to adoption. Adoption is an alternative to parenting. “The abortion rates in both Alaska and Kansas, states which grant adult adoptees unconditional access to their original birth certificates, were lower than the national average as a whole – 14.6 and 18.9 abortions, respectively for every 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44, compared to the national rate of 22.9 (Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute http://www.agi-usa.org/pubs/journals/3026398.html). More information on this is available here and here.

A few U.S. states currently allow full access, though many states require adopted adults–not children anymore–to undergo mandatory counseling, to work with state-employed intermediaries, and to pay high fees. These requirements essentially infantilize adopted persons, treating them as children, buying into the narrative that adoptees should simply not be curious about who they are. Understanding who we are is a basic human pursuit and instinct.

I would be remiss if I did not note that DNA testing has affected search and reunion in adoption on a local, national, and global scale. Mothers are locating the children they placed for adoption; siblings and cousins are finding each other. Facebook groups provide astonishing amounts of support and guidance for adoptees to locate their birth family members. Among the many resources are DNA Detectives, DNA Adoption Community, and the Global Adoption Genealogy Project. Amazon Prime has sales on DNA kits today. All that said, adult adoptees should still have the legal right in the U.S. to access their own records, just as every non-adopted person does.

Adoptees raised in loving homes by loving adoptive parents have the right and perhaps the need to know as much as adoptees who had miserable adoptive families. The issue of gratitude is a volatile one in the adoption community, but being happy or grateful that one was adopted does not seem to me to be a reason not to want (or deserve) to know one’s original family.

Foster children who are adopted have their personal histories, their medical histories, and their names. Many international adoptees have their original birth certificates.

But American adults adopted as babies are denied the basic human and civil right to know who they are, a right which should be held higher than an ostensible promise of privacy. Only nine states in the U.S. currently allow total access to original birth certificates. Other countries around the globe allow far better access for adopted persons to their records. American adult adoptees should be allowed to know who they are.