NEW JERSEY BILL S1087

BastardGrannyAnnie
NEW JERSEY BILL S1087
ORIGINAL BIRTH CERTIFICATES: RIGHT OR PRIVEILEGE?

When you pass out privileges, you pick and choose.
When you pass out civil rights, it’s all or nothing.

The Bastardette at http://bastardette.blogspot.com wrote an eloquent blog about New Jersey Bill S1087 and the New Jersey Dimwits associated with it, some of whom support the bill as amended and others who think the bill is giving away the farm.

I’d like to say a few words about the Deformers in New Jersey who continue to support this bill with the conditional amendments added in a Senate Committee. The Deformers are as much the enemy of equal rights for all adoptees as are the Dimwits.

Deformers, unlike Dimwits, are for the most part adopted men and women who have worked very hard for many years to see an equal access bill pass in New Jersey. They are not governmental officials. They are adoptees just like you and me. They want original birth certificates be issued to adopted adults. Their hearts are in the right place. But heads are needed too, in order to pass legislation that will benefit ALL ADOPTED ADULTS.

The Deformers in New Jersey have fashioned a “Mother, May I?” amendment allowing birthmothers 12 months following passage of the bill in which to file an affidavit of nondisclosure. This means that if a birth mother signs a statement saying she doesn’t want her identity known to her child of adoption, then that adoptee doesn’t get his or her birth certificate- possibly forever.

New Jersey is actually handing over its constitutional responsibility of issuing birth certificates to birth mothers who claim they want their privacy. These are the same birth mothers, I might add, who legally and irrevocably gave up all legal rights to their children at the time of the relinquishment.

Giving birthmothers this veto power is a crucial point in adoptee rights negotiations. And it is at this point where the Bastards part ways with the Deformers.

Bastards believe ALL adopted men and women are entitled to unconditional access to their original birth certificates. Bastards believe that “Mother, May I?” clauses are demeaning to all adopted adults. Bastards believe that endowing birth mothers with veto powers turns the issuance of original birth certificates into a privilege rather than a right. Bastards believe that equal access for ALL citizens to the documents of their birth is a human and civil right.

When you pass out privileges, you pick and choose.

When you pass out civil rights, it’s all or nothing.

I’m not a deformer and I can’t speak for them. But I don’t understand why they chose to fold at this crucial moment. I don’t understand why Deformers are willing to sell out for less than unconditional records for all adoptees. And I don’t understand how Deformers can rationalize leaving some adoptees out in the cold. How can it be okay for the state to give original birth certificates to some, but not all adoptees?

Passing a bill is a long and arduous task. Going back to the legislature for changes the following year isn’t realistic. History has proven that once conditional legislation has passed, it is not revisited any time. Deformers, remember the old saying, “Be very careful what you wish for. It might come true.”

Besides dividing adoptees into two classes, I wonder if Deformers seriously consider the reality of setting precedents. When one state passes a controversial law, its effects are felt in other states. New Jersey is a very large state. Other states will look towards the bigger ones when it’s their turn to craft an adoptee rights bill. If it’s okay with all those millions of folks in New Jersey, then it must be okay for us. Deformers - that’s what it means to set a precedent. It’s dangerous.

BOTTOM LINE

S 1087 is a search and reunion bill. Both the Dimwits and the Deformers will agree on this. They both blabber about how much or how little the state should be in the business of managing the private affairs of adopted adults and birth mothers. Some want more state interference, others will settle for less. Bastards want no part of a search and reunion bill. Bastards want no government interference in the private issues of adopted men and women.

The state sealed the records long ago and the time has come for the state to unseal them. Reunions, good or bad, have absolutely nothing to do with adoptees having equal access to their original birth documents.

Bastard Nation leaves no adoptee behind. Bastard Nation will never support conditional legislation where some adoptees will be left to the whims of the birth parents who legally relinquished all claims to them many years ago. We have always opposed those equal access bills that contain conditional sections and we always will.

Bastard Nation is working to bring ALL adopted adults the same equal access to their original birth documents that non-adopted people take for granted. We’ve done it in Oregon. We’ve done it in Alabama. We’ve done it in New Hampshire. And we are working for similar laws until the government treats ALL adopted adults in America equally.

As New Hampshire State Senator Lou D’allesandro said on the eve of his state passing its equal access bill, “It’s the right thing to do.”