BASTARDS DON'T LIE

BastardGrannyAnnie:

   Those Lyin' Bastards! Mirah says.
BASTARDS DO NOT LIE! Anita says.

I am  refuting the statements  concerning Bastard Nation  made on the blog site  
www.AdopTalk.blogspot on Jan.3, 2007. The blogger, Mirah, asks why Bastard
Nation does not advocate for the rights of minors.

Bastard  Nation’s mission statement says that it advocates for adopted adults.
We founded our organization around this principle. We have chosen one specific
mission and we adhere to it. All adopted adults shall have equal access to their
original birth documents, unconditionally and without falsification.

In the United States today, ALL children have limitations upon  rights which
they will ultimately receive when they reach the age of majority. These laws are
in place for children because it is assumed that they  are not  intellectually,
educationally, or emotionally ready to assume the responsibilities that go hand
in hand with the rights of adult citizens.

Minors cannot enter into valid contracts. They cannot vote,  run for office or serve on a jury.
They cannot purchase cigarettes or alcoholic beverages. They cannot drive an
automobile. All states have laws governing the age at which a minor can enter
into a legal marriage. All states also have restrictions on the legal age for
requesting and receiving a birth certificate. Children under the legal age must
be represented by  a parent or guardian. A fourteen year old girl in Illinois
cannot request and receive her own birth certificate, whether or not she is
adopted.

Parent, stepparent, foster parent, legal guardian - all are charged with the
responsibly of making many decisions for their children. This is a “given” in
our society and our laws reflect this “given.”

Children of adoption who have reached the age of maturity theoretically join the
general population with regards to civil and human rights given to all citizens
by the US Constitution and the various state constitutions.

And it is at this juncture where Bastard Nation recognizes an injustice.  Adopted adults  cannot request and
receive their original birth documents in the same manner as all other adult
citizens. It is this particular injustice to  which Bastard Nation addresses
itself.

Mirah claims that BN doesn’t help adopted children who need a life-saving
treatment or are suicidal?

Adoptive parents or legal guardians of adopted children are charged by law with
maintaining the higest possible standards of safety and health care for their
children. If some adopted children need information concerning health decisions,
by law, (which Bastard Nation did not make) the guardians must turn to the
courts.

Whether or not courts are as responsive  to the  health decisions and needs of
adopted children is a totally different issue, one that other groups
representing adoptive parents might chose to take up.

Adopted adults with health issues are also given an option to petition the
courts and show good cause why their birth records should be issued to them.

In so many cases, courts are not responsive to the needs of adopted adults. When
I was reading case law and doing research for my own petition, I was appalled at
the seemingly lack of feeling and understanding of the court. I cried when I
read cases of adopted adults whose life threatening illnesses were not
considered good cause for issuance of original birth records.

I deplore the system which allows this to occur. That is one of the reasons I
became a member of Bastard Nation. This organization is trying to get to the
bottom of the issue - change the laws!  We believe a huge injustice is occurring
wherever  laws exist that treat  adopted adults differently than all other
citizens. Our mission statement reflects our outrage.

Mirah wonders why BN doesn’t help adoptees who don’t know they are adopted.

BN cannot prevent adoptive parents from withholding the true circumstances of
their children’s births from them. BN cannot interfere with how adoptive parents
run their lives, just as the state should not run the lives  of adopted adults.

I am certain that there are  groups and organizations whose goal it is to assist
adoptive parents who need help with rights concerning their adopted children.
This worthy objective is not within our mission.

Mirah insists that we haven’t replied to her question of why adoptees accept
living a life of lies until they are adults?

Children who have been adopted accept the life that is given to them by the
state. They have no choice of homes and they do not have any choice over how
their adoptive parents raise them. This is the same for all children, not just
adopted ones.

And then Mirah said:

And then, it finally hit me! Suddenly the answer was perfectly clear. And I
presented it: They don’t mess with the falsification of their birth certificates
because they want to have their cake and eat it to. They love having been
adopted into a higher socio-economic strata. And they don't dare rock the boat
or bite the hand that feeds them and has educated many of them very well indeed!”


This is pure and unadulterated POPPYCOCK! There is not an iota of truth in this
statement. Whether or not Bastard Nation members love or hate being adopted does
not enter into the paradigm under which we work. Bastard Nation members do
however state that we are not ashamed of being adopted and therefore do not want
to be treated with secrets and lies. We know that this treatment creates shame.

Mireh say that adoptees want to control where and how and when information
should be released. She thinks it’s all about us wanting to maintain control.

She is dead-wrong! Our issue involves removing control. We do not want the state
or anyone else to control us simply because of the circumstances surrounding our
births.

“They prefer to live their lives, pretending to be born to their adoptive
parents, and have the control to choose where, when and what they do with their
true information once they are adults.” says Mirah.

MORE POPPYCOCK!  Many adoptees report that their adoptive parents chose a life for them that was
based on the pretense that they were the biological offspring of their adoptive
parents. These children did not have any say in the matter in the same way that
non-adopted children cannot make their own choices.

The choice as to where, when and what information is available to all
non-adopted adults is the  standard by which we judge the rights of adopted
adults.

Finally, Mirah reiterates: -- Don’t claim that you want equality for ALL adoptees
when you want adult adoptees to have special privileges you wish to keep minor
adoptees deprived of.--

Here we go again. We do not want minor adoptees to be deprived of their rights.
Mireh, by law, all minors in the United States have restrictions on their rights
and often they differ from those rights of adult citizens.  We do not advocate
for minor adoptees because they are governed under  separate laws and conditions
than adults.

Mirah,  you must be able to separate the idea of advocates for children versus advocates for adults.

Bastard Nation members are fighting to change the laws for adopted ADULTS so
that they will be treating equally.

That is our mission and we proudly stand by our words.
BASTARDS DO NOT LIE!

Anita Walker Field
Executive Committee
Bastard Nation: The Ådoptee Rights Organization