Ohio Birthparent Group - Sept. 2013

September 2013

Sep

ROAR Campaign for Adoptee Rights Like birthparents, adoptees have historically been excluded from the policy processes that shape their adoption experiences. Many OBG birthparents have been active in the 2013 ROAR Campaign for adoptee rights, which kicks back in gear this month for the Fall legislative session. We hope you'll join us in supporting the rights of all Ohio adoptees to have unconditional access to their original birth certificates. Find out how to participate in ROAR's grassroots action campaign! Grandparents & Adoption General Adoption Support Meeting Tuesday, September 10th, 7-9pm Karl Road Library This month, our general meeting will focus on the experiences of birth grandparents and adoptive grandparents. How can grandparents best support adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents? In what ways can we support the grandparents in our lives? What unique rewards and challenges frame the grandparent experience in adoption? Co-sponsored by Adoption Network Cleveland, this meeting is open to the public. Learn more... Birthparent Support Meeting Please Note Location Change for September! Sunday, September 22nd, 2-4pm BEXLEY PUBLIC LIBRARY Open to birth mothers and birth fathers only, this meeting is a private space to meet others who understand this life-long journey. Learn more...

Demons of Adoption 2013: nominations now open!

It's that time again! Pound Pup Legacy has sent  out the call for nominations for its prestigious Demons of Adoption Award 2014. This is the seventh year the award has been issued.  Acknowledging the large adoption bottom feeder population  from which to choose and the tough decisions  ahead, Niels Hoovgeen, keeper of the pup pound writes: It will be tough this time around. Over the last years we have dredged the cesspool named Adoptionland and condemned the practices of such agencies like: Bethany Christian Services and LDS Family Services, such trade associations of adoption service providers like the National Council for Adoption and the Joint Council on International Children's Services, and even showed our utmost contempt for the United States Congress. No feather weights by any means. Although nominations opened only yesterday, Capobianco, Inc took the far lead already.  Other early contenders include Gladney Adoption Center, Adoption Advocates International (Washington State),  Irish Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald, and baby broker Jennifer Potter. Go to the nomination site to nominate and support your personal "favorite" bottom feeding adoption demon. Nominations close September 30, and voting will follow shortly. Feel free to forward the news! Cross posted to The Daily Bastardette. and Bastard Nation.

Jean Paton: Biography of the mother of the US adoption reform movement to be published this fall!

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but when in the mid-1990s when I first got seriously involved in adoptee rights, I had never heard of Jean Paton.

My ignorance was disabused at the Seattle AAC conference (I think it was 2000) E. Wayne Carp, who had just released his pioneering work Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption was  first day keynoter.  Among the special guests that day was  Jean Paton.

As I remember it, some of us Bastard Nationals were running around with little homemade "nametags" with Bastards are Beautiful" handprinted on them with a magic marker--mainly as a dig at the goody-2-shoes AAC crowd and, of couse, to advertise ourselves.  Someone, and I don't remember who, (maybe it was Jean) pointed out that this phrase  was not original with Bastard Nation. It was an original Jean Patonism.

Well, who was Jean Paton?  Only the mother of the adoptee rights movement in America! That's who!

It was almost like opening your OBC and learning that you had a name and a history.  As a trained historian I was shocked to learn that I hadn't done my homework. I knew about Joanne Wolf Small,   B J Lifton, ALMA and a few other historical anecdotes but not Jean Paton, Orphan Voyage and the roots of our movement. I  think I actually started to cry a little.  We weren't in a vacuum.  Hells bells!  The movement had started 40 years (now 60 years) earlier and we were just hearing about it now!

I was fortunate enough to meet Jean that day. She was up in years  but spry and sharp as ever. We talked for awhile and she  approved of Bastard Nation. I didn't have any further contact with her until Measure 58 passed in Oregon and she sent us a congratulatory note.

I've learned much about Jean since then, but now there is an opportunity for all of us to learn much more.

 This November, Jean Paton and the Struggle for American Adoption  Reform will be published by the University of Michigan Press.  Written by Wayne Carp, (who incidentally authored Adoption Politics:  Bastard Nation and Ballot Initiative 58.  the book  is a full length biography of Jean and the birth of the adoptee rights movement in the United States..  Jean worked with Professor Carp to see this book brought to fruition, but unfortunately passed away before she could see it publication.

Jean Paton and Wayne Carp

Professor Carp had unfettered access to Jean and her archives (an historian's dream) He  writes of his experience:

Over the course of the next several years, I received her vast correspondence, which she sent me. I could hardly have imagined the extent of it: it was a biographer’s Eldorado. Jean had made an onion-skin carbon copy of every letter she ever wrote over a period of fifty years—filling some 50 or more boxes— and had carefully filed away almost every sheet of paper in a complex system of file folders. Paton’s own writings range from a discussion of being suckled at the breast of her mother for the first four months of life to discussions of every aspect of adoption reform to reports of her health weeks before her death. In between are drafts of memos, essays, and articles she never published; reviews of her books and media notices of her travels; account books; typewritten notes of books she read; a detailed diary she kept between 1950 and 1953; memos of every phone call she received related to adoption reform; and even sixty-year-old college papers. Just as important for this study, Jean kept every letter, Christmas card, search group’s newsletter, and solicitation she ever received. These materials include inquiries from triad members seeking advice about how to reconnect with their original families, triad members requesting guidance on how to organize search and reunion groups, and correspondence from publishers, editors, and congressmen. Except for me, (and Jean, of course) no one has read this enormous corpus of Jean Paton’s work.

The  University of Michigan Press has already set up a webpage for the book.  More importantly, Professor Carp has published his own webpage: The Biography of Jean Paton: the Mother of the Adoption Reform Movement.  The page includes out-takes from the book (parts that needed edited out for space or other considerations,) photos, documents,  information on book events, and other material.  Material is being added periodically.  An adjunct Facebook page, The Biography of Jean Paton, went live on Monday,

You can order an advanced copy of the book amazon.com

This is a much needed and important addition to the growing corpus of adoption studies. We can't wait to read it.

Photos courtesy of E. Wayne Carp.

Mary Gauthier to Perform in Columbus! Please Join Us!

Save the date!

 Distribute Freely!

 The great bastard bard Mary Gauthier will be performing here in Columbus on May 18.

I first ran into Mary  over 10 years ago on WCBE.  I'd never heard of her.  I don't remember the name of the song that was played and the word "adoption" wasn't mentioned once. But Wowza!   I shouted  "that's about being adopted." It was.  And I googled her. Since then I've been a big fan.  Her May 2010 CD The Foundling, is a tour d' force of her own adoption experience:

The  songs (on The Foundling) tell the story of a kid abandoned at birth who spent a year in an orphanage and was adopted, who ran way from the adopted home and ended up in show business, who searched for birth parents late in life and found one and was rejected, and who came through the other side of all of this still believing in love

--but speaks to us all no matter what our experience.

It was named 3rd top CD of the year by the LA Times.

My personal favorites are the title cut and "Blood is Blood".  What bastard can't  appreciate the absurdity of: adoptaspeak:

When I was a child

They told me, she loved you too much

She didn't keep me 'cause my mother

Loved me too much

She left without a trail

She didn't leave a trace

Blood is blood and blood don't wash away

Blood is blood and blood don't wash away

An excellent interview with Mary was published in Pennyblack Music.com.

Mary is a big supporter  and active member of the adoptee rights movement. During the 2010 National Adoption Month she blogged: 

There are so many people involved in the Adoptees Rights Movement. There are birth mothers who have grown and changed and come to a place where they want to meet their children, or have lost the chance to meet their own but recognize how valuable the knowledge of origin could be to the children who do seek. There are adoptees who are working together to counteract the shame and deep loss they’ve experienced, and to co-create a world where children are no longer seen as commodities. There are adoptive parents who see in their children their true natures, and honor them by letting the children keep their original names, taking them to where they came from, keeping in contact with birth parents when possible, showing them, quite literally, that their love for them does not hinge on them pretending to be something they are not.

These brave souls are working towards one of the last to be recognized civil rights issues – the right for human beings to know their origins, for all adoptees to know where they came from, to have unrestrained access the their own birth certificates. As of now, we do not have that right. In all but 6 states, adoptees birth records are sealed shut by the state, and upon adoption birth certificates are re-issued…. with adoptive parents names on them.

Of course Mary is about  and writes about much more than adoption.  She's a story teller with a genuine voice, no matter what he subject. Her work is admired by Bob Dylan and Tom Waits:  An earlier (2007) CD, Between Daylight and Dark was universally praised:

“If she keeps this up, one day she may assume the mantle of Johnny Cash,” raved the New York Daily News; while the Boston Globe praised Mary’s “particular blend of toughness and vulnerability that puts her in a league with Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earle.

Mary will perform at: 
549 Franklin Avenue
olumbus, Ohio 43215
614-645-7469
8:00 PM
(For old timers, it's the Shedd Theater at the Old Players Theatre)

Go here for ticket information and orders.

Bastard Nation supports Mary Gauthier and her work.  If you're in the Columbus area we hope to see you there! 

SB23 Update: Passes out of Senate Committee with Amendments

This morning SB23--now Sub(stitute) Bill 23, sailed through the Ohio Senate Medicaid, Health, and Human Services Committee, 8-0.

No substantive changes to the bill were made, but several amendments were added  to clarify procedures in the original bill. The sub bill is not online as of this writing, but should be available on the SB23 page shortly.

Sub 23:

• Removes the 90-day deadline for the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) to mail the contents of an adoption file to the requesting adoptee.  The original bill time-framed the response window to 90 days, but ODH, fearful of  the time it will take to process the large influx of requests  it expects  immediately after the bill becomes law, asked that the time frame be removed

• The Ohio Department of Jobs and Family  Services (ODJFS) will create the contact preference form  (cpf))as opposed to ODH, designated in the original bill.

• Requires any previous release of information forms on file under current law to be released with the adoption file.

• Deletes relatives "by marriage" from the definition of lineal descendant.  (Ex: .the adult child of a deceased adoptee can request the file, but his or her spouse cannot.).

• Removes a provision prohibiting a birthparent from including identifying information in a social or medical history form..

• Removes provisions requiring ODH to review any social/medical history forms and attempt to identify and remove inaccuracies . ODH argued rightfully  that it is in the business of collecting information, not ferreting out inaccuracies in that information. ODH also pointed out the amount of time such ferreting would entail.. 

• Clarifies that contact preference forms and social and medical  history forms are to be considered part of the adoption file, and  as such are not public records.  That is, the cpf, just as the OBC, will not be available for public perusal.

Sub23 will now be sent to the Rules Committee and then on to the Senate floor for a full vote.

Since Sub 23 and HB61 are somewhat different,   if  Sub 23 passes in the Senate, the bill will be returned to the House for concurrence, then sent again to the House floor for a final vote.

If passed, then on to Governor John Kasich for his signature.

HB63 and Sub23 does the following:

• Ohio adoptees adopted  January 1, 1964 -September 18, 1996, at the age of 18, can access, without restriction or condition  their OBC upon request, starting one year from passage date.  (Records are already accessible to all pre-1964 adoptees and to most adoptees post September 18, 1996. see below)

•  Ohio birthparents  can, but are not required, to file a contact preference form specifying if and how they would like contact.  

• Ohio birthparents can, but are not required, to put on file an updated medical history for the adopatee.

Neither bill addresses the Disclosure Veto added to Ohio access law in 1996 that authorizes birthparents to bar OBC access for those whose adoptions were processed after September 18, 1996. .  Veto language for '96ers remains in the law and the handful of DVs on file remain in place; thus making it impossible for Ohio to become a truly free state.

Disclaimer:  This is not a Bastard Nation bill.

ROAR 2013 should published an update shortly.

SB23 Report: Senate Committee Hearing, April 17, 2013

I'm late in getting this posted, but I wanted to file a short report on the April 17 hearing for SB23 at the Ohio Senate Medicaid, Health, and Human Services Committee. You can also read an update on the ROAR site (Update #13).

Wendy Bllitzer Barkett

This was the first proponent hearing (the sponsor hearing was held on February 13). and consisted of two groups of witnesses.  The first were adoptees, some from out of state; the second "the experts."

Kicking off the hearing was adoptee poet Wendy Blitzer Barker  who came all the way from Texas to tell her story and support the bill. She was followed by Jeffrey Costello (Atlanta),  Erin  Hopkins McHugh, Ohio firefighter  Stephen Kelly, and Julia Derry.  Some told jerk-around stories relating to their individual probate court request for non-ID, which indicated that some courts are or have been in the past, out of compliance with current Ohio non-ID laws. And  I was beginning to think I'd heard it all!

Elizabeth Samuels

These witnesses were followed by Professor Elizabeth J Samuels  (University of Baltimore Law School) presenting the history of sealed records in the US and former Maine State Senator Paula Benoit sponsor of the bill that restored the right to OBC access in her state. Also Betsy Keefer Smally, IHS Adoption Training Managing and Ohio Adoption Planning Group co-chair.

Paula Benoit

Finally, former opponents-turned-supporters took the podium. Catholic Conference of Ohio Government Relations Director Jim Tobin, laid down his one-page testimony and simply said,  "it's the just thing to do."  He was followed by the new Ohio Right to Life Legislative Director Kayla Smith, backing up the House testimony of  former ORTL Leg Director Stephanie Ranade Krider. Smith's  testimony ramped it further, though, taking up facts adoptee rights activists have used  for years, usually to no avail:

ORTL's Kayla Smith and
Kate Livingston , Ohio Birthparent Group, professional trouble maker

Legal guarantees could never have been made to these mothers to ensure their children would never have access to their original birth certificate. Again, this was not the intent  of the law even in 1964 when it was enacted, but the law always provided that adoptees, at age 18, could petition the probate court that sealed their records to release them if the court found good cause.

Obviously, in politics, source means everything.

You can read written (and presented) and submitted testimony at the ROAR link above.

Washington State pols take note:  the committee was more than supportive, so much so that Sen. Charleta Tavares asked "How can we make this bill better?  How can we make it easier."  Yikes!  If she'd asked me, I'd have said, "Amend to exclude all 1996 Disclosure Veto language and void the handful of vetoes filed under the1996  DV provision. Restore the right of all Ohio adoptees, not just most."

But nobody asked me.

Another hearing is scheduled for Wednesday April 24 where amendments pertaining to Department of Health/Vital Statistics procedures for OBC release will be discussed, and then probably voted out. The companion HB61 has already passed the House.

I'll be there.

Elizabeth Samuels (U. of Baltimore Law School ) , Maine Senator Paula Benoit, Wendy Blitzer Barkett, Betsie Norris, (Adoption Network Cleveland/ROAR),  Stephen Kelly, Betsy Keefer Smally. 

Jim Tobin (Catholic Conference of Ohio), Kayla Smith (Ohio Right to Life), Bill co-sponsor Senator Bill Beagle, Kate Livingston  (Ohio Birthparent Group)  and  Betsie Norris and Aaron Ockerman  (both from Adoption Network Cleveland.

(all photos by Bastardette)

Breaking News - Ohio House Passes HB61

The Ohio House today voted 94-1 with 2 abstentions to pass HB61 which restores the unrestricted right of OBC access to those in Ohio adopted between January 1, 1964-September 17, 1996.  It's companion in the Senate is pending. Sadly, the bill did not pick up the '96's who will still be subject to a Disclosure Veto (DV) already in place for that access tier..

The truth is that Ohio Legislative Services, which vets all bills, refused to OK challenging  the DV law that amounts to an agreement between the State of Ohio and a handful of cowardly biological parents who demand that the government  grant them a special privilege to hide their identities from their adult offspring.  This "agreement" is quite different from the blanket sealing of OBCs with no legal  "agreement," despite what opponents claim and we have shown repeatedly holds no water.  No one knows how many shirkers are on file here, but the number 20 has  been tossed around the last couple of years. I believe DVs can be removed from 1996 law, but the legal arguments need to be developed more fully, and the big fat arm of Legislative Services needs twisted..  I also believe that the foolishness of OBC access for all but a  minuscule number of bastards will within the next few years be recognized. for the absurdity it is.   There is time to save those few kids who have been black-holed since they won't even be eligible for access for  another couple years. Perhaps I am too hopeful.

I've been attending the HB63 hearings and reporting on them here (see March 2013 posts below), but when I checked today on the progress of the bill to the House floor, I didn't see anything.  Otherwise, I'd have been there.  The naysayer was Ron Amstutz. (R-1-Wooster). I'm not sure who the abstentions were, but I don't see Matt Hoffman on the voting roll today and I know he objected..Hoffman, you may remember, was the chief  smirk and eye roller when I testified in favor of HB 7  five years ago.. He also claimed that he and his brother (a Quad A lawyer) routinely  told their bio clients that their names would never be released to anyone, including their dirty little bastard.. It's our little secret.

A proponent hearing for companion SB23 is scheduled for April 17 in the Senate Medicaid, Health, and Human Services Committee. Some of the state's staunchest anti-abortion advocates and the President of the Senate are sponsors. I don't see it flunking..

This is such an incredible sea change and it  says something about the perceived power of Ohio Right to Life  (many years ago a corporate lobbyist told me ORTL was full of hot air and had everyone fooled) and the Ohio Catholic Conference at the Statehouse. Without their opposition, OBC access appears to be the no   brainer we know it is..  Now they need to get on board for the 96ers.

Current OBC bastard activists as well as deformers  need to take a good look at what has happened here.

Any attempt to create new segregations and blackoles must be met with  brass  knuckles and a Spartan refusal  to retreat.  A handful of '96s are what happens when you let deform through the door under the excuse of  "baby steps" or we'll- pick-them-up-later or whatever they want to call it.   It's bad enough that old bad laws are still in place, but new DV and other restrictive legislations make a joke out of adoptee rights and tie the hands of activists to finish the job  If one Bastard is left behind, then we all are and the battle continues when in fact, it should be over.  The failure to include the '96s, for no matter what reason, cannot be seen as permission for other states to do the same.  Ohio has along-established unique three-tired system that many states don't have and will be difficult go get rid of..  If the 1996 compromise had not  been made 16 years ago, today the road to victory would be clear and not littered with the bodies of  left behinds.  Ohio, instead,  would be on the way  to being the 8th free state of Bastard America.. There is no excuse today for any state movement to accept and promote new restrictions.  If you take them now, you'll pay for them later.