NAM./NAAM Day 30: The Wicked Witch is Dead Redux

I hope this is a sign that Class Bastard is being treated with more respect than in the past, but I won’t count on it. Christian Nationalists, Christo-fascists, Southern Baptist bullies, baby-entitled simpletons, and forced birthers want to march us back in their fetid closet gagged and hobbled, so remain aware. Continue Reading →

NAM/NAAM Day 28: Stop Erasing the Adoptee Lived Experience. We Know Our Stories. You Don’t.

ike Annette, this is what riles me:  the troll that decides to “interpret” and re-write –in public no less!–someone else’s lived experience to fit their own mythology or own lived experience, which one would dare not ever question. Of course, this trollery isn’t limited to chasing down adopted people. This institutionalized trollery extends to every possible group and experience of everybody who isn’t them. Not a day goes by when I don’t read on Twitter the I-know-better-than-you-do-about-yourself crowd lectures to people of color, Jews, Muslims, atheists, Catholics, Protestants (SBCs love to correct other Protestants they deem doctrinally errant); the poor, alcoholics, drug addicts, the mentally ill, immigrants, queers, feminists, women who have had abortions, the childfree by choice, rape survivors, abuse survivors, Europeans, Democrats, academics, the under- and unemployed. and women in general. Not surprisingly, most of these trolls come from the dominant class who don’t want to share their American apple pie with us. Continue Reading →

NAM/NAAM Day 18: National Adoption Day 2023: God Did WHAT????

As adopted people, of course, we are accustomed to the  God tropes assigned to us, especially during NAM/NAAM/NAD.  We are: “God’s gift,” “God’s Plan” or “an answer to prayer”–all of which pust a load on us, especially when we get older, turn into Satan’s ungrateful spawn, and want answers and paperwork. Then there is Rosie O’Donnell, back in her adoption facilitation days, telling a little adoptee on national television that she  (Rosie, that is) superseded God. “God made a mistake and put you in the wrong tummy, and I had to fix it.” Continue Reading →

NAM/NAAM Day 16: Welcome Back Pound Pup Legacy

After a long hiatus, Pound Pup Legacy, one of the best–if not the best–online document sources on contemporary adoption corruption is back online… kicking ass with a beautiful new website…Go over and take a look, The site is huge, streamlined, and easy to navigate. I’ve only looked for a few specific topics so far, and am glad to see that everything is intact. Continue Reading →

NAM/NAAM 2023 Say 12: Michigan: Bastard Nation Letter of Support for HB5248 and HB5149

We support HB5148 a “clean bill” that allows all Michigan-born adoptees, their descendants or legal representatives to obtain the adoptee’s original birth certificate without restrictions or conditions upon request at the age of 18, The bill contains a voluntarily optional Contact Preference Form which allows biological parents to record if the would like contact, but does not control the release of the OBC.

We support HB5149 which eliminates current court and Central Adoption Registry control over the release of the OBC. It retains biological parent denial of identifying information requests already on file, BUT that request does not restrict OBC access. No release vetoes can be filed after July 1, 2024. Continue Reading →

NAM/NAAM Day 11: The Adopted Remember, Veterans Day 2023.

Adoption severs legal ties, but more importantly, it wipes out identity, genealogy, and historical memory– the right to historical identity and knowledge. Sure some adoptees, moreso today than in the past, can have an easier opportunity to learn where they came from, their history, their context,  and their place in the great family. But do we really? ( So much is missing. (and of course, some bio families disregard those same identity markers. I have been astounded at the people know who have no idea who their grandparents were. much less anyone else.  But, at least they have a path to learning, unlike The Adopted who are just left at the end of a weedy road without a sythe. Continue Reading →

NAM/NAAM 2023 Day 6: How to Say Nobody Cares About Adoptee Rights Without Saying They Don’t

Yesterday I did a few legislative updates, and it really struck me while doing them–as if I didn’t already know this–that hardly anyone cares about adult adoptees or adoptee civil rights–especially those who have the “authority” to fix things legally such as policy and lawmakers. When compared to the speed which Safe Haven Baby Box legislation passes, records access for adults, even with the successes of the last couple of years, runs a very poor second. Continue Reading →

NAM/NAAM 2004 Day 5: Adoption Agitprop, Annette Kicks It! and I Comment

November 3rd’s video on the subject of adoption propaganda really struck home with her discussion of among others, the adoptprop myth: “Your mother loved you so much she gave you away.”  While most adoption mythology and adoptprop bounce off my insensitive self, (that is, I don’t take it personally), this one always sets me off. It makes no sense. The height of cognitive adoption dissonance. The height of adoptee commodification. A weird binary of generosity and greed. How is this trope supposed to make someone, especially children, feel secure or good or ultimately safe and loved? Continue Reading →

Welcome to National Adoption Month/National Adoption Awareness Month 2023. Poke the Bear!

Greg Luce founder of the Adoptee Rights Law Center, reminded me tonight that I wrote this  NAM/NAAM blog way back in 2015, which explains the differences theoretically. Even though the intent appears to differ between each “celebration” the conclusion is always the same: praise, promotion, and support for a greatly flawed and failed social and child welfare experiment that abrogates and ignores the civil rights, and social, emotional, and mental welfare of those the experiment and the institutions it has created claim to nurture and protect. In socio-structural terms, the institution is more important than those it serves. Adoption, of course, finds itself in good company:  Continue Reading →

Indiana Baby Box Adoption Hits the Wire. We Have Questions. Why Doesn’t the Media?

Does anyone believe that all 21 (or is that 22?) babies left in baby boxes and their mothers experienced no medical issues? No medical provider I have ever spoken to believes this. Some might be OK. Others not. Since no one can officially check on mothers, due to the baby box “anonymity” law, we can’t say how many of either experience pre- and postnatal complications. Of course, the anonymity of some of the moms is questionable, since Mrs. Kelsey talks about her personal relationships with them post-“surrender. but that’s a story for another day. Continue Reading →