MARCH 1, 1999: ANNOUNCEMENT:
The public debate on Open Records is heating up in the wake of Oregon's M58. Anti-adoptee lobbyists such as the National Council for Adoption have stepped up their assault on adoptees and adoptee rights in state legislatures and through media manipulation. Over the past two years Bastard Nation has been confronted with a variety of public myths about adoption that are promulgated by these sources: adoptees have access to their original birth certificate when they become adults; adoptees who want their records are ungrateful, maladjusted or even dangerous;
adoption agencies, upon request, freely furnish records and information to adoptees; birth parents want and are guaranteed confidentiality and anonymity from their adult offspring; no accessible record of relinquishment or adoption exists outside of state-held documents; and adoptive parents do not support open records. While these public myths are perpetuated by the Adoption Industry and its representatives such as the NCFA, they are sustained often by the media. Between February 15-24, 1999 alone, the subject of adoptee rights and open records was covered by Time, Newsweek, Politically Incorrect, Good Morning America and The San Francisco Examiner. Members of Bastard Nation spoke to most of these reporters before their stories were filed and presented them with solid factual evidence to counter adoption myths. Each of these venues however, ignored the facts we furnished them about open records and the Adoption Industry and chose to play on sensationalist angles such as raped birth mothers, “disrupted” families, and “angry and dangerous” adoptees.
To combat this anti-adoptee assault Bastard Nation announces the formation of the BNX Files, an ongoing project to collect from triad members—especially adoptees-- experiences and documentary evidence of abuse of power by the Adoption Industry. Below are the general categories of abuse we will document, as well as some examples.
Civil rights violations by adoption agencies, government agencies,and courts (ex. refusal of a government agency to release records to an adoptee despite a court order to do so)
Unethical or negative treatment of adoptees by adoption agencies (ex. lies, exorbitant fees to “open a file,” mandatory counseling for those in search, putative loss of documents and files, refusal to pass along information when agency waivers have been submitted).
Lack of professional conduct by state workers or adoption agency employees (rudeness, lack of knowledge about adoption services, telling adoptees that they have no right to information, lectures about being “ungrateful”).
We are also looking for citations for lawsuits against adoption agencies or adoption lawyers in which plaintiffs charge wrongful adoption, withholding of vital information (i.e., health or genetic problems) such as Juman v Wise, etc.
These documents are being collected to form an archival base of Adoption Industry practices and abuse to be used as a source in the formulation of Bastard Nation policy and lobbying, and as a tool to educate the media. Submissions may be forwarded to us by mail, fax, or email.
Each submission must include the submitter's full name, address, phone number (to keep on file for reference) and permission to release the contents to the public, along with the full name of the offending agency and employee, and address if possible. If the submitter requests that we withhold the story from the public we will comply with that request, and will use the information for documentary purposes only.
While the focus of the BNX Files is on the adoptee post-adoption experience, we also encourage birth parents and adoptive parents to submit their experiences since we are well aware of the contempt in which the Adoption Industry holds all members of the triad.
Submissions to the BNX Files project can be sent to:
Marley Elizabeth Greiner
P. O. Box 8043
Columbus, OH 43201
Fax: 614-261-6296
Email: maddogmarley@worldnet.att.net
The BNX Files is an on-going project of Bastard Nation and there is no closing date for submissions. This information can also be found at ..bnxfiles/
PLEASE DISBRUBUTE THIS INFORMATION TO ADOPTION LISTS AS WELL AS ADOPTEE SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS IN YOUR AREA.
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE SOMEWHERE.
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