History of M58

This is an archive of the original Bastard Quarterly newsletter, edited by Damsel Plum and Charles Filius. It was published in print and on the web between 1997 and 2002.

History of Oregon's Adoptee Rights Initiative

(This article first appeared in the Fall 1998 issue of the Bastard Quarterly.)

This year, for the first time in U.S. history, an initiative to restore the
right of adopted adults to request and receive their original birth
certificate was placed on a statewide ballot. Tuesday, November 3rd Oregon
voters resoundingly approved Measure 58, "The Adoptee Rights
Initiative", which restores adult adoptee access to original birth
certificates on request. The measure passed by a healthy margin of
57% to 43%, repealing a 1957 Oregon law that sealed records to adult
adoptees retroactively. Over 600,000 Oregon voters said YES to open records!

Measure 58 was the brainchild of the Bastard Nation Executive
Committee, specifically Shea Grimm, and Helen Hill, Bastard Nation’s
State Director in Oregon. Randy Shaw, noted activist, author, and
keynote speaker at Bastard Nation’s first Annual Conference (July 17-
19, 1997) planted the germ of Measure 58. Mr. Shaw asked if the
adoption reform movement had ever presented an Open Records ballot
initiative to the voters, and when we answered no, he said there should
be. We agreed in principle, and when Helen Hill volunteered to research
such an initiative in Oregon, we decided to officially pursue this new
avenue of activism

All the research of Oregon’s initiative process, drafting of the proposed
measure that eventually became M58, signature-gathering to place the
measure on the ballot, and court battles over the ballot title and voter's
pamphlet explanatory statement, was directed by Helen Hill and the
Bastard Nation ExecCom. Helen was able to coordinate a state-wide
grassroots volunteer force from Oregon who were not associated with
Bastard Nation, but were committed to the letter and spirit of the
measure: unrestricted access for adult adoptees to their original birth
certificates, without exception.

Bastard Nation had extended an open invitation to the adoption reform
community to join this historic campaign, but in the main we were met
with resistance and criticisms. The AAC, in particular, was at first silent
on the Oregon initiative. In April 1998, at the AAC National Conference
in Seattle, Washington, the AAC Board challenged Shea Grimm by
stating that “the initiative was a brash and reckless move. If it loses it
will set national adoption reform back ten years, in Oregon twenty years.”

After the initiative officially made the ballot, the AAC Board met and
endorsed Measure 58. They eventually made an organizational
contribution of $200, and AAC President Jane Nast mailed a personal
endorsement statement to the Open 98 Committee. This was, however,
the sum of the AAC’s organizational contribution to the campaign.
Similarly, the "Oregon Adoption Rights Association", OARA, which
claims its "focus in its legal reform program is on open records", never
contributed funds as an organization to the campaign, and in fact OARA
President Delores Teller refused during the signature-gathering process
to allow Helen Hill to present information during meetings, and asked her
to take Open 98 materials out of OARA meeting spaces. OARA's
Website never mentioned the Measure, even after its passage.

We acknowledge and thank those who supported us as well as those
people of goodwill, like attorney and AAC member Fred Greenman,
who were initially doubtful but who now support us. It was natural, we
believe, to doubt us, we were unproven as politicians and the outcome
of our year and a half effort was impossible to predict. But the outcome
is now history; Open Records without compromise won. We cannot go
back to the failed politics of limited access.

The success of Measure 58 in Oregon unmistakably demonstrates that
the general public supports opening records to adult adoptees. Open
records proponents have attempted to achieve the same result for over
20 years without a single success by relying on registries and
intermediary systems that addressed the issue in psychological terms of
search and reunion.

Although society has evolved to the point where being adopted should
no longer be shameful, records have remained sealed due to pressure
from industry lobby groups composed of adoption agencies and
attorneys fearful of having their own past misconduct revealed while
asserting a spurious "right to anonymity" of birthparents.

Birthparents and adoptees came out overwhelmingly in support of
Measure 58, as did the general public, who recognized the inherent right
of all people to know the facts of their birth. Voters confirmed that
sealed records laws stigmatize adoption by perpetuating the lifelong
presumption that adoptees are not to be trusted with the basic facts of
their origin.

The success of Measure 58 is the fruit of two years of Bastard
Nation tactical activism, our skills at utilizing the Internet as an
activist tool, and our ability to refine our Mission and strategies
through open debate within our membership. Although we have
many reasons to be proud and happy, we also have learned much
during this campaign to make us stronger in the struggles ahead.
As we go to print, Measure 58 is facing a probable court challenge
spearheaded by paid lobbyist and anti-adoptee activist Bill Pierce,
President of the "National Council for Adoption". Adoption agency
workers have vowed to attempt legislative changes to Measure 58
in 1999. There is much work ahead for all of us, but we face it
knowing that justice will win out.

The Bastard Nation Executive Committee

(This feature first appeared in the Fall 1998 issue of the Bastard Quarterly.)