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Openness in adoption records
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When was the last time you really thought about air? Not air in the abstract, like the part of the Earth's atmosphere that humans may be warming and polluting.
But in the concrete. The air that you're breathing right now. The air that's in your bedroom, bathroom, kitchen. The air in your Jeep, Honda, Chevy. The air on the bus, at your office, in the gym. The air in the grocery store, at the beach, in the restaurant.
You haven't thought about the air you breathe in the last day, week, month? That's because YOU HAVE IT.
Imagine if all the air were to be sucked out of your home, your Honda, your office. THEN would you think about it? You bet. You wouldn't be able to think of anything BUT air.
When was the last time you thought about your birth certificate? That tired and rumpled old document that says the date, time and location where you were born. That shows your height and weight. That shows your parents, and thereby infers your very identity by virtue of the underyling ethnic background and health history.
What? You haven't thought about your birth certificate since the last time you applied for a passport or driver's license? And even then you didn't really study it?
Then, you must not be one of the 5 million adopted persons in the United States who are denied access to their OBC -- original birth certificates.
Adopted people in many parts of the United States are prevented from having access to their original birth certificates. I can have mine. You can have yours (unless you were adopted). But a class of citizens -- through circumstance of birth -- are denied the right to see and have the document that shows their identity on the day they were born. That makes OBCs for adoptees a civil rights issue.
AdopteeRights plans a demonstration to coincide with the National Conference of State Legistlators in Philadelphia on July 21, 2009. The goals are for attendees to:
- learn from attendees in states where access has been restored
- build relationships with those actively working in their state
- organize towards forming groups in states with no current pending legislation
- empower attendees to promote unconditional access as an inherent right in an atmosphere of solidarity and friendship
Lest you think this is an issue that only the adoptee part of the triad supports, please see sample birth/firstparent appeals and adoptive parent support.
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