New York and Adoptee Rights

Getting Screwed Over in NY 2016 Version

Greetings from my backyard.

Today I am wearing my Constitutional Tramplers T shirt in honor of the New York State legislators who seemed compelled to ignore all their constituents, facts and logic in order to pass some perverted version of a “AdoptionLand; shut the fuck up” bill and dares to say it is Adoptee Rights.

This thing, the self admitted “half a loaf” bill, that is being forced onto NY, cannot EVER be considered about the adoptee, a restoration of any civil rights,  or even a slight improvement. What has been presented again and again as a “clean” bill has been dishonored at it’s very core.

If you were supporting what was the “New York Bill of Adoptee Rights”  because it was a clean , then you need to stop because the current bill as written is complete and total garbage.  New York State Adoption Equality’s  Action Alert has all the details of how this is just so damn wrong. The link is below.

If you are still supporting this profanely tainted version because it behooves you in some way, then knock it the fuck off and shut up. Just shut up.

I do not believe that ANYTHING we do now, as a collective, will alter whatever fate our esteemed legislators have already decided will be the future of this bill.  Based what I have personally seen in Albany and the subsequent actions of OUR representatives, who have been educated for decades and have a plethora of research based facts supporting true equal access adoptee rights legislation, I am pretty much certain that this bill is being used as a pawn in some in deep political  maneuvering that we will never be privy too. We were used in AdoptionLand and our elected officials really do not care at all about doing what is right.

Did I mention that everything about this proposed bill is wrong?

This is the third time that this particular piece of crap that gives the control of an adult adoptees rights to a judge, BOTH sets of parents, and some forced form of search and intermediary system, has been fostered upon us.  I don’t know who the hell is saying this is a “acceptable compromise” except perhaps the freaking attorneys that wrote it to cover the asses of all their adoption attorney buddies. It IS the lawyers, over and over again, who will not support a true Adoptee Rights Bill.  I know it sounds like some crazy conspiracy, but why else would they purposely desecrate a perfect piece of legislations time and time again against the cries of the very population that supports the original legislation?  Why else would they suddenly pull the NYC birth index OUT of the NY public Library where it has been for decades only weeks ago? There is so much more to this than meets the eye.

This bill, for whatever reason, has been given the green light and NYS is going to fuck over adoptees and their extended families not just for years, but for generations.

I cannot even ask you to DO anything because in my heart I feel I am wasting your time, but should you so want to, again, look to NYS Adoption Equality or Bastard Nation on Facebook. It did pass the Assembly again and I believe is on to the Senate, where perhaps, it might die again? Maybe start penning your letters to Governor Cuomo to veto it should it go for his signature.

For myself, I just cannot afford to get emotionally invested in something I feel is going to only cause great agitation in the end.  I know that those of us who stood there in the offices of our legislators and were assured of a real bill that would actually restore the civil rights of adopted citizens were directly lied to. They said they understood, they pleaded support and then they stabbed us all in the back.  This is why I know there is something darker happening and we are mere pawns in the grand games of politicians. Trust in the legislative process is shattered. I won’t sign up to play that again.

The best I can give you is be prepared. New York is going to set back Adoptee Rights for years, decades,  and will provide a horrid example for other states to possible follow. Hurry up and gets yours done if you can before NY sets precedent.

I am so ashamed of my state. I’m sorry. I tried. I really did.

About the Author

Claudia Corrigan DArcy
Claudia Corrigan D’Arcy has been online and involved in the adoption community since early in 2001. Blogging since 2005, her website Musings of the Lame has become a much needed road map for many mothers who relinquished, adoptees who long to be heard, and adoptive parents who seek understanding. She is also an activist and avid supporter of Adoptee Rights and fights for nationwide birth certificate access for all adoptees with the Adoptee Rights Coalition. Besides here on Musings of the Lame, her writings on adoption issue have been published in The New York Times, BlogHer, Divine Caroline, Adoption Today Magazine, Adoption Constellation Magazine, Adopt-a-tude.com, Lost Mothers, Grown in my Heart, Adoption Voice Magazine, and many others. She has been interviewed by Dan Rather, Montel Williams and appeared on Huffington Post regarding adoption as well as presented at various adoption conferences, other radio and print interviews over the years. She resides in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband, Rye, children, and various pets.

1 Comment on "New York and Adoptee Rights"

  1. I am sorry to read about this issue being trampled in NYState. I was born and raised in Buffalo and was getting to write NYState representatives to ask for the names of my mothers birth parents. My mother was born in 1920, 96 years ago. No one could possibly alive who would care. I have tried everything else.

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