I mentioned in your last post that I’m petitioning for Irish citizenship by descent through my now-deceased birth father’s lineage. He wasn’t listed on my OBC, which makes it challenging to demonstrate to Irish immigration authorities the fact of my Irish descent -- but I am working my way through that, with success so far.
But it has been a lot of hoop-jumping, as you’d imagine, and it struck me about six months ago that the adoption system of secrecy was not intended to protect me, the minor, the child. At first blush, you’d think, “Of course it’s set up to protect the child. She’s a minor, and the legal system protects minors.”
In actual practice and fact, my human rights as a minor were abridged left and right by the legal system. Though I’ve had good outcomes in working with the court to restore my wholeness, I’ve had to advocate for myself because parts of the law still don’t favor the adult adoptee. And so what occurred to me six months ago, in the midst of yet another motion before the court, was that the system wasn’t meant to protect ME. It was to protect everyone else FROM ME.
States that deny adoptees access to our full birth records, that only provide us with falsified, abridged, amended birth records; that obscure our biological origin and geneological history, and that foster destruction of our hospital live birth records (as in my birth state, SC) deny us our right to equal protection with non-adopted, and kept persons. These states violate our civil and human rights, and treat us as a separate, marginalized class. Action is needed to right these wrongs. I wonder if lawsuits like by the couple you reference could be a seed for class action by adoptees.
RIGHT ON.
I mentioned in your last post that I’m petitioning for Irish citizenship by descent through my now-deceased birth father’s lineage. He wasn’t listed on my OBC, which makes it challenging to demonstrate to Irish immigration authorities the fact of my Irish descent -- but I am working my way through that, with success so far.
But it has been a lot of hoop-jumping, as you’d imagine, and it struck me about six months ago that the adoption system of secrecy was not intended to protect me, the minor, the child. At first blush, you’d think, “Of course it’s set up to protect the child. She’s a minor, and the legal system protects minors.”
In actual practice and fact, my human rights as a minor were abridged left and right by the legal system. Though I’ve had good outcomes in working with the court to restore my wholeness, I’ve had to advocate for myself because parts of the law still don’t favor the adult adoptee. And so what occurred to me six months ago, in the midst of yet another motion before the court, was that the system wasn’t meant to protect ME. It was to protect everyone else FROM ME.
🤯
Thank you for your clear argument, Tony.
States that deny adoptees access to our full birth records, that only provide us with falsified, abridged, amended birth records; that obscure our biological origin and geneological history, and that foster destruction of our hospital live birth records (as in my birth state, SC) deny us our right to equal protection with non-adopted, and kept persons. These states violate our civil and human rights, and treat us as a separate, marginalized class. Action is needed to right these wrongs. I wonder if lawsuits like by the couple you reference could be a seed for class action by adoptees.