Bill S3149/The Weprin Montgomery Bill, NOW LAW, goes into effect on January 15th, 2020. It's a tremendous victory that I'd never thought I'd see in my lifetime. I know so many people who have been directly fighting for this, some for over 40 years. You now have the legal right as an adult to get an original copy of your unredacted pre-adoption birth certificate. http://nyadopteerights.org/ https://adopteerightslaw.com/new-york-obc/ https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/p...eryweprin-adoptee-rights-bill-passes-new-york I've offered this on here a few times before: if yours was a sealed adoption, I am here to help, FREE OF CHARGE. Fortunately most of the help I have to offer is no longer necessary, but I am a TREMENDOUS bank of information. Please ask me anything. I broke my sealed case all without the internet. Pure legwork, all on paper, subsequent paper trails, research, asking the right questions, bending the law to the breaking point, actually breaking it, talking to the right people, tripping up the wrong people, NO PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR (don't get pulled into that), and The Genealogy Room in The NYC Public Library is your friend. This was in 1991. It reads like a spy novel. This is incredibly epic. I know my origins no thanks to everything that was stacked against me, but you better believe I'm going to be one of the first of thousands to flood The New York State Department of Health with a request. I'm getting that goddamn piece of paper on principle alone. It's mine, and it belongs to me. As a matter of fact, I was on the phone with them this morning. I'm essentially an atheist and I don't put any stock in the Bible whatsoever (that's putting it lightly), but there's a saying that has always stuck with me: "The truth of one's origins is the birthright of every man." Moses, the first adoptee in the written record. Or so a bunch of other guys said. Heh. I wrote to the Social Worker assigned to my case years ago at The New York Foundling Hospital, the agency in NYC that handled my adoption, this morning, too. She's one of the good ones and has always been on the side of transparency, but her hands were tied by Draconian laws. She could've been arrested, in other words, and I know people who have been. I figured I'd finally ask her where I was - where I was physically languishing in foster care, that is - for the first 71/2 months of my life. Seeing as the big cat is now out of the bag, I'm sure she'll oblige me; and WHY I was in foster care is infuriating. I know I posted about it in another thread, so I'll copy and paste it later if I find it. I didn't do an adoption search because I was "looking for something". I had parents, and they will always be my Mommy and Daddy. I did it because it pissed me off that I would be perpetually infantilized for the rest of my adult life, that I could vote and pay taxes but I had no right to know who I was. To everyone out there who worked relentlessly against the system, against all odds to make this happen, a big thank you from me and millions of others. There are people I know who have died waiting for this day. It's been a long time coming.
Tomorrow is the big day. I'm driving up to Albany in the morning. A press conference is taking place at 11:00 a.m. on the Assembly Staircase on the 3rd Floor. A big heads up to The New York Adoptees Rights Coalition (NYARC) for fighting so relentlessly for so long and to all of the amazing individuals that I've met over the last 30 years since my journey began. I found out last night that yet another person I know who fought like hell for this died two years ago, someone else who didn't live to see it. My friend and partner in "crime" Barbara and I were absolutely struck dumb about a half hour ago. It's up before 12:01 a.m. (scroll down to roughly the middle). Order a Pre-Adoption Birth Certificate: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/services/birth-certificates.page I just can't believe it. I'm so used to the Dept. of Health telling people to go fck themselves. I already have my form printed out, haha. I actually became a real person overnight. Imagine that. I'll post some updates tomorrow night or the next. A lot of celebrating. It's bittersweet, infuriating, too late for thousands, but exhilarating and beyond monumental. Woo-hoo!
82 years in the making. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Something that actually outlasted the Jets Super Bowl drought.
Thanks. I can't express how meaningful this is. And big. Don't forget big. I still can't get over it. I'm gonna say it again: I never thought I'd live to see it. FREE STATES: Alabama Alaska Colorado Hawaii Kansas Maine New Hampshire New Jersey New York Oregon Rhode Island Tennessee As of 8:00 a.m. this morning there have been over 1,200 applications in the state of NY and the law isn't even 24 hours old. 650,000 applications is an extremely conservative estimate. UPDATE: At 1,700 as of 2:00 p.m. If anyone is interested in reading about a rotten bitch, read up on Georgia Tann.
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/vr/birth1-preadopt.pdf I almost can't stop looking at it, that's how surreal it is. I called The New York Foundling Hospital this morning to ask an additional question or two, mainly are the agencies now compelled to also supply identifying information. Someone will get back to me. They are being bombarded with phone calls.
Don't most people who give up their kids for adoption not want to be found? Will forcing the issue lead to babies being dumped in dangerous conditions instead of going through the proper channels?
I'm so glad that you posed this question. I will give a very thoughtful, well-rounded, informed, and extremely fair answer later today. I was going to go there and address it, anyway, because it is deeply important for people to truly understand both sides of the coin. As an aside and an offshoot, just wait until you hear what I think of the fertility business. And what a business it is. Meaning, I don't think very highly of it. There are so many things about it that don't even come to people's minds. Preying on desperate people for starters, unethical and borderline crimes against humanity included. I'll get to it, believe me, and it has nothing to do with adoption vs procreation. I'll answer the second part first for now: no. Newborns being dumped in the garbage, suffocated, or drowned in toilets is more prevalent today than it ever was. That is with 1) birth control being readily available 2) open adoption through the choice of the birth mother 3) counseling 4) The Safe Haven Law and 5) legal abortion. Up until January 15th, 2020, the incidence of murdered newborns has not increased because of unsealed records nor will it. That happened all on its own not because me and others like me had no right to know who we were. I'm going to be 56 years old next month. What will happen in the future because of this historic law is greater transparency for all involved. What people need to understand is that greater transparency doesn't mean taking a battering ram and crashing into somebody's life unannounced, uninvited, and demanding to be recognized. I can't express it enough how rare of an occurrence that is. That, and do people really think just because records were sealed that no-one ever found their birth family in the first place? It's a different, certain type of persistence that most people don't possess or have ever had reason to learn to possess. There's a lot history to adoption in the United States. Much of it fascinating as social construct and commentary on American life at given points in time such as the Great Depression, the subsequent extreme poverty, and times of War. Much of it joyous and life-affirming, much of it cruel, much of it heartbreaking, and most importantly, much of it criminal. I know children of rape, I know children of incest, I know children of Catholic priests, and I'll get to all of it, especially since it seems to be where your question stems from. I'm more than open to field questions from any and all sides. For now, I can't take it anymore typing on my goddamn idiot phone. It maddens me. More later, and thanks for your interest. EDITED re: Safe Haven Law: Any child in the United States can turn over a newborn anonymously without fear of prosecution. A Hospital, Ambulance Service, Fire Station, Police Dept., Religious Institution. Being found years later isn't primarily why young girls and young women murder their infants. Not by a long shot. More here: http://safehaven.tv/ ^You never know when a simple post like this could save a life.
I'm very happy for the adopted children who will get to find out who their biological progenitors were (Sheldon-speak for a parent who gives you up is not your parent). The ability to learn your familial genetic inheritance is important for medical reasons if nothing else. I do think you are right about the law of unintended consequences not making this a clear win for the human race.
The statement in your second paragraph disagrees with (unofficial due to having no national standard) statistics published by Safe Haven for the first twenty years of the program. Their statistics indicate an average of 74 illegal abandonments annually from 1999 to 2018 while that number dropped to 41 in 2018. In both cases two out of three infants had expired by the time they were discovered but the numbers do indicate a reduction in these abandonments of over forty percent since the inception of the program. https://www.nationalsafehavenalliance.org/statistics/ Do you have a source that supports your contention the problem is growing?