Email Officials

Protest marches were held beginning in the 1980s.
Joyce Bahr is speaker in the first photo below.



1997 NYC Vital Records protest (below).








Father Thomas Brosnan (below left), reunited adoptee, activist and spokesperson for the Adoption Reform Movement.
(see his essay on our "People Speak" page)





Joe Soll (below) at American Adoption Congress's 1991 Chicago Conference, where he was awarded a medal for his work. He organized the first AAC NYC-to-Washington DC march in 1989, and four subsequent marches.











Above photo: 9/29/13 protest at the office of Brooklyn Assemblymember Helene Weinstein.


IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ADOPTEE RIGHTS ACTIVISTS FROM NYSAR VICE-PRESIDENT JOAN MORGAN

The League of Women Voters provides a helpful how-to guide to contacting your legislators. Find it here.

A written letter (snail mail) is of more importance with many legislators. However, some value emails. If your email does not get through, go to SEARCH and type in the name of the legislator for access to their website, as many have their own sites. Then send an email from the site. Be sure to include your address and phone number in your mail.



Let your legislators know you want an Adoptee Bill of Rights that is fair and consistent to all.

Give me liberty and
my birth certificate now!

No Americans should have
their personal information
withheld from them
by the government.





* Sample Letter One (this was published in the Albany Times Union on January 29, 2011; modify for your state.) *


Dear Assemblyperson (fill in the appropriate name),

I write in support of [bill numbers], the New York State Adoption Records Reform bills. I was adopted in 1960 in Rochester.

Because I am a white, middle-class male, it may be difficult to see me as a member of an oppressed minority group. Yet, that is exactly what New York adoptees are.

What other term can describe a group of citizens prevented by the state from knowing who they are and where they came from?

How is it possible that the state can maintain a veil of secrecy between a human being and the most basic information about himself?

How can one participate fully in the human condition when one is cut off by law from even knowing the identity of those who are responsible for one's life?

Of course, there was another group of people so denied. They were by law and custom expected to live without this vital, human knowledge. These were the slaves of the antebellum South. They were not viewed as men, rather as property. Are we adoptees human beings?

Let New York leave behind the barbaric practices of the past so well described by Ann Fessler, author of "The Girls Who Went Away."

Let New York treat all born there with full human dignity.

Let New York open its records as a step toward redressing the misery caused by its closed adoption system.

Sincerely,

David Phelps

(Please provide your name and address so they will know which District you live in)

*** End of Sample Letter One ***

*** Sample Letter Two ***

Honorable Senator (fill in the appropriate name),

As a citizen of New York state, I can serve in the armed forces, vote, drive, own property, get married and raise my own children, but I cannot get my own birth certificate. The current law in New York state, which was enacted 73 years ago, denies adult adoptees this basic human right that every other citizen takes for granted.

Because of this archaic and discriminatory law, adult adoptees are legally denied their medical and psychiatric histories, as well as their identities and heritage. They are unable to pass on this information to their children and grandchildren who then also suffer from this lack of knowledge.

In states where adoption records and birth certificates are open, the data show that the vast majority of biological mothers want to know their adult children. And in cases where birth parents did not want contact, there were no instances of stalking. Adult adoptees are adults and they are not looking for new "mommies or daddies."

The proposed adoptee rights legislation strikes a balance between an adoptee's right to know and the confidentiality concerns some may have regarding the biological parents. To learn more about this issue, go to http://www.unsealedinitiative.org and http://www.adoptioninstitute.org.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Horning

(Please provide your name and address so they will know which District you live in)

*** End of Sample Letter Two ***

HOW A BILL BECOMES A LAW IN NEW YORK STATE:

[Home] [Marches/Protests] [Bill Summary] [People Speak] [More Info] [Plays/Films] [Articles] [NYSAR Board] [History of Unwed Mothers] [Issues of Mothers] [Links]