So, by now you may have heard the Ancestry.com, FTDNA.com, 23&Me, and GEDMATCH* are all offering very affordable, or free rates for their DNA Testing results. You simply swab a cheek, spit in a tube, or upload a prexisting data file from another company and whala, you are compared to anywhere from 1,000,000 -14,000,000 people depending on the service. If you plunk your DNA into more than one database you are compared to close to 20,000,000 people, and this number is very rapidly rising, daily.
Now, with DNA as the leading way to find long lost family, it is ludicrous to imagine that state governments are spending tons of money to make and keep adoptee records sealed. Spending money? Yes, because this process and all its trappings actually costs the state government money. The staff needed to process the OBC differently, the space needed to keep these files separate, and the work hours of high paid judges and clerks across the Texas, to listen to cases and grant or deny access to those who choose to petition the court. None of these measures, which translate to monetary expenses would be incurred if the records were open to the adoptees to whom they belong, just as they are for the non-adopted. The irony is the money and time IS NOT actually keeping people's identities anonymous, or even private, which people (inaccurately) cite as being the reasoning behind, and result of sealed records. What it is doing is disenfranchizing and perpetuating the stigma of being adopted for the majority of adopted people in this country, and leaving all parties vulnererable to very public searches, because this is what is left to them since records are sealed. Many adoptees would otherwise have no interest in reuniting with birth family, but driven to do so because that is currently the only way to gain access to their own, vital information, including family medical history, ethnicity, and genealogy information.
Here's how sealed records is having the opposite effect of what some legislators purport:
When the adoptee interested in gaining access to their identity information (ethnicity, birth stats, genealogy) hits the brick wall of sealed records, they then turn to the public commercial sector, with all its social media and DNA tools. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Google have all become the perfect venue for finding family. The adoptee simply scrawls down all the private information they know surrounding their birth (non-ID info) onto a posterboard, which is then shareable and they are off to finding family. Eventually a friend, or cousin, or adult child of the birth parent sees the information and makes the connection. This discovery is usually followed up with a series of awkward phone calls until finally, the birth parent is identified then outed in a very public and unexpected way by their known family members or close friends. Not at all private for the birth parents, nor for the searching adoptee, for that matter.
Usually in tandom with social media, the adoptee does DNA testing, now the fastest way to finding family. As mentioned above, there are many millions of people in the database. I have yet to see someone domestically born test and not have at least a 3rd cousin match to the tester in the past year, and often a 2nd cousin or closer match is probable. Although some matches may be somewhat distant, this is an amazing feeling for the adoptee; very grounding. To see for the first time ever that you are connected to others on this planet is usually life altering for the individual. To receive ethnicity information, although vague, is profound.
This realization of connectedness and new ethnicity information can be very motivating, and the person with renewed vigor doubles down to solve the mystery of who they are descended from. They "climb the family tree," spending hours researching, asking their new relatives how they could posibly fit in, sharing every shred of information they may have until the mystery is solved, usually through a new aunt, sibling, or cousin. Again, no privacy whatsoever for the birth family, or the adoptee.
And then there are the many who put in their DNA sample only to immediately match a birth parent because they, too are searching. DNA gold! Studies show an overwhelming number of birth parents want to connect, to at least gain some closure or peace about their decision. Some want to thank adoptive parents. For others it is to confirm the well being of their adult children who were adopted out in a different social climate then we have now, so their child, as an adult can gain healing through understanding their birth parent's decision. The DNA enrollment number will be increasing as more and more discover DNA testing as a reliable search tool. The opportunity for this reunion, and to know the whereabouts of their child often provides immense healing to both parties.
An important point I would like to make here is that the government continues to send the message, often in writing, on their website and printed materials, (and squashed legislation attempts by adoptee rights groups), that the sealing of records was implemented to, and will protect the birth parents' right to privacy from adoptees. This is not the impetus for sealed records and in today's day and age sealed records, as shown above, actually jeopardizes privacy for all parties. These old school arguments are simply untrue, especially in today's world.
The fact that birth records are not sealed from the relinquished individual *until* and unless there is an adoption, is telling. I was not adopted until I was 3, so my records remained mine, my original birth certificate served as mine until I was adopted. My given birth name, including my last name, was my legal name until I was adopted at 3. All the while, my birth mother was easily traceable, her identity known. In fact, I continued to posess my social security card with my original name on it after I was adopted. No one ever asked for it back. I grew up knowing my given birth name and date of birth. If the sealed records were meant to keep someone anonymous, why does this information remain the child's until the time of adoption, sometimes years later? Because these sealed records laws were put in place mainly to quell the concerns of the adoptive parents who were fearful of birth parents, not to guarantee the anonymity of the birth parents. I have seen my relinquishment document. There are no rights granted. Only rights taken away. Birth parent anonymity, as a reason for sealed records is only a myth. It was never the actual intent.
These laws are continually upheld on a false premise and rob adoptees of their medical, genealogical, and ancestral information. Imagine walking around in a world full of people and not knowing who you are biologically related to; fearful of dating a cousin or wondering if that woman who looks like you is your sister. Imagine the stress that accompanies that lack of knowledge. Imagine not knowing your ethnicity. It feels like society is playing a cruel trick on us. Family origin information, accoridng to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a basic human right. Of course it is. Most non adopted can't even insgine what our lives are like. I challenge you to try.
We are asking lawmakers to stop holding our info hostage. We are adult, tax-paying citizens and tired of being treated like children. Adoptees are real people, with decendents, our children, who are also impacted. We are not enjoying this 20th century government supported social experiment, which amounts to systemic discrimination based on the circumstance of our birth. Stop violating our basic human rights and give us our original birth certificates. We are adults asking for what you all already have; equal rights to access our vital record.
Our issue is not about reunions. Reunions are happening everyday with DNA and social media. Our issue is about being treated with equality and diginity under the law. Our issue is about access to our own information in the form of our original vital record. What we do with that information, as adults, is our own business, just like what you do with yours is your business.
