Texas Senate Bill 329 86th Legislative session

What Texas Senate Bill 329 does:

1. Restores access to the non-certified copy of the original birth certificate to the adoptee at age 18.
2. Provides a contact preference form to birth parents to specify preferred contact: direct, through an intermediary, or prefer no contact.
3. Provides a medical history form which can be filled out by a birth parent and attached to original birth certificate with the contact preference form.
4. Provides descendants of the adoptee access in the event the adoptee is deceased, in keeping with the rights of access for no- adopted citizens.

Why it makes sense:

• Prior to 1973 implementation of the Texas Family Code birth certificates were open to the parties of the adoption, including the adult adoptee and birth parent(s). Currently, the original birth certificate remains the birth certificate of the child until they are adopted. Adoptions may occur months, years later, or never, resulting in the foster child becoming an adult, keeping their original, intact birth certificate. If birth parent anonymity was the intent of the Family Code, the system would be written otherwise.  
• This is the first time in Texas birth parents would be legally granted a voice in the process.
• This would provide ethnicity information, genealogical information, connection to biological family information. All critical to the health and well being of the adoptee.
• Birth parents are not legally promised anonymity at the time of adoption. Their rights are removed, not granted at the time of relinquishment. Concerned United Birth parents supports this legislation. They do not feel they should stand in the way of an individual's right to their own personal vital record. Furthermore, the release of the original birth certificate minimizes the chances of the adoptee having to conduct a more public search, using DNA and social media  
• Releasing the original birth certificate to the adult adoptee is in keeping with Texas tradition and current norms. The records were not sealed to the parties of the adoption for most of the 20th century (1973), A simple study and inquiry into past and current adoption systems reveals no evidence that this sealing was or is done to protect birth parent privacy. When discussing the current practice with today's agencies, the original birth certificate is routinely given as part of the adoption file to adoptive families before it is sealed.
• Although Texas does maintain a mutual consent registry, the nature of the registry forces the adult adoptee to contact the biological family first in order to obtain their own personal information. SB 329 gives the adoptee their vital record without requiring a reunion.  
• Although the addition of the medical history form as part of the adoption process did occur in the 1990's, the information provided is minimal and static.Imagine a family medical history without any updates during your lifetime. Have you always known what your parents would be afflicted with as they age? Family medical history is ever evolving. This is of little help to adoptees as they age and attempt to navigate their medical care in adulthood. SB 329 provides a way for adoptees to obtain an up-to-date family medical history voluntary.
• SB 329 carries no fiscal note, yet accomplishes so much.
• Adoption professionals have known for decades that providing the adoptee with origin and medical history information is the humane practice. To continue to deny adoptees what all others in our society enjoy is simply cruel. When we know better we do better. This issue has been on the hearts and minds of the adoption community for over 20 years, This is the 11th consecutive session this type of legislation has been introduced and the closest we've come to getting it passed!  

Original bill test here: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=85R&Bill=SB329


Copyright 2017 Marci Purcell: All rights reserved; may be used freely with citation by non-profits and educational institutions. 

Why Adoptees are Needed to Testify for OBC Access

I've gotten to know the Capitol fairly well, and in my travels through its halls I meet mostly supporters of OBC access. I think it is fairly accurate to say we have "overwhelming support" in the Capitol. However, I still meet a few who "do not see the need." That is personally why I go. To be seen. And heard. As I am no longer a child.

What opponents say to me as an adult adoptee regarding my rights to my information.

Nothing.

They say nothing.

Nothing that acknowledges that I am a voting, autonomous adult. They refer to me as "the adopted child," if they refer to me at all. I am unseen in the equation. I did not pay money to sit at the adoption table. I did not empower someone else to become a parent. I have no signature on the contract. I am to remain silent and be grateful that it "all worked out for the best."

They say nothing about our lack of family medical history, or that the state created, current systems in place are inadequate and daunting. They say nothing about how not only do we not have our family medical history but neither do our offspring. They do not speak to my anxiety as a dating person, not knowing who I am related to or growing up without accurate or ANY ethnicity information.

They say nothing to me, the adoptee.

Birth parents need to testify because people are speaking for them. In the case of adoptees, no one is even bothering to speak for us....we are not even part of the narrative. Opponents are not even bothering to co-opt our voice in this issue. We are children. We are not to challenge the system. According to our opponents, any and all information can only come to us from the parents, no matter how old we are. Our birth certificate is not for us to be handled without permission.

The opponents will be there Monday, and their dismissal of us, of adult adoptees will be seen by those who are in support. This is perhaps one of the most powerful aspects of this hearing. To see who is moved by our stories and who is not, and for others to see that, too. If you support, come lend your voice or vote to this process.

**The State Affairs hearing regarding OBC access is Monday, March 27, 2017 9 am at the Texas State Capitol in Austin in the Senate Chambers. Affordable parking can be found at the Capitol Visitors Parking Garage, a half block from the Capitol Building. When you enter you can ask for directions or stop by the visitors desk and grab a map. They can also give you directions. The bill order is not announced until the morning of, so we do not know what exact time the bill will be heard. Look for the group dressed in bright blue, either in the Gallery or Chamber depending on schedule, if you want support. We will be giving testimony and providing support to each other.

DNA, Social Media, Sealed Records & Myths of Providing Anonymity

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.