We are a Pro Adoption Reform Organization

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Adoptees must be free from a law legalizing the falsification of permanent records. A bill signed by Governor Lehman in 1935 and enacted in 1938 which nullifies the inalienable and civil right of a person to know the actual facts of their birth and obtain a copy of their original birth certificate.

74 years old!
Governor Lehman signed the closed record law in July 1935.
We are committed and dedicated to the cause of removing this outdated, unfair and discriminatory law.

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Adoptee David Phelps speaks out against discrimination against adoptees who deserve the inalienable right to know -- anything less is unacceptable.

http://unsealedinitiative.blogspot.com/

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A new law recently signed by Governor Cuomo extends participation in the adoption registry to include adult adoptees born in other states but adopted in New York.

At last they can obtain non-identifying information from the registry the same as adult adoptees born in the state.

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New Study conducted by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute -
Openness in Adoption: From Secrecy and Stigma to Knowledge and Connections

http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/publications/2012_03_OpennessInAdoption.pdf

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Professor Elizabeth J. Samuels study, "The Idea of Adoption: An Inquiry into the History of Adult Adoptee Access to Birth Records" concludes laws were enacted to protect the confidentiality of adoptive families, not birth or natural families. She has reviewed surrender papers and finds no evidence women were given legal confidentiality. Link to her website:

http://law.ubalt.edu/template.cfm?page=664

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Secrecy and confidentiality were one and the same and not legally defined because they were social mores and not laws. Shame, secrecy and denial were social mores from the Victorian era that brought about the stigma of illegitimacy for both adoptees and for their mothers who were all too often manipulated into signing a surrender paper relinquishing their child for adoption. Confidentiality was for the adoptive parents and not for the adoptee who professionals and everyone else knew would never search.
Social workers never developed programs to help women cope with the stigma of illegitimacy because they felt these women deserved such stigma. Neither were they informed that relinquishing their children would cause them lifelong grief and anguish. Women were not presented with options. They were not considered upright, competent nor deserving enough to raise their own children. Many women signed a surrender paper stating that they would not interfere with the custody, control and management of said child. The word confidentiality was not in any surrender paper including mine. We were told over and over not to disrupt the adoptive home and to get on with our lives and forget our own children. Professor Samuel's research findings are correct: sealing adoption records was meant to protect the adoptive parents, not birth or natural parents who were treated without basic human dignity during this period and even today sadly still are in many states. Adoptees fared no better. Torn from their natural families, their social and genetic histories, they had their native identities made secret by the state and were given new identities and expected to adapt as best they could. This forced relinquishment and adaption has brought with it a host of problems for adoptees. By the 1970's, many sought to begin to address the realities of their lives by searching, but were dissuaded by the negative stereo type of the birth mother as prostitute, low-life or gutter dweller who would take the adoptee down with her. However the truth eventually showed itself and adoptees found their mothers were, quite often, the girl next door.
-- Joyce Bahr, President

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Attention New York City residents, contact your city council member and ask them to sponsor Resolution 855 which will have the City Council support bills A909/S2490A in the pending in the state legislature. Link to learn who your city council member is:

http://council.nyc.gov/html/members/members.shtml

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Please sign this online petition for
Open Records in New York State!
Bill Numbers S2490A and A909

http://www.petitiononline.com/nysarpt1/petition.html

Mothers Who Surrendered to Adoption
please also sign this one:
http://www.petitiononline.com/forbmoms/

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Legislation would give adoptees access to birth records - NEWS10 ABC: Albany, New York
http://www.news10.com/story/22193612/legislation-would-give-adoptees-access-to-birth-records?fb_action_ids=10200417262212117&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

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Australia's PM Julia Gilliard's Apology, March 2013
20-minute Video:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-21/pm-apologisises-for-dark-period-in-nations-history/4586358
Here is the transcript:
http://resources.news.com.au/files/2013/03/21/1226602/365475-aus-file-forced-adoptions-apology.pdf
Washington Post Online article, 3-21-13 (AP):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/australian-prime-minister-makes-national-apology-to-victims-of-past-forced-adoption-policies/2013/03/21/32c33862-928f-11e2-9173-7f87cda73b49_story.html

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Rock Wilke is now on Broadway with his Story of Adoption and Discovery! Log on to his website for ticket information:
http://www.wpix.com/news/morningnews/wpix-one-mans-story-of-adoption-and-self-discovery-makes-waves-in-the-big-apple-20121127,0,7569774.story

UI Westchester Coordinator Melinda Warshaw's book A Legitimate Life can be purchased on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Legitimate-Life-Forbidden-Journey-Self-Discovery/dp/1475252536/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338405217&sr=1-1

ABC News Video November 27, 2012 Queensland Australia, Official Government Apology for forced adoptions of the past
http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2012/11/apology-for-forced-adoptions.html#.ULS_dSGHnzo.facebook

Reporter Dan Rather covers the issue of mothers forced to surrender for adoption. Adopted or Abducted airs on HDNet TV May 1 at 8pm ET
http://www.hd.net/blogs/response-to-abducted-or-adopted/

Breaking News for Women's Rights: March 2012, The Australia National Post: Australia urged to compensate, apologize to unwed mothers forced to give up children for adoption.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/01/australia-urged-to-compensate-apologize-to-unwed-mothers-forced-to-give-up-newborns/

Video and article: some women want apologies but some are demanding reparations! Report on Australian Senate Inquiry into forced adoptions expected this week 2/25/2012.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-24/mothers-want-apology-over-forced-adoptions/3852330

video: Assemblymembers David Weprin and Richard Gottfried Manhattan - City Hall Press Conference for the Bill of Adoptee Rights - filmed by Adoptee Jason Darnieder.
http://vimeo.com/23230031

video: Adoptees Access to Records
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyu4E9Bhi9E

video: New Hampshire Open Records Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfBMiKGUDLs

Adoptee Larry Dell, PR Director for Unsealed Initiative offers $1000 for help in finding his birth family!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88aBiDQHpCQ

video: Annette Baran pt 1
Adoption social worker, author and pioneer in adoption reform speaks. Sadly she passed away recently but her work along with that of Reuben Pannor adoption social worker to end the harmful secrecy of the past, will be forever remembered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDkh9IMTiiI&feature=related

video: Adoptee Thomas Brooks,
author of A Wealth of Family
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2CVWn4f5YL8

video: Adoptee Jean Strauss,
The Right to Know
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC3Tnfj_R5Y

video: Adoptee, Singer, Songwriter Mary Gauthier performs her song "Blood is Blood." After many years and many recordings she expresses her feelings about her adoption and acknowledges the movement for open records.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWMa6VHK3fc&feature=share

video: Darryl McDaniels, Zara Phillips,
I'm Legit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbKNJUyGQ0

video: Promo by filmmaker Jason Darnieder
All My Life
http://vimeo.com/32493937

Recent video: Mothers who deal with depression for many years after giving up children for adoption speak out
I Want My Baby Back - HuffPost Live
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/managing-adoption-regret/50c0eecb02a76029fc00008f

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Adoption Healing Seminar at San Raphael, CA
March 10, 2013

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The 34th Annual American Adoption Congress Conference
April 10-14, 2013
Hilton Garden Inn, 1100 Carnegie Ave. (downtown)
Cleveland, Ohio

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Is your birth parent forthcoming with pertinent medical history? See our Articles page and read the Surgeon General's Family History Initiative and Adam Pertman's article,
"Adoptees Deserve Access to Family Histories".
Link: Adam Pertman's Blog
http://adampertman.com/

2007 Report by the Foremost Think Tank
on Adoption Issues:
Restoring A legal Right
for Adult Adoptees
http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/publications/2007_11_For_Records.pdf

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The New York Open Records Bill gives adoptees full rights. Our bill is similar to bills that are now laws in Alabama, New Hampshire, Oregon and Maine. Rhode Island recently passed a bill of rights: all adult adoptees will have access in 2012. Although the new law will not give adoptees direct access like laws in Alaska and Kansas, it gives birth parents the option of filing a contact preference indicating they want "direct contact", "contact through an intermediary" or "no contact".
Click here to read more on the Bill Summary page.

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Queens Catholic Priest Father Tom Brosnan, a reunited adoptee, blogs on Adoption and Faith. http://adoptionandfaith.blogspot.com/

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Adoptionfind blog: Rhode Island adoptees age 25 will get a new law and the right to know! http://adoptionfind.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/ri-adoptees-over-25-years-allowed-original-birth-certificates/

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Family Ties Blog: Are Adult Adoptees Worthy of Respect http://nanadays.blogspot.com/2012/11/are-adult-adoptees-worthy-of-respect.html

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Lost Daughters adoption blog...it's a sisterhood http://www.thelostdaughters.com/

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Recently we have become part of a state wide coalition of adoption agencies and child welfare organizations throughout the state to fight for passage of a fair and nondiscriminatory bill giving all adult adoptees rights. We are now a part of NYS Open Records Legislative Collaboration.

The Child Welfare League of America is in support of Open Records for all Adoptees in the U.S. at age 18. Catholic Charities in Albany, The American Adoption Congress, Spence Chapin Adoption Agency in New York City, Holt International Children Services (a leading adoption agency), The Adoptees Liberty Movement Association, Adoption Crossroads, Manhattan Birthparents Support Group, North American Council on Adoptable Children, New York Foundling Hospital, Manhattan, Hillside Adoption Services, Rochester, Friends of Adoption, Queens, New York State Citizens Coalition for Children, Council for Families and Child Caring Agencies, Adoption Under One Roof, Episcopal Diocese of Albany and Center for Family Connections, Concerned United Birth Parents, OriginsUSA, Ethica, OpenAdoption.org, and Adoption Action Network all strongly support our bills.

The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, the foremost think tank on adoption issues in our country has researched this issue with two important studies finding for adoptee access to birth certificates.

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Adopted Children Should Be Able to View Adoption Records,
Says Recent Survey by FindLaw:

http://company.findlaw.com/pr/2003/112503.adoptiondocs.html

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1997 Cornell University Study Indicates Adoptive Parents
Are In Favor Of Open Records:

http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/jan97/adoptionrecord.ssl.html

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Connecticut activists advocate for long overdue rights
link to OBC for Connecticut:

http://www.obcforct.org/

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Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace

https://www.facebook.com/UnsealedInitiative

Follow @twitter

https://twitter.com/unsealedNY

http://www.myspace.com/adopteerightsnewyork

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Studies Finding for Adoptee Access to Original Birth Certificates

2012 - 50 pages - Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute: "Openness in Adoption: From Secrecy and Stigma to Knowledge and Connections"

2010 - 46 pages - Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute: "For the Records II: An Examination of the History and Impact of Adult Adoptee Access to Original Birth Certificates" is based on a years-long examination of relevant judicial and legislative documents; on decades of research and other scholarly writing; and on the concrete experiences of states and countries that have either changed their laws to provide these documents or never sealed them at all (Entire study published on Institute's website).

2009 - 112 pages - Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute: "Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation for Adoptees." The broadest, most extensive examination of adult adoptive identity to date. (Entire study published on Institute's website).

2007 - 50 pages - Professor E. Wayne Carp: "Does Opening Adoption Records Have an Adverse Social Impact? Some Lessons from the U.S., Great Britain, and Australia 1953 to 2007." (Study available from www.informaworld.com or from Unsealed Initiative).

2007 - 31 pages - Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute: "For the Record: Restoring a Legal Right for Adult Adoptees." (Entire study published on Institute's website).

2008 - 33 pages - Cleveland State Law Review: "The Only Americans Legally Prohibited from Knowing Who Their Birth Parents Are; A rejection of Privacy Rights as a Bar to Adult Adoptee Access to Birth and Adoption Records." (Online copy available from Unsealed Initiative). Cleveland State Law Review. Volume 55 issue 3.

2001 - 59 pages - Professor Elizabeth J. Samuels: "The Idea of Adoption: an Inquiry into The History of Adult Adoptee Access to Birth Records." Study concludes confidentiality was for adoptive parents. Some birth parents signed surrender papers agreeing to stay away from the custody of the adoptee and adoptive family. But no birth parent was given confidentiality or a right to privacy. This study is published in the Rutgers law review #367, 2001. (3-page conclusion available from Unsealed Initiative).

1997 - Cornell University study sponsored by the New York State Citizens Coalition Children: "Adoptive Parents Are Overwhelmingly in Favor of Opening Sealed Adoption Records." (Available at www.news. cornell.edu/release/jan97/adoption.record.ssl.ht).

1973 - New York Law Forum study concludes adults adoptees should have access to identity and birth records for psychological health reasons. (Available from Unsealed Initiative).

Survey Finding for Access
2003 - Survey conducted by FindLaw finds an overwhelming majority of Americans believe adopted children should be granted full access to their adoption records when they become adults. (Survey findings published on http://www.findlaw.com).

Convention on the Rights of the Child
1989 - UN Resolution (44/25 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 8). Section 1 states parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference. Section 2 states where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, state parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view of re-establishing speedily his or her identity.

New York Statewide Adoption Reform needs your support with letter-writing and lobbying for the "Bill of Adoptee Rights". Passage of the Bill will allow adult adoptees, age eighteen or older, the right to their original Birth Certificate. We are asking for the same right that non-adopted persons take for granted. The New York State adoption law that seals records is unfair, outdated and discriminatory. The law violates adoptees civil rights.

With recent victories for adoptees in New Hampshire, Maine, Tennessee, Oregon, Alabama, Delaware and Rhode Island, and records already open in Kansas and Alaska since the 1950s, New Yorkers want our state to be next.

Passage of the 1996 Tennessee bill was followed with two lawsuits organized by the pro-secrecy opponents hoping to repeal the law. However, the final decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and by the Tennessee Supreme Court held that the statute violates no rights of birth parents under either the Federal Constitution or the Tennessee Constitution. Passage of the 1999 Oregon Initiative, voted by citizens as a measure on the ballot, gave adoptees full rights to birth records. Again, opponents organized a lawsuit to enjoin the initiative. The lawsuit was dismissed by a court trial, and the Oregon Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed that dismissal. In its affirmance the Court of Appeals relied in part on the Sixth Circuit federal court decision. The new law in Tennessee allows birth parents the right to place a contact veto meaning that if a birth parent does not want contact and the adoptee makes contact anyway despite the contact veto, the adoptee could be up against a class "A" misdemeanor charge (if the birth parent decides to file a charge). This law bringing adoption law to a place of being criminal sets a bad precedent... Even though very few birth parents want to file a contact veto the possibility of jail time for an adoptee is outrageous. There are already harassment laws on the books. This kind of law is unacceptable. Recent passage of open records laws in Alabama and Delaware were not subjected to lawsuits by the opposition. Since the 1950s Kansas and Alaska have had laws similar to laws enacted in England, Germany, Holland, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, New South Wales, British Columbia & Newfoundland Canada, Scotland, Israel, and Finland, since the 1970s and 1980s. Meaning that adoptees have full rights and there is no possibility of legal ramifications resulting in a fine and/or jail time.

In the first year that records were opened in Oregon 5,318 requests were made by adoptees for records. Only 58 birth parents did not want contact. In Delaware there were 414 requests for records by adoptees and only 14 birth parents did not want contact. We are waiting for statistics from Tennessee and Alabama. Most birth parents do not want confidentiality. Those who do not want contact always have the option of saying "no". Search and reunion are accepted in American society as normal events. Yet the law that seals records is slow to catch up to that norm.

New York Statewide Adoption Reform, along with your help, can open records and give tax-paying citizens long overdue rights. Our strength is in numbers and unity. Please join us.