The Adoptee Rights Demonstration

Why are our identities a state secret?

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Booth Report – Day Two

July 27th, 2010 by adopteerights
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The end of the NCSL Annual Summit is fast approaching, and yet it feels like we just got here. Our collection of business cards, names, email addresses and positions is ever growing, and it’s both exhausting and exhilarating thinking about the amount of work to do once we all are back home.

The San Antonio Host Committee put on quite the show today as a reminder to legislators and exhibitors alike that everything is bigger in Texas. While we’re still in the thick of the Louisville convention, excitement is building for next year’s demonstration and booth at the 2011 San Antonio Adoptee Rights Demonstration to be held next year.

The fantastic music from ‘Asleep at the Wheel’ during the San Antonio BBQ Luncheon made conversation difficult at times, but we still were able to have many productive conversations with legislators.  As our booth was strategically located directly in front of the setup for the legislator’s lunch, we took advantage of our position to turn our table to face them, so they had a clear unobstructed view of the one thing we want: Equal Access – Equal Rights.

Our favorite quote of the day: “Kentucky is ripe for this type of bill”, overheard from two KY Representatives after their upbeat and positive conversation with Paula Benoit over the benefits to Maine from LD1084.

Not everything is upbeat and positive with all legislators, however. In spite of statistics, photocopies, history from equal access states and personal stories from mothers of adoption loss inside the booth, myths and misconceptions still run rampant in the halls of our state capitols.  And our least favorite quote of the day: “I’ve never heard about this from any of my constituents.”

Now more than ever it is vitally important that  our elected officials are reminded that we the people believe in equality for all. While our letter writing campaign has ended for this year, it’s never too late to write, call or visit your own representative.  The more they hear from us, the less they can dismiss our unequal treatment.

Tomorrow closes out the booth. We’ll be shipping everything back to storage and starting our wrap-up of the 2010  Adoptee Rights Demonstration.  With the rush of travel back home, there most likely won’t be time to get a Day Three Booth Report written, so this post ends the reporting from Louisville.  Thank you again for coming along for the ride, whether you traveled cross country to get here, or followed us from your home state.

We are encouraged by the positive reception our booth had, and the number of legislators who were impressed that a small grassroots group such as ours has made a commitment to attend their Summit.

We made a loud noise in Kentucky – now make a loud noise right where you are. Pick up the phone, or drop them a note – they need to hear from you. Just remember, it’s

Your Rights — Your Voice — Your Protest

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Booth Report – Day One

July 26th, 2010 by adopteerights
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The opening day of the Exhibit Hall was an exhausting, inspiring and amazing success.

The Adoptee Rights Coalition booth staff was swamped and hardly had time to tweet or provide any updates at all, as legislators and representatives from other organizations kept them jumping from the time the doors opened. Day 1 saw hundreds of names collected for our database, and an ongoing stream of legislators who were very interested in our mission. Many remembered us from  the demonstration the day before, and the evening and morning news videos of our rally.

Adoptee Rights Coalition Booth at the NCSL Legislative Summit

The majority of legislators asked intelligent, thoughtful questions, and were surprised to learn that birth certificates are not sealed at the time of surrender, but rather at the time an adoption is finalized. Our photocopies of the adoption decrees provided to many Baby Scoop Era adoptive parents showing the identifying information of surrendering mothers was a bright light of truth shed on the urban legend of “birthmother confidentiality”.

In addition to our educational materials (and of course, our Adoptee Rights Chocolates!), hundreds of AdopteeC.A.R.E. t-shirts were given thanks again to Paula Benoit, and it gives us great satisfaction to know that across the country people will be wearing shirts that proclaim — Original Identity is a Basic Human Right.

The booth continues for the next two days, and there is much work to continue after the Legislative Summit has ended. We will be busy not only collecting and sharing media of our time in Louisville, but following up with the legislators and interested parties who left the exhibit hall today knowing more about adoption than when they arrived. Thank you to everyone staying in Louisville, and everyone who helped make this convention possible.  Our important work continues.

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Greetings from the Louisville Adoptee Rights Demonstration!

July 25th, 2010 by adopteerights
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Thank you, thank you, thank you.

There just aren’t enough thank you’s possible for everyone who came today, and for everyone who supported us back home.

As always, thank you’s go to our beautiful Host City of Louisville, especially the Louisville Department of Codes and Regulations for assistance with our march and protest permit, and  Lt. Curtis Flaherty of the Louisville Police. The City of Louisville is as gracious as its reputation, and we are so fortunate to be spending the week of this important event in this environment.

Many thanks go to former Maine Senator Paula Benoit of Adoptee C.A.R.E. for her generous contribution of t-shirts to be worn by adoptee rights demonstrators.

Thanks to the dedication of those taking time away from their busy lives to come to Louisville, we have now had our third year in a row of educating legislators, many of whom had no idea their constituents are denied access to their own birth certificates.

While some legislators avoided the oppressive heat outside, those who braved the humidity received our handouts and sound bites on the discrimination endured by the adopted in sealed records states.

We are so grateful for everyone who came, for the 791 names carried with us, for those who wrote and called their legislators during our letter writing campaigns, and for the support and well-wishes we have received in the weeks leading up to this event.

Our work in Louisville is not over. While the protest has ended, the exhibit hall opens tomorrow. We have three days to connect and network with not only thousands of legislators, but representatives from other organizations inside the convention. Thank you to those staying to work the booth and spread this important message.

Some early press from Louisville media has popped up, on:

WHAS11.com – Louisvillians picket for adoptee rights to access birth certificates

WLKY.com – Summit Draws State, National Leaders

Safe travels to everyone traveling home from Louisville tomorrow. We will continue to bring you updates from the convention center on our Twitter feed, so please continue to keep an eye on

http://twitter.com/AdopteeRightsCo

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Hello, Beautiful Louisville!

July 23rd, 2010 by adopteerights
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And are we ever glad to see you!

The first of the Adoptee Rights Coalition organizers has arrived on the scene, and after only three hours of sleep has hit the ground running with promotions and planning for the demonstration. Thank you Claud!

We’d like to wish safe travels to everyone coming to Louisville, and remind you to pack an umbrella and rain slicker in case of bad weather. Rain or shine – the Adoptee Rights Demonstration will go on!

As we travel to Louisville, we are honored and humbled to report we are bringing 791 of you in spirit, in the form of names carried on a chain of those who wish to show their support.

Green Necklace

Thank you.

Now, we’d like to ask you to please make a phone call for us. Please take a moment to call your local State Legislator, and remind them that you are a constituent who supports unconditional access to birth certificates for all Americans – not just the non-adopted.

Visit Project VoteSmart, and enter your zip code in the box to find your representative. On the next page, scroll down to the “State Legislative’ results, and click on their names to get their contact information. As your representative, this will be a local call for you. Just a simple phone call sends them off to the Summit with the message that adoptees are tired of being treated as second class citizens.

We will be busy with the convention after the demonstration and will have limited internet time. Please remember to keep an eye on our Twitter feed for updates from Louisville. As always, retweets are greatly appreciated!

http://twitter.com/AdopteeRightsCo

For anyone planning on attending at the last minute, our Itinerary for the sign making party, demonstration and post-rally celebration can be found at:

http://adopteerights.net/nulliusfilius/?p=872

Thank you again! We’re off to the races in Louisville!

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Final Letter Writing Campaign and Press Releases Released!

July 18th, 2010 by adopteerights
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We’re just one week away from the Demonstration, and want everyone to take a moment today to write their State Legislators in preparation for the NCSL Summit.

We have a sample letter you can use on the Letter Writing Campaign page, as well as postcards you can print and send.

Looking for even more sample letters? Here’s one our news feed picked up this morning, sent to KY Senator Tim Shaughnessy

Feel free to send along a Press Release as well! Our social media maven has whipped up two press releases for your review.

One is your standard press release:

National Adoptee Rights Group Travels To Kentucky to Free Adoption Records

Another pulls in high ranking keywords and throws some recent adoption news into the headline:

Sandra Bullock’s Child to Face Life of Discrimination Warns Group

Your choice!

Feel free to send these press releases to your local paper, with a paragraph or two about how you’ve been denied your own birth certificate.

Get writing! Louisville is just around the corner!

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Itinerary for the Louisville Adoptee Rights Protest

July 15th, 2010 by adopteerights
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Saturday, July 24th

6:00 PM Sign making party and workshop. Please join us for sign making, drinks, snacks and camaraderie!  We will be presenting a brief workshop on restoring access at 8:00 PM, with suggestions for talking points with legislators.

We will be meeting in the Lewis Suite at the Hampton Inn Downtown Louisville, 101 East Jefferson Street, Louisville, Kentucky, 502-585-2200 where all the organizers are registered.

If you’re not staying at the same hotel as us, please join us on the 24th at the Hampton Inn.

Sunday, July 25th

11:00am meet in the parking lot of the Hampton Inn Downtown Louisville, 101 East Jefferson Street, Louisville, Kentucky.

If you’re not a registered guest of the hotel, please do not park in the hotel’s parking lot. There are over 50,000 parking spaces in downtown Louisville.

For those arriving the day of the protest, First Jefferson Garage at 115 W. Jefferson St. is located midway between the Hampton Inn and the Convention Center. Daily parking rates are $8.75

For more parking tips visit http://www.ldmd.org/general.html

Once you get there, look for the sea of green shirts! Please note green shirts are not mandatory, just suggested. There’s still time to purchase a DENIED or ARD t-shirt in green before you leave!

11:30am March will commence and proceed to the Louisville International Convention Center at 221 S 4th St, Louisville, Kentucky . The route of our march is pasted below. We will have march monitors throughout the lines to keep everyone together

3:30 pm Please join us for a post-demonstration party at:

Sully’s Saloon
434 South 4th Street
Louisville KY  40202
502-585-4100
http://www.sullyssaloon.com/

Please keep an eye on http://www.AdopteeRights.net for any itinerary updates. The Adoptee Rights Coalition is a registered participant with the National Conference of State Legislatures and will be represented inside the Convention Center in our Exhibition Booth

If you have any questions, please be sure to join the mailing list for detailed information and discussion. We look forward to seeing you in Louisville!

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Volunteers – March Monitors, Hospitality, Trash Cleanup and Transportation

July 10th, 2010 by adopteerights
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If you volunteered for any of the above positions when you registered for the protest, please check your inbox. Under separate cover an email has been sent to you with details on your position. If you haven’t received it, please check your SPAM folder.

If you didn’t volunteer at the time you registered and now wish to have a job — no worries! Just drop us a line at AdopteeRightsCoalition at gmail.com telling us  what you’d like to help out with, and we’ll forward along details of your responsibilities to you.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered!

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Host State Hero

July 6th, 2010 by adopteerights
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The Adoptee Rights Coalition would like to acknowledge the long-time Adoptee Rights advocates in states where we will be visiting to protest sealed birth certificates. In 2009 for the Philly protest, we recognized long-time Adoptee Rights advocate, Priscilla Sharp for her tireless work on Pennsylvania’s sealed birth certificate laws.

In 2009 Priscilla’s in-person visit to her state representative started the ball rolling on PA HB1798.  Priscilla is a long-time advocate for Adoptee Rights as well as a successful professional searcher.

This year we’d like to highlight Linda Cecil in Kentucky. Linda and her team have been working on Adoptee Rights since the 1980′s and in 1986 she finally managed to persuade KY legislators to agree to release birth certificates to adoptees with a waiver signed. Linda continues to advocate for all adopted persons’ in Kentucky to unconditionally obtain original records of their own birth.

Please help Linda continue her work on behalf of adoptees in Kentucky and sign her petition for equal rights in Kentucky

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Adult Adoptees of Kentucky – Listen Up!

July 1st, 2010 by adopteerights
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You are not children, yet the state you were born in considers you incompetent of managing your own affairs.

Why should you require your mother’s permission to obtain your own birth certificate? What other adults in Kentucky are  required to seek the consent of their parents in the eyes of the State? Why should you be forced to pay money to the State and have them search for your mother, just so you can obtain your birth certificate?

The nonadopted can get their original birth certificates from Vital Records without groveling before a judge, begging their mommy for permission, and seeking the assistance of a social worker – so should you!

The Adoptee Rights Coalition has advised all members of the Kentucky Legislature that we view the current adoption law  as discriminatory  and unjust.  They know we are coming to town and will be at their convention that they are hosting. Not one lawmaker can claim ignorance to the fact that some of their own voting constituents are treated as second class citizens by Vital Records.

Now it’s your turn!

Contact your state representatives, and ask them what they plan to do for you as their voting constituent. These people work for you! Your tax dollars support the fiscally irresponsible, insulting and discriminatory adoption laws – the owner of YOUR birth certificate. Let your representative know you are tired of government intrusion into your private life.

The nonadopted can get their birth certificates by paying $10.00 at the Frankfort, KY Vital Records office – SO SHOULD YOU!

Contact your State Representative today! The Adoptee Rights Demonstration is coming to town, and so should equality for all born in the State of Kentucky.

The Adoptee Rights Coalition holds this truth to be self-evident – that all people are created equal and deserve equal treatment - not just those born to married parents.

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LAST CALL FOR HOTEL RESERVATIONS!

June 25th, 2010 by adopteerights
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The Hampton Inn Louisville is sold out for the week of the NCSL Convention!

There are still rooms available in our group block, but the end date to make your reservation is Tuesday, June 29th. After this date, you will not be able to get a room at the hotel.

For details on our discounted rate group block, visit

http://adopteerights.net/nulliusfilius/?page_id=177

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