Our friend and Massachusetts adoptee Mia graciously allowed us to post a recent experience she had in regards to her birth certificate.
Massachusetts is a discriminatory, unequal access state. In 2007, SB63 became law, forbidding adoptees born between July 17, 1974 and January 1, 2008 from ever having access to their own birth certificates.
Those unfortunate enough to be born in this restricted period must subject themselves to an insulting, demeaning and intrusive “contact information registry”.
Due simply to the fact that she was born before July, 1974, Mia is one of the Massachusetts adoptees who does have access to her original birth certificate. However, the state-sanctioned sealing of her identity continues to set her apart from the nonadopted. In her own words:
I just started a new job a few months back. After several weeks of just cutting me a check for my payment each Friday they asked me to stay on permanently, and had me fill out an application.
You all know where I’m going with this.
One of the forms to be filled out was the I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification, which requires you to provide several forms of identification to prove that you are an American and/or eligible to work the US. So I fill out all the paperwork and bring in a copy of my amended birth certificate (ABC) and my driver’s license.
About a week later, the head of the firm emails me and asks be to bring in another form of ID because they (“they” being the Human Resources company they subcontract with) can not accept my amended birth certificate because “it was issued from a city and not the state”.
Of course my adoptee radar was picking up that something did not quite seem right. I immediately looked at the instructions on the form I was given and then looked online to see if these forms had updated instructions. The instructions clearly state in List “C” that a birth certificate, defined as,
“Original or certified copy of birth certificate issued by a State, County, Municipal Authority, or Territory of the United States bearing an official seal.”
is an acceptable document for establishing employment authorization.
OK? Isn’t that what I provided? A certified copy of my birth certificate issued from the City I was born in.
The only thing on my amended birth certificate that would indicate it is an ABC is there is a line titled “Date of Amended Record” which is filled in with “—-” four dashes. I told my husband that “—-” must be Morse Code for bastard!
I was pissed but I didn’t want to say anything because a) this is a third party/outsourced HR company asking for this and not the employer himself, and b) any of you who have worked in the corporate world know that you complain once and you are forever labeled *a pain-in-the-ass*, and c) my friend who is a partner in this firm got me this job that I desperately need.
So I said nothing and like a good, little, compliant adoptee I brought in another form of ID. But, I’m still pissed.
After this I realized that I have never had a State issued birth certificate, so I decided to go get one. Luckily I work near Vital Records. I got there at around 4:30, filled out the form, gave them my driver’s license and waited….
and waited…..
and waited.
The state employee finally came out with the form and proceeded to tell me, “Sorry it took so long, yours had to be typed out.”
READ: How dare you come in here at 4:30 on a Friday asking for this and make me dig out the typewriter!
So I quickly look at it and notice the “—-” are filled in for Time of Birth, Race, Birth Order, Plurality, Race of Mother, Age of Mother, DOB of Mother, Age of Father, DOB of Father, Race of Father and last but not least, Date of Amendment.
I asked him why there are dashes next to the Date of Amendment. He told me: “That is a very gray area and I’m not allowed to speak about it”
I told him that I already had my original birth certificate, and I was curious as to why I couldn’t know the date that MY record was amended. He told me he could not say!
We’re grateful to Mia for sharing this, and for continuing to strive for equality for all adoptees born in the State of Massachusetts. Unequal states with partial access need more adoptees like her willing to speak up, not only for adoptees in the sandwich years, but to raise awareness that in spite of equal access, we still are a class apart.
The act of changing our names and the facts of our birth place us in positions where we find it necessary to explain that we were adopted to strangers, and to be relegated as different and suspect by government employees. Mia’s copy of her original birth certificate contains an odd handwritten note, stating her name was “Corrected to” and her new name, followed by a date eight years after her date of birth.
The released copy of Mia’s original birth certificate is still shrouded in secrets, lies and bureaucracy – information that a Vital Records employee is allowed to know about her life, but she is not. When exactly was Mia’s birth certificate amended, and why was her record of her birth “corrected” (as if her birth was somehow incorrect) over eight years after she was born?
A stranger at Massachusetts Vital Records knows but can’t tell Mia. She’s not allowed to know.
Tags: adoptee rights · Amended Birth Certificate · Massachusetts · Original Birth Certificate1 Comment
