Since I have been “bastardized” by New York State, I resent my true birth certificate confiscated from me, locked away in a vault for the only reason that I was adopted. It is not the circumstance of my birth that must be hidden, but the mere technicality that society has deemed me, along with other adoptees, to be segregated and kept as prisoners. As you know, I was born to married parents, so, technically, I never was a bastard. But, as Damsel Plum pointed out to me in 1996, the State made me a bastard.

It makes me sad to think that a year and a half ago, I was for this bill. Having been distracted by other parts of life, I now read this post and glad I did. Sorry dear friends in New Jersey, I can’t support your bill. I’m not even a real bastard, but I am an adoptee. I have lost my freedoms and stand to fight for true equality with non-adoptees.

Mothers have the same guarantee of privacy accorded to every citizen. No other confidentiality guarantees other than those already promised by the Constitution and HIPAA Laws were offered.

Nor were mothers forbidden from ever knowing the outcome for their child lost to adoption. In fact, at the time of my surrender, adoptees could still access their records in my state on their 18th birthday. That changed before he turned 18, but well after I surrendered.