Missouri and Rhode Island both pass unclean bills
By way of just a brief post on two events of vast significance-
Missouri SB 351 and Rhode Island S 0478 SUBSTITUTE A have both been signed into law by their respective states’ Governors.
Personally, I view both as unclean bills, (others disagree with me about Rhode Island, viewing the age restriction as not “leaving anyone behind,” but this is my blog, my perspective, and I am gravely concerned about many aspects of what happened with this bill. (I’ll likely write more about this in the future.)
Rhode Island passed with an arbitrarily arrived at age restriction of 25, (down from an originally proposed 40!) meaning for now at least, from here forward, Rhode Island Bastards will only gain access to their Original Birth Certifcates upon reaching age 25.
This represents carving out a whole new class of those Bastardized by the state, those above the age of majority, yet still not deemed ‘worthy’ or ‘responsible enough’ to handle the facts of their own birth. It creates a whole new form of quasi-adulthood for Bastards to contend with.
Ironic, in that one can enlist in the military and be considered ‘responsible enough’ to make decisions concerning one’s own potential death, yet ‘not ready yet’ to deal with seeing one’s own authentic birth certificate.
The bill continues the long tradition of the state treating Bastards as ‘irresponsible children’ well into adulthood.
As for the Missouri bill, speaking as a former Missouri resident myself, I worked against this bill, and kept the Bastard Nation testimony against the bill as an “action alert” in my sidebar.
It cannot in any way shape or form be considered an authentic adoptee rights bill.
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