Latest

Is This the Year for Iowa? No.

First published on March 6, 2019 • Last updated on April 23, 2019

Clean bills have made it out of the first legislative “funnel”—a deadline in Iowa for bills to be voted out of committee.

Essential FAQ About the New York Bills

First published on February 26, 2019 • Last updated on February 26, 2019

Quick and honest answers to questions you may have about the Weprin/Montgomery Bill, a clean adoptee rights bill in New York that I support.

Florida Bill: Reunion Required to Get Your OBC

First published on January 31, 2019 • Last updated on March 13, 2019

Florida HB597 requires reunion with a birthparent before an adult adoptee can even apply for the OBC. That’s not at all a “small step” forward.

Can You Crowdsource Equal Rights Legislation?

First published on December 27, 2018 • Last updated on May 22, 2023

Help draft a clean Minnesota bill that provides an unrestricted right for all adult adoptees to obtain their own original birth records upon request.

What We Overlook

First published on December 26, 2018 • Last updated on December 26, 2018

We is almost always exclusive, and it is defined by those who speak it. Who are “we” overlooking in adoptee rights?

A Year of Donated DNA Test Kits

First published on November 27, 2018 • Last updated on November 29, 2018

Whatever identity you have worn or celebrated or endured during this past November of “adoption” awareness, please consider donating a bit to assist adult adoptees with DNA.

Midterms and Adoptee Rights

First published on November 1, 2018 • Last updated on November 1, 2018

As part of an upcoming gathering of national and local adoptee rights advocates in Austin, Texas, I am putting together resources on what to expect from key states after upcoming midterm elections.

Open Letter to Florida Representative Richard Stark

First published on October 25, 2018 • Last updated on March 3, 2019

I ask that you support this proposed legislation and that you decline to introduce legislation that fails to provide adult adoptees with the unrestricted right to obtain their own OBCs.

Me and States and Stuff

First published on August 1, 2018 • Last updated on August 1, 2018

Where we stand with state OBC laws, what I’m seeing and working on, and where things may be going from here.

Getting an Arkansas Original Birth Certificate

First published on July 28, 2018 • Last updated on August 1, 2018

Discussion, questions, and a flow chart to help people understand how the new Arkansas OBC law works as well as its discriminatory limitations.

Arizona. Arizona implemented a "donut hole" provision in a new law, which became effective on January 1, 2022. It allows only some adoptees to request the OBC--- based on their date of birth---but denies the right to obtain the OBC to the vast majority of Arizona-born adopted people. Read more.

Arkansas.While Arkansas law allows adult adoptees to request their adoption files, the request is subject to a birthparent's ability to redact their names on the original birth certificates. A FAQ with information about the law and its requirements and discriminatory limitations is here.

California. Adult adoptees do not have a right to request and obtain their own original birth certificates, except by court order. Adoptees must petition the court and show “good and compelling cause” in order to obtain a copy of their own original birth record. Read more.

15 UNRESTRICTED
19 COMPROMISED
17 RESTRICTED
51 VIEW ALL
What do these mean? Some maps and an explanation.</>