Since some people are alleging I didn’t care about the agency involvement, only the low number of potential attendees, I wanted to set the record straight.

(All times in the below are Eastern Standard time)

I told other Adoptee Rights Demonstration organizers at 7:38pm Thursday May 29th:

Point blank had I known about the Abrazo aspect to all this I would have resigned.

This deserves a LOT more discussion than it’s going to get in light of it being overshadowed by everything else.

This was mere hours after Amy revealed at 11:13am to us that Abrazo had been fundraising (off our event without our knowledge). She saw nothing wrong with the fundraising, if anything she appeared to think it was wonderful.

My words above are basically my first response after reading the e-mail from Amy, the time delay is real life folks.

At 6:48pm Ron had also said he had made arrangements to talk with Abrazo the following day (Friday May 30th.)

(The below are SOME of my posts about my concerns about Abrazo, others may make it into another blog post at a later date.)

At 11:14pm on the 29th I said:

I will be holding off on my personal decision on involvement until after we hear back from Ron about tomorrow’s phone call with Abrazo.

At 12:06am On Friday May 30th, I said:

Well, I think the agency aspect needs to be addressed. Obviously tomorrow will be the day that happens but I think it’s pretty damn important.

(I also think there are many other issues as well.)

Tonight anyway, I just see people barging ahead as if nothing happened and not addressing what the agency aspect really means.

At 9:30pm Friday May 30th news about the call reached me

At 9:51pm and 10:07 pm I stated my opinion of what I thought we should do.

Then at 11:23pm I resigned.

At 1:43 am May 31, 2008, I placed the following on the adult adoptees forum:

I and my partner, Sleeps with Bastard will not be in N’awlins this July.

I have resigned as the Adoptee Rights Demonstration/Day for Adoptee Rights March/Protest Volunteer Trainer and Head Monitor.

And not long thereafter placed my resignation here on my blog)

Amyadoptee remains proud of her support of Abrazo Adoption Associates and apparently does not believe she did anything wrong despite her own blog post directing people into Abrazo’s facebook fundraising.

Yes, this means a person subscribed to the Adoptee Rights Demonstration organizer mailing list was simultaneously (See the May 29th 2:33pm date on her post) encouraging donors to give money to the adoption agency itself. (An agency, who was collecting the funds into their own 501c3, using our event without our knowledge or consent at the time.)

This was vastly problematic to some of us.

See her two blog entries:

Regarding Bastard Nation’s Withdrawal

Onto Other Things

To the best of my knowledge she is still currently an organizer with the Adoptee Rights Demonstration.

Abrazo continues to fundraise on facebook. As I am no longer with the Adoptee Rights Demonstration I am not ‘in the know’ to know whether this is now with explicit permission from the current organizers of the Adoptee Rights Demonstration or not.

But even if they now have consent, that most certainly doesn’t change the history nor the circumstances much of that was collected under.

Bastard Nation, my partner Mike/Sleeps with Bastard and I (who were not acting on behalf of any organization in our DAR work, I described myself as a “God Damn Independent” or GDI) as well as others have stepped away from the event in no small part due to the Abrazo involvement.

Once again, quoting the Bastard Nation Withdrawal Statement:

BN has a long-standing, hard-line policy of accepting no support from the adoption industry. Bastard Nation specifically, and the adoptee rights movement in general, cannot and should not be co-opted or used by the adoption industry to promote its own agenda. We disavow all industry involvement in our work. Any entanglement with the adoption industry endangers the integrity and credibility of the adoptee rights movement.

That is close enough to my personal stance. I don’t knowing consent to work with industry money as a matter of personal policy. Particularly an agency the likes of Abrazo Adoption Associates.