New Jersey

There is a significant possibility that New Jersey’s botched legislation, SCS1406  (SCS799/1399)  has been pulled for this session.

But this is no time to become complacent.

We must keep the pressure on: keep educating, keep communicating with lawmakers and the Governor, and keep working for nothing short of restored equality.

Those advocating in support for this sorry excuse for a bill intend to continue to work through the summer to push this bill and have it or similar legislation reintroduced at a later date.

Like the part in a horror movie where the “everything’s better music” kicks in, just before the monster pops back out to inflict dire harm, too many people assume once a bill has been pulled for the session they need not to worry about it anymore.

They couldn’t be more mistaken.

Those pushing this mangled bill want it to rise from the dead, to haunt the next session, (and likely the session after that, and the session after that at this rate ) as they capitulate, trading away a few rights here, a few people there… .

After all, once a bill’s advocates show a willingness to trade the human/civil/ and identity rights of subsets of people away, it then becomes merely an ongoing process of:

• Whose?
• How many?
• And what else are they willing to cede?

(Not that they were ever given the authority to trade certain people’s rights away by those directly affected, certainly not in the case of the kids who have yet to even be born!)

Legislators understand these people are willing to surrender other’s (And potentially their own) human rights, from there, it’s just a matter of what’s their price?

OR legislators can simply chose to do what they’ve done for the last 30 years, refuse to bring this process to any end, and keep stringing people along year after year after year. Each and every year people come back for it, willing to play “let’s make a deal” all over again.

Like a Vampire, they want this abomination to rise again (just when some hoped it was dead) and continue to threaten the genuine rights of adopted people, New Jersey’s abandoned and boarder babies, and their families.

Rather than pulling it entirely and coming back with a completely clean bill, one that would insist on nothing less than full equality for all those born in New Jersey, those favoring this deform legislation want to come back for more.

Much as I’m partial to a good Vampire flick, legislation this bad is a far greater horror than anything found in the movies.

It’s past time to throw some garlic on this fatally flawed bill, drive a stake through its “heart”, drag it out into the sunlight and watch it burn, and chop of its “head” just to be on the safe side.

Horrific legislation like this needs to go the way of all   “undead” Vampires come the clear light of day.

Sunlight is after all, the best disinfectant. It’s a solid cure for secrets, lies, and fake fanged beasties alike.

New Jersey’s abandoned kids, adoptees, their families all need their rights intact and their full equality, not another legislative horror that ensures some will be locked behind sealed records or vetoes for decades to come.

Bastard Nation Action Alert

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

NEW JERSEY UPDATE: Adoptees’ Birthright Bill Reported Shelved Until Fall–But Act Now to Kill It

Unofficial word (that is, it’s not on the New Jersey Leg website yet) is that the Adoptees’ Birthright Bill has been shelved until fall. According to news distributed earlier today to various lists, rumors of Gov. Chris Christie’s possible veto are very real. (Once it appears, I’ll link the official notice of postponement here.)

The following message came from NJCare under Pam Hasegawa’s signature. It reads in part:

From: Pam Hasegawa
To: jerseyAd-vocates JerseyAd-vocates , NJadopt _network , ANS Adoption-News-Service , Adoption Umbrella

After consulting with prime sponsors and other co-sponsors we reached a consensus that it is in our best interest to avoid a veto or conditional veto by the Governor. With at least one meeting scheduled with the Governor’s staff next month, the Adoptees’ Birthright Bill was removed from the board list of bills to be considered by the Assembly this Thursday.

Actually, Thursday has become a committee meeting day and the final vote on the budget will be next Monday. Then recess until September.

We will continue through the summer reaching out to legislators who have reservations, do more research (will need help with this), and will depend on your continued letters, prayers and encouragement as we look toward conversation with the governor’s staff (and, hopefully, Governor Christie himself.

NJCare plans to work this summer to convince the Assembly and Christie to support the bill. We’ll work, too: to kill it.

Bastard Nation was just about to send out a new action alert for you to contact the Assembly. We still want you to contact the Assembly (and Gov. Christie), so see the action alert directly below this blog for talking points.

BUT, with this additional information:

Bastard Nation has acquired a copy of NJCare’s contact and head count list; that is, an indication where each Assembly member stands on the bill. Go here, print it out, and make contact.

Also, see BLC’s blog: New Jersey S1406 (A1406/S799): Action Alert and Also Update, a detailed and thoughtful analysis of this greatly flawed bill’s implications for New Jersey and the rest of the country.

The Assembly and Gov. Christie cannot hear enough from those of us who support real bastard rights and not sloppy seconds.

Say it loud and say it proud:

I’m a bastard. I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!

Rhode Island

The Rhode Island General Assembly has adjourned for the year thankfully, without pushing through H7877/S2759 the horribly mangled original birth certificates access, (and lack there of) bill , not surprising considering they also failed to pass the latest version of an ethics bill, among other such casualties.

This article, Senator Perry: RI adoption-records bill appears dead, from back on June 10th explains some of  the thinking behind what happened near the end of the session. “Senate leadership” was pushing the bill to become prospective only with a veto, to Senator Perry’s credit he rejected the proposal: