Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Basic Human Rights

What does original identity mean to you? Check out this Adoptee rights video on youtube; it's very moving. Footage from the July 2009 adoptee rights protest in Philadelphia.

3 comments:

Andrea said...

Patricia made a comment about this video on my facebook page:

"I found this very very moving. I've read about but never seen the activist side of being an adoptee. Let me see....I love the logo with the tree. I love the ending with birth mother saying that it made her feel free. I was so surprised and actually proud in a funny way to hear the woman from Edmonton, Alberta (where I'm from) who has complete access to her file. Makes me realize I don't know much about the laws here--I did not know whether people here have access or how much! Hearing people say "I'm D.B. and I'm an adoptee" made me cry actually. I also wonder how people relate to their names--they may have had other names at birth but they can't find them out. (What does it feel like to read a document that lists you, the same person, with a different name?) I think "original identity"--names, dates, places--is sooooo taken for granted by someone like me--unadopted with two married parents. It's hard to imagine not having access to that info. I think that for a non-adoptee like me..."

Andrea said...

this is the second part of Patty's comment--see below.
..I can completely overlook the paper--because non-adoptees already have "the story" of their original identity. They get to live with that knowledge--the story, the relationships every day so it's easy to overlook the power of that paper. When you don't have the story, the relationships, nothing else that can point you towards that origin--I'm ... Read Morethinking that the paper becomes absolutely crucial...If adoptees had access to all of that in other ways, then I suppose the actual birth certificate might also not be as important. But otherwise, without it, without any other way of knowing, where do you start the story except with the birth certificate?

brave sunset said...

Hmmm, where to start. I felt a little sad watching the clip. I was fairly active in the Oregon campaign for adoptees to have access to their original birth certificates and it is something I believe in. I remember feeling the determination and the hope the adoptees in the clip portrayed. I did get my original birth certificate. My birthmom used an alias and I was baby girl "alias". This birth certificate may be the "original", but it was not real or true. This might be what frightens me most about our laws and the adoption process.