I am an American citizen with all the rights AND responsibilities that entails. I vote, serve on juries when called. I work in a service related industry supporting the disposal of waste and recycling. I try to spend my money on local businesses and American products to support my country.

I am a taxpayer. From my first part time job working at my local church (setting up the sound equipment, running the cameras, or helping with assorted jobs) to my current job as an IT Manager. While I prefer to pay fewer taxes, I do not cheat on them either.

I am a Veteran. Immediately after High School, I joined the Navy and served for eleven years before leaving with an Honorable Discharge to begin a family. I served in theatre during Desert Shield as my ship was one of the first in the gulf after the invasion. I am a lifetime member and supporter of the Veteran’s of Foreign Wars (VFW) and I am also a lifetime member and supporter of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV.)

With all these things, you would think I am proud to be an American, proud to be a member of one of the best countries, if not the best, in the world. However, I am not.

I am adopted.

To many, this means I should be grateful. I am expected to feel lucky to have been given a home when I wasn’t wanted. While I am happy and I did have great parents, I still have a longing; a longing to be treated just like so many other American citizens, a longing to know my roots, a longing to look into the eyes of another that are just like mine, a longing to have equal access to MY birth records and original birth certificate. However, I am not allowed. I am told that I have no right to this information that was sealed for my benefit.

Opponents of equal access say that opening records will increase abortions. However, states that have equal access policies, such as Tennessee and Oregon, have not had an increase in abortions and several have had a decrease.

Opponents of equal access say that birth parents were promised privacy but records were sealed to protect the children from the stigma of being a bastard. While there have been some isolated cases where birth parents were verbally promised privacy in recent years, time and time again this fallacy that all birth parents were promised privacy has been disproven. Tennessee even went so far as to say there is no privacy between blood relatives in these cases.

Opponents of equal access say there is no need to access these records and find our roots, yet every day we find more and more linked to genetics. This lack of knowledge affects not only us but our children, and their children. We even have a month of family history and the Surgeon General usually has a speech about how we need to document our family history for future generations while we all break bread together.

Opponents say that birth parents don’t want us to contact them yet in open states the birth parents who have denied contact have been in the low minority.

Only two groups of citizens have an amended birth certificate. One group, those in witness protection, chose this and can opt out. They also know their history. We were not given this option; instead we have had that history stripped from us and told to go away. That is unless we want to pay those same agencies that hold our records some money so that they may dole out small tidbits at their leisure.

You ran on a platform of change, of the peoples of America coming together, of reaching for what we know is possible. I believe this is possible and this is right. We are one of the few countries who still seal records. Let’s join the rest of the world in treating adoptees as full citizens, rather than second class.

Sign the Petition

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