Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #adopteevoices
Most recents (18)
Yes what’s required now is forceful political response.
I’ll get there. Please know that we #adoptees—institutionalized as infants, denied our vital records as adults, culturally viewed as “bad seeds”—are now seeing ourselves turned into a twisted rationale for inflicting harm.
I’ll get there. Please know that we #adoptees—institutionalized as infants, denied our vital records as adults, culturally viewed as “bad seeds”—are now seeing ourselves turned into a twisted rationale for inflicting harm.
This is massively traumatizing. I am NOT OK. Also please remember that the women who raised us suffered, by definition, from infertility and often repeated miscarriages. In many cases our adoptive mothers’ lives were saved by medical procedures now banned in many states.
My own adoptive mom, married and pregnant at 26, bled out and almost died from an ectopic pregnancy. When she woke up after emergency surgery she learned she’d had a partial hysterectomy and WASN’T PREGNANT ANYMORE. But she was alive. And it was a miracle.
Interactive map of all 50 US states showing which ones permit, restrict, or prohibit #adoptees from obtaining our original, unfalsified birth certificates. Thx, @adopteelaw! and hat tip to @naturenurture5 for bringing this to our attention adopteerightslaw.com/maps/
As of 3/22, just 10 states grant #adoptees the right to apply for and obtain their original unredacted birth certificate w/o restriction. In 16 states + DC, adoptee access to OBC is prohibited outright. In 24 “compromise” states, access is restricted or conditioned in some way.
Would love to hear more from fellow #adoptees born in the 24 compromise states.
I’m from IL which, since 2011, gives birth parents veto power over adoptee requests for identifying documents. Making the request for one’s own OBC a lady-or-the-tiger dilemma since what you get…
I’m from IL which, since 2011, gives birth parents veto power over adoptee requests for identifying documents. Making the request for one’s own OBC a lady-or-the-tiger dilemma since what you get…
🏳️🌈Happy Pride! Being gay + being adopted are two big parts of my identity. Years of secrecy obscured them both. Ergo I’m thrilled to be part of this @AdopteesUnited conversation by and about LGBTQIA+ adoptees. Join me! #adopteevoices
#twicequeer 🌈 adopteesunited.org/rainbow-adopte…
#twicequeer 🌈 adopteesunited.org/rainbow-adopte…
PS a third, very public part of my identity is as a biologist in service to the climate movement. Close observers have noticed I’m part of this film screening event on the same evening.
Yes I’m doing both. It all matters, and it’s all connected by the word DISPOSSESSION.
Yes I’m doing both. It all matters, and it’s all connected by the word DISPOSSESSION.
In sum, you’ll have to choose between the two events. I am in the film, am screening it early, and am able to do both events so no one needs to worry that I messed up my schedule. Which would not be out of character but in this case, I’m got executive functioning on my side. 😁
Many outside the #adoptee community seem shocked that Alito's draft opinion overturning Roe refers to the question of who will raise human beings as an issue of "supply and demand.'' Make no mistake -- this has been going on for nearly a century. #adopteevoices 🧵
As I learned in researching my book "American Baby," adoption has been a capitalistic transaction since the 1930s when state legislatures began passing secrecy laws to obscure the true nature of what was going on.
Millions of the #adoptees surrendered into the secret system that flourished in 48 states understand that the trajectory of their lives were determined by what was baldly referred to at the time as "supply and demand.''
I greatly appreciate all criticism of adoption coming from #AdopteeVoices.
I do want to caution queer people in particular that fostering queer teenagers, while far from perfect, is still something very much needed and something you can probably do more easily than you think.
I do want to caution queer people in particular that fostering queer teenagers, while far from perfect, is still something very much needed and something you can probably do more easily than you think.
I know from firsthand experience that fostering queer youth doesn't make you a saint, and you don't really save anyone bc that's not how life works.
It does however, have the potential to bring you great joy and fun when it's going well (alongside, admittedly, a some pain).
It does however, have the potential to bring you great joy and fun when it's going well (alongside, admittedly, a some pain).
At the very least you probably can give someone a safe place to stay and be an example of a queer adult who isn't dead, in jail, or addicted who would otherwise be shuffled around group homes bc there genuinely aren't families who will take them in.
Did a lot of people forget after an earthquake in Haiti, a Nice White Church Lady from the US was stopped at the border into the Dominican Republic with a bus full of kids and claimed she'd been given permission to just take X many children to put up for international adoption?
Not specific kids. Not even specifically orphans. She made up a license that let her go pick up displaced/evacuated kids (I think she had close to three dozen of them) from Haiti and take them to found an "orphanage" in the DR for international adoption (trafficking).
Here's an article about it.
Quote: "Silsby and her supporters say they just wanted to save youngsters from the chaos, disease and uncertainty of quake-ravaged Haiti."
White Saviorism isn't bad just because it's arrogant or rude. It's actively evil.
cleveland.com/world/2010/02/…
Quote: "Silsby and her supporters say they just wanted to save youngsters from the chaos, disease and uncertainty of quake-ravaged Haiti."
White Saviorism isn't bad just because it's arrogant or rude. It's actively evil.
cleveland.com/world/2010/02/…
45 years ago today I was handed to two strangers and my mother disappeared. I was 5 days old. #adopteevoices 1/
According to my (adoptive) mom’s account in my baby book, 2 of her friends had helped bring me home. According to my (biological) mother, she and her mother drove me to my new home, and personally handed me over. There was even a tour, or so I was told. 2/
And society at large wants me to be grateful for being given a life and opportunities I maybe wouldn’t have otherwise had, when all I can see is a terrified barely-17 year old being pushed by her mother to had over her 5 day old child to strangers. The first grandchild. 3/
This barcode tattoo on two strangers who are adopted - it’s had my brain spinning about since I saw it. They say it’s a family joke, and that it’s funny. But they don’t see that they’re the punchline. And it’s not funny at all. 1/
This tattoo thread, and the doubling down of how happy everyone is has bothered me so much because I was once the punchline of a long running family joke. It started when I was about their age, 20 or 21. I thought it was hilarious, and even played along. 2/
Until one day, a dozen years later, I saw it for what it was. And that I was the punchline the whole time. And that while my (adoptive) parents and extended family laughed along, they were really laughing at me. 3/
Thread for the non-adopted:
Like every #adoptee I’m still thinking about this week’s NYT exposé and want to offer historical, intersectional context for widespread belief that adoption is benevolent.
Stolen at Birth, Chilean Adoptees Uncover their Past
nytimes.com/2021/12/17/wor…
Like every #adoptee I’m still thinking about this week’s NYT exposé and want to offer historical, intersectional context for widespread belief that adoption is benevolent.
Stolen at Birth, Chilean Adoptees Uncover their Past
nytimes.com/2021/12/17/wor…
First, the Chilean baby-trafficking operation, which apparently brought thousands of infants to the US for adoption by white couples in the 1970s-80s, is not exceptional. It’s an old script first drafted during the Greek civil war in 1946 when conflict, chaos, and oppression…
…created a political smokescreen that allowed adoption networks to airlift and adopt out 3,000+ Greek infants/kids to US couples. This became the blueprint for large-scale, trans-national adoption to the US during the Cold War.
Adoption is trafficking. The willful naïveté of US adoptive parents to this fact is the fuel that keeps the machine going.
“Possibly thousands of Chilean adoptees taken from their parents without their consent during the country’s military dictatorship” nytimes.com/2021/12/17/wor…
“Possibly thousands of Chilean adoptees taken from their parents without their consent during the country’s military dictatorship” nytimes.com/2021/12/17/wor…
“Gen. Augusto Pinochet, actively encouraged overseas adoptions to reduce poverty. The process was abetted by a vast network of officials— including judges, social workers, health professionals and adoption brokers—who forged documents and are widely assumed to have taken bribes.”
This happened in the 1970s and 80s, and these US adoptees are just learning the truth now. That they were in fact stolen from their mothers. And none of this would have ever even come to light without DNA testing technology.
I've been learning a ton from #adopteetwitter #adopteevoices. Something I keep thinking about:
1) In some adoption cases (not sure how many), a mother relinquishes her baby for adoption because of economics; she can't afford to raise the baby.
time.com/6051811/privat…
1) In some adoption cases (not sure how many), a mother relinquishes her baby for adoption because of economics; she can't afford to raise the baby.
time.com/6051811/privat…
2) In the U.S., adoption via private agencies costs $60,000-$70,000.
Source:
americanadoptions.com/adopt/average-…
Source:
americanadoptions.com/adopt/average-…
3) We’re learning more about adoption relinquishment trauma, and we know that babies who have a loving bond with their birth mother have the best outcomes.
mariedolfi.com/adoption-resou…
mariedolfi.com/adoption-resou…
I want to welcome those of you who followed me after seeing my recent tweets about Amy Coney Barrett, forced birth, adoption, erasure, and misogyny. I want to thank everyone who listens to #AdopteeVoices and rejects the "disgruntled ingrate" framing used against us. (1/n)
Increasingly I have used Twitter to work through the implications of my two basic moral commitments as an adoptee in reunion:
1) Sealed birth records are a gross injustice and should be universally abolished;
2) Family preservation takes moral priority over family creation.
(2/n)
1) Sealed birth records are a gross injustice and should be universally abolished;
2) Family preservation takes moral priority over family creation.
(2/n)
I tweet about a lot of stuff, mainly libraries (I'm a public librarian), philosophy (I'm a PhD and erstwhile professor), and cycling (I love it & I do it year-round & it sucks here in Boston). Also (mild) shitposting. This account has no brand identity. (3/n)
Most of my followers here work on #climate. Also my life’s work. Or are part of the #LGBTQ STEM community. Where I also reside.
More recently, I tweet about adoption.
To mark the end of National Adoption Awareness Month #NAAM, I made a thread for all of you.
#adopteevoices
More recently, I tweet about adoption.
To mark the end of National Adoption Awareness Month #NAAM, I made a thread for all of you.
#adopteevoices
I want my climate activist friends and my LGBTQ brothers and sisters to know that it’s not okay to say you’ll “just adopt” if you want kids. Adoption is a corrupt industry that preys on poor women denied reproductive justice and denies basic civil rights to adoptees.
Among these are our right to our birth certificates. If you assume sealed records are not a thing anymore, you’re wrong. Good thread about the systemic harms of the adoption industry and the enduring falsifications/secrecies that are its hallmark features:
As a child, I would sit in front of my mirror with the family photo album looking for any bit of similarity between my face and theirs. I didn’t know I was adopted then, and yet I understood that I didn’t see myself in their faces. 1/
I played it off as having all recessive genes. My parents never knew how deeply this bothered me, because from the point of view as a child, I felt crazy for it. 2/
When my son was born, he looked exactly like it. He’s 8 now, and it’s still a phenomenon I cannot wrap my head around. I find myself staring at him and digesting all his features that are mine too. 3/
A 🧵 for my non-adopted friends: If a person talks about adoption in a negative way, please don’t dismiss it with a tale of your mailman’s sister’s neighbor’s daughter who had a “good experience”.
She is me.
And while I had a “good experience”, I am not ok for it. 1/
She is me.
And while I had a “good experience”, I am not ok for it. 1/
How many people do you know that will openly talk about their trauma with you? Adoptees are particularly good at keeping on a happy face because we’ve been asked to play pretend our entire lives. What you see on the surface in no way means there is not a war raging inside us. 2/
Exploiting an adoptee's trauma for entertainment is no better than adopted parents using their children's stories for personal gain. When we say listen to #adopteevoices, we mean directly from the source. #BoycottBlueBayou
COLONOSCOPY PSA for everyone age 40 and over*
*(with special message for #adoptees)
So I spent the last two weeks waiting for results from the pathology lab after my colonoscopy on 7/29 and I’m now here to tell you why you need to follow me into that procedure room, friends.
*(with special message for #adoptees)
So I spent the last two weeks waiting for results from the pathology lab after my colonoscopy on 7/29 and I’m now here to tell you why you need to follow me into that procedure room, friends.
I got the results yesterday. One of the two polyps found and removed from my body was almost certainly NOT going to turn into my assassin. But the other one was of the kind that can and do.
But it’s out now. And that means that mf-er is not going to be the cause of my death.
But it’s out now. And that means that mf-er is not going to be the cause of my death.
Here are the three great things about colon cancer. (All the other things about it are wretched and miserable.)
1) Unlike almost all other cancers, colon tumors go through predictable, progressive stages of growth and development before becoming deranged psychopaths.
1) Unlike almost all other cancers, colon tumors go through predictable, progressive stages of growth and development before becoming deranged psychopaths.
Friends, next Tues. I’ll be part of a public event @LoyolaChicago on endocrine disruption, infertility, sex and gender, inspired by @DrShannaSwan new book COUNTDOWN. We’re framing this issue in queer and trans positive ways. Join me? 🏳️🌈 @QueersInSTEM @500QueerSci @MarchForScience 
March 23, 9:30 am CDT. Event is free and open to the public but you need to register: luc.zoom.us/webinar/regist…
Warm invite also to the #adoptee community. This issue is about us, too. Declining fertility caused by exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals fuels more predatory adoption practices. You know I’ll be making that point. #adopteevoices
@GabrielleGlaser @llmunro
@GabrielleGlaser @llmunro
