Adoptee Rights Struggle
Texas 2008-2009
The demonstration on Saturday, March 29, 2008 in front of the Worthington Hotel in Fort Worth was a success! The 120th Anniversary Celebration for the Gladney Adoption Center was happening inside while we worked outside. See photographic record linked below.
Photos & stories from 3-29-08 demonstration
March 29, 2008 6:00 pm
Demonstration and Educational Event
outside the Worthington Hotel
during the
Gladney Adoption Center
120 Year Anniversary
Celebration
The Tarrant County Court House, at the end of Main St.
(above) in Fort Worth,
is where too many adoption records are
sealed from the very people in whose
alleged "best interest" they were sealed. It is also where, after
legal attempts to know their own history, too many adults were denied access to their own records
simply because they were adopted.
The street corner to the left above is where we will be demonstrating for equal rights for adoptees the evening of 3-29-08 beginning at 6:00 PM. The more volunteers we have to carry signs, such as the one to the right, into the above picture, the more successful our educational event will be. The Edna Gladney movie character from "Blossoms in the Dust" would be there with us if a movie character could be brought to life.
At http://www.gladney120th.com/ you can see the planned events for the 120 Year Anniversary Celebration for The Gladney Adoption Center. Since the Gladney Adoption Center has led the effort to deny adoptee rights to their own history, a demonstration and information sharing is planned outside the Worthington Hotel the evening of March 29, 2008 before and during their 120th Anniversary Gala inside. At this time the other 120th Anniversary events are not targeted so we may concentrate on this Saturday evening event.
It is planned to have all demonstration volunteers gather in front of the Worthington Hotel in downtown Fort Worth at 6:00 PM. We will have a minimum of three teams working. Each team will have one person, with one of the three two-sided signs pictured above, and at least one person handing out flyers near each sign. The flyers will be about the history of equal access issues for adoptees to their own birth records and genetic history. Recent research on these critical issues will be included. Anyone touched by adoption is invited to join us in this protest and represent their own concerns related to being denied their genetic history, or their birth or adopted child being denied their accurate genetic history, due to the legislative efforts of Gladney Adoption Center. There will be extra signs if you let us know you are coming and need them. Help passing out flyers is also needed. You are certainly welcome to make your own signs with your own message.
Adoptees may want to have signs such as: "Gladney celebrates their history while denying me mine." Adoptee
The sign the three teams will be using is the sign in the above photo.
The goal is to begin targeting the adoptee struggle for equal rights directly at the adoption agency leading national efforts to deny adoptees their rights. Their efforts are certainly not in keeping with the Edna Gladney portrayed in "Blossoms in the Dust." If Edna Gladney were alive today, she would be out here with us, demanding an end to the theft of children's identities and the return of such a basic human right.
One of the many modern equivalents of Edna Gladney, fighting for adoptee rights, is Madelyn Freundlich. On the pages at http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/research/2007_11_for_records.php you can see the most recent research by her as she clearly documents the truth about the struggle of adult adoptees for their own records.
Volunteers are encourage to contact Bill Betzen (214-957-9739 & bbetzen@aol.com), or Karen Joiner-Brown Blenanger (214-962-0648 & Karen_Belanger@tx.rr.com ), or Linda Burns (512-629-5101 & momoburns@yahoo.com) who is driving with her husband and a friend from Austin to join us. These three are working together as coordinators for the many volunteers gathering at the Worthington in Fort Worth, starting at 6:00 PM on the evening of Saturday, March 29, 2008. Please plan to be polite and respectful of everyone you meet. There is reason to believe the adoptive families attending this event may not be aware of the adoption issues involved. They may be victims as well.
Here is a link to the handout document we will be giving out to the public during this demonstration. It includes a listing of the six leading national U.S. Adoption Organizations who support adoptee access to their own birth records. If any members of the public are very interested in these issues we will also have available the six page Executive Summary of "For The Records: Restoring a Legal Right for Adult Adoptees" This is the research by Madelyn Freundlich, mentioned above, that was published in November 2007.
After this 3-29-09 event, the next planned public demonstration for adopee rights will happen in New Orleans on Tuesday July 22, 2008. It will be a demonstration at the National Conference of State Legislature’s Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA, July 22th, 2008. The National Conference of State Legislatures is the largest group of its kind, its the national organization of STATE LAWMAKERS, the people who DECIDE legislative proposals about whether adoptees may access their records OR NOT. See details and sign up at http://adopteerights.net/nulliusfilius/?page_id=18
"We do not want to leave a legacy of
genetic secrecy
for the generations who follow us."
The photo above was taken from the location of the red X
in the satellite photo below. The front of the Worthington covers two city blocks with the
building going over top of Houston St., first street west of Main St. The east
Worthington entrance is for hotel guests with the west entrance being the ballroom entrance.
Most guests for the Gala will enter the west ballroom entrance unless they park
their own cars in the enclose garage.
The photo below was also taken from the same intersection
where the red X is in the photo above.
It faces west past the two block long front of the
hotel where most of the work Saturday evening will happen.
Your questions and ideas are welcome.
Bill Betzen
bbetzen@aol.com.