On Jan. 3, 2020, The Detroit Free Press published my guest column on Michigan’s discriminatory and restrictive adoption records law that denies Michigan’s adoptees legal access to their original birth records, except by overcoming restrictive barriers.
In my adoptive sister’s case, she falls in the 35-year period, between 1945 and 1980, for which the state statutes have almost impossible barriers for an adoptee to overcome to get what is theirs as a legal and human right. My sister, who is seriously ill and bedridden in a skilled nursing home, will likely die in the near future without knowing her biological kin, her biological parents, and her ancestral past.
This unfortunate outcome is intentional. In fact, this scenario was the design of those who created Michigan’s biased law that is zealously enforced by Michigan’s vital records guardians at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
My sister and I both were born in these post-World War II boom years of adoption, that saw nearly 3 million adoptees separated from their biological kin through the U.S. adoption system.
It is no coincidence that Michigan’s lawmakers adopted the most restrictive rules for adoptees in this cohort, because records secrecy continues to hide from the public how widespread and systemic that system was in the United States, impacting literally millions of Americans.
My book on my own experience challenging this discriminatory records-keeping system details how adoption history has been hidden, preventing adoptees from knowing themselves and their past and the public from knowing the truth about the many players who promoted this system for decades.
Author note: The guest column published by The Detroit Free Press has slight changes from the original I submitted, without changing the substance of the submitted column.
Rudy,
I am sorry to hear of your sister’s health and dilemma.
I too was adopted in 1967 and was reunited with my birth mother last January, luckily navigating the confidential intermediary system. You described the Michigan system as byzantine and an accurate description it is. One of the oddest pieces in this process was answering the Adult Adoptee Self Report Form which asked of all things, “Did you have childhood fantasies about the birth mother or birth father?” There is no fantasy that I was removed from my mother and father and my extended family.
This system, while intended for a good solution, has created vastly worse outcomes. My case is that my birth father was never told of my birth, which is contrary to the story told to me by the adoption agency. He passed away three years ago, both of us never granted our time together.
It did not need to be this way.
Keep up the good work.
Here is an interview I gave for Michigan Radio in 2015: https://www.michiganradio.org/post/adult-adoptee-searches-heritage-not-only-himself-his-kids
Kind regards,
John Stempien
John, thanks for your comment and for sharing your radio interview on your story. I’m glad you were able to attract the interest of the media. That’s hard to do. I’m sorry you never met your biological father, but good to know you finally connected with your birth mother and now hopefully have some answers for you and your family. In my book I describe the evidence that shows confidential intermediary systems fail. I personally believe it’s absurd, demeaning, and immoral to have anyone mediate another person’s family relations. The one I contacted in Michigan to discuss adoption policy issues supports the state’s discriminatory law denying all adoptees what is theirs as a legal and human right. I’ve had other adoptees tell me that this same person also provides misinformation that an OBC essentially will never be released–contrary to what I did. The state’s entire system is woefully out of date and needs to be reformed with legislation that brings Michigan into the 21st century and follows the lead of 10 states that all adult adoptees unfettered access to their original birth certificates.