• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

New York Adoptee Rights Coalition

We work to restore the right of adult adoptees in New York to obtain their original birth certificates without conditions or restrictions.

  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
  • The Law
  • Latest
  • Join
    • Organizations

New York Ends 83 Years of Inequality for Adopted People

June 21, 2019 By New York Adoptee Rights Coalition

The following press release has been issued by the New York Adoptee Rights Coalition in response to passage of S3419/A5494 in the New York Assembly on June 20, 2019.

Press Inquiries:

Annette O’Connell
New York Adoptee Rights Coalition
[email protected]

The New York State Assembly overwhelmingly approved a bill on Thursday that ends 83 years of iron-clad secrecy over the birth certificates of adult adopted persons. The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman David I. Weprin, will restore a right that New York adoptees once had: the right as adults to request and receive their own pre-adoption birth records. The vote was 140-6 in the Assembly, with the Senate passing the measure 56-6 in early June. It is expected to be signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Advocates have been working on equal rights legislation across the country for more than 50 years, going back at least to Jean Paton in Michigan and New York adoptee Florence Fisher, considered two of the founders of the adoptee rights movement in the early 1970s.

“This is and has always been about equality and doing what’s right for all New York adoptees,” said Annette O’Connell, an adoptee from Orange County and the spokesperson for New York Adoptee Rights Coalition. “We worked tirelessly to answer questions, dispel myths about this issue, and to come back from the dark days in 2017 when the legislature passed a prior discriminatory bill. Fortunately, Governor Cuomo vetoed that bill, and the people of New York have now spoken to reverse 83 years of discrimination.”

“Knowing who we are and where we came from is critical not only to understanding our heritage, but for knowing our health history and any risks it might pose,” Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat from the Bronx, said in a statement announcing passage of the bill.

“Our outdated laws are designed to protect the anonymity of birthparents who may not have even requested it, with no regard for the needs of the adoptee. Today’s legislation will deliver equality for all New York adoptees,” said Assemblyman David I. Weprin from Queens.

“New York has finally and unequivocally endorsed the right of all people to possess their own heritage and identity,” said Claudia Corrigan D’Arcy, a birthparent and outreach director for Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York. “It also represents the incredibly hard work of legislators the thousands of New Yorkers and civil rights advocates who demanded a change in the law.”

“For more than 80 years New York adoptees endured a humiliating, frustrating, costly, and rarely successful process when they requested their own vital records,” said Marley Greiner, Executive Chair of Bastard Nation, one of the oldest and largest adoptee rights organizations in the United States. “The passage of S3419 has finally reversed that discrimination and will repeal a Depression-era law that had prevented adults from possessing their own original birth certificates.”

With Governor Cuomo’s expected endorsement, New York will become the tenth state to recognize or restore the right of adoptees to obtain a copy of their own original birth certificates. With New York now leading on this issue in the United States, other states may soon follow.

“Hundreds of thousands of people were born and adopted in New York and tens of millions of families are linked to those adoptees or to adoption in some way,” said Gregory D. Luce, an attorney and founder of the Adoptee Rights Law Center. “It’s hard to underestimate what this bill signals and what the leadership of Governor Andrew Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, Senator Velmanette Montgomery, and Assembly Member David Weprin will mean for equal rights legislation in other parts of the country. New York got it right. It has made it equal for adopted people and it has now set the bar for other states to follow.”

###

Filed Under: Latest News Tagged With: Press Release

About NYARC

The New York Adoptee Rights Coalition works to restore the right of all adult adoptees in New York to obtain their own original birth certificates, without conditions or restrictions. Join Us • Read More…

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Florence S Ginter says

    June 21, 2019 at 1:59 pm

    This is so wonderful! A little late for people like my son, who recently died, but for those who survived, it is such good news! It will fill a void that adoptees feel in not being able to relate to the matter of who they are and where they came from! Years and years of searching and wondering will now come to an end. Thank you Governor Cuomo and the Legislature for this. You have my vote of confidence!!

  2. Beth I Phillips- Gerley says

    June 21, 2019 at 11:13 pm

    Happy to hear of this news.

  3. Jeanette Yoffe says

    June 22, 2019 at 12:26 am

    Thank you for all of your hard work! It took me 15 years to find my birth mother and she was all the way in Argentina, when she had me in New York City. This will end the agony for the next generations to come, so that they won’t have to suffer like we did! History has been made! Amends no more.

  4. Bill Finch says

    June 22, 2019 at 6:50 pm

    It’s pretty amazing that this was done to us in the first place. Heartless and probably unconstitutional.

    Bill Finch
    Bridgeport, CT

  5. Janet Wander Craven says

    June 22, 2019 at 7:39 pm

    I have always wanted to know my nationality and where my ancestors came from. Thank goodness all adopted can.

  6. John Q. Public says

    June 23, 2019 at 12:27 am

    How does this affect adoptees who don’t want this info? Can birth family members (parents or siblings or others) or anyone else request it without the consent of the adopted?

    • Gregory Luce says

      June 23, 2019 at 8:42 am

      Note: Commenter had a question that she did not later want public, so this is in answer to that.

      If the adoptee is alive, then the OBC is available only to the adoptee—if 18 years of age—or to that adoptee’s legal representative (e.g., if the adoptee is under a guardianship order of some sort). If the adoptee is deceased, the OBC of that adoptee is available to the adoptee’s direct line descendants, basically children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, on down the line.

      —Greg

  7. Betty Molina says

    July 3, 2019 at 6:02 am

    I WISH ITS WAS LIKE THIS EVERYWHERE.
    AND I WISH IT WASNT SO HARD TO FIND YOUR BIRTH PARENTS…..EXPECIALLY WHEN YOU KMOW THIER NAMES …..AND HAVE A LEGIT BAPTISUM CERTIFICATE WIYH THIER NAMES ON IT ….I RECENTLY FOUND MY BLOOD UNCLE…AFTER SEARCHING SINCE I WAS 18…..

Primary Sidebar

Where Do I Apply?

Organizations that Support Us

The following organizations, while not core partners, support the work of the New York Adoptee Rights Coalition.

  • AdoptieZaken & Familierecht (AZF/Netherlands)
  • California Open
  • Canada Open Records
  • Concerned United Birthparents
  • Equality for Adoptees
  • Indiana Open
  • Italiadoption
  • Know Your Own
  • Michigan Open Records
  • Minnesota Coalition for Adoption Reform
  • Missouri Open
  • National Center on Adoption and Permanency
  • New York Genealogical and Biographical Society
  • Nevada Open
  • Post Adoption Center for Education & Resources (PACER)

Latest News and Actions

UPDATE: New York State Applications

New State Directive Addresses Adoptees Born Outside of New York

UPDATE: New York State Numbers

Current Coalition Partners

  • Adoptee Rights Law Center
  • Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York
  • Bastard Nation

 

Strategic Partners
  • Reclaim the Records

About NYARC

The New York Adoptee Rights Coalition works to restore the right of adult adoptees in New York to obtain their original birth certificates without conditions or restrictions.

Join Us

Footer

Stay Connected

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Copyright © 2023 · New York Adoptee Rights Coalition · Home · Join