Lynn Grubb

Photo credit:   Adoptees United, Inc. By Lynn Grubb, President, Adoptee Rights Coalition California born-and-adopted people have been waiting a long time for unrestricted access to their original birth certificates.  Ever since 2019, when New York restored unrestricted access to adoptees , ending 83 years of inequality, Adoptionland has been holding it’s breath that California would follow suit. California’s current laws are some of the most restrictive in the country and endorse shame and secrecy from a bygone era. With  95 % of adoptions having some form of openness , California adoptees rightfully expect to be treated as equal citizens. Under current law, the only way to obtain an adopted person’s original birth certificate (OBC) is to petition a judge for a court order after proving good cause. It was a happy day when on February 16, 2024, California Senate Bill 1274 was introduced by Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman , Chair of the Senate Health Committee. Sen. E...

  “Caught in the Middle” By Julie Ryan McGue The needle on my inner compass leans towards positive. So, when I consider my adoption, I tease out two things for which I can be grateful. In the Baby Scoop Era during which I was adopted, the firm policy at Catholic Charities was to place multiples in the same adoptive family. I can’t imagine advancing through life without my identical twin sister as a collaborator, confidante, and co-conspirator. And I’m glad I waited until I became a middle-aged woman with scores of lived experiences before tackling adoption search and reunion. Adopted together as infants, we seemed always to have known about our adoption. Ours was a closed adoption, so our adoptive parents were given no information about our first family. Two years later, our parents adopted a little boy, and then as so often happens, my mother’s infertility issues abated. By the time we became teenagers, my twin and I were the oldest of six, a blended family of three adoptees and t...