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I am deeply disappointed that Democracy didn't work in our favor today as we had all hoped it would.
This morning when the floor debate started, there were several of us in the gallery of the Texas House of Representatives. As a historic note, your "delegates" to this event were three adoptees (Joe Magill, Donna Little, Jana Spears), five birthmothers (Mary Cullinane, Paula Nielson, Kathy Campbell, Geri Bischoff, and me) and one adoptive mom (Geri, who's both).
We arrived in fairly high spirits.
You folks out there in Internetland along with offline supporters had fairly peppered the Representatives with e-mails, phone calls, and faxes over the past few days.
Paula and Mary had also papered the House with colored paper! The Reps on Monday received info under their doors and in their official desk packets..the Letters to Editor that appeared in the Dallas Morning News, testimonial letters from both AKA and TxCARE, fact sheets on HB 1835.
Not to mention that a half dozen of us had visited almost 125 reps on Monday and early this morning to hand out the blue fact sheets and explain that Representatives Tony Goolsby, Alex Rhodes and Elliott Naishtat had filed an amendment that would give adult adoptees access to their birth certificates to another adoption bill, HB 1091. And we'd already managed last week to get the author of HB 1091 (Rep. Toby Goodman) to agree to offer his own amendment to HB 1091, taking out the Confidential Intermediary language.
There was also the news about Barbara Bush which we smilingly shared with any aide or Rep who asked about the Governor planning to veto an adoptee access bill.
Response had been good. We had over 50 Representatives indicating support or probable support.
Yup, we were in high spirits.
From the front mike, Representative Goolsby gave a stirring opening statement about why he was offering the amendment. Before he started talking, the House had been noisy with everyone walking around on the House floor and carrying on little conversations. As Rep. Goolsby continued in a calm voice, though, it became pretty quiet. Representatives were actually listening as he told about being an adoptee and why adoptees deserved to have the same right to have their birth certificates as everyone else. He acknowledged the complexities of the issue, and spoke compellingly.
But, before he even finished, Representatives began lining up at the floor mike at the back of the hall. Since we were in the gallery - a shallow balcony that encircles the room - we had a view of almost everyone on the Floor.
Representatives at the mike began asking Rep. Goolsby questions and making comments. Some pro, some con. Rep. Goolsby was prepared. I could see him referring to Fred Greenman's letter!! (YES!!! He's the New York attorney-birth father who has worked on the Tennessee open records case and who wrote a testimonial letter about HB 1835.) Rep. Goolsby even read pertinent passages about open records NOT decreasing adoption rates or increasing abortion rates.
But, soon Representative Debra Danburg - a popular, long-time lawmaker from Houston - went to the front mike and became emotional as she told the story of her friend, a birthmother, who had been terrified that the child she relinquished would find her. Rep. Danburg sobbed openly as she told of her friend's later suicide.
The House was perfectly silent.
There was quite a bit of other floor testimony from Representatives. Adoptive parents Alex Rhodes and Leo Alvarado both voiced support for the amendment giving adoptees access.
But Rep. Charlie Howard, an adoptive parent from The Gladney Center, provided damaging testimony: He said he had been promised by Gladney that if his adopted children ever wanted to know about their birth family, they could have that information just by asking Gladney. (When he said this, Paula whispered NO!! and rose halfway out of her chair...I thought for a moment she was going to stand and shout (a la "Blossoms in the Dust") at the speaker.)
Then the vote started. It was a vote to TABLE Rep. Goolsby's amendment, but several of us thought it was a vote FOR/AGAINST the amendment. The "scoreboard" at the front of the House registers a red light for each "no" vote; a green light for each "yes" vote and I watched excitedly as the board became largely green...then realized this was a vote AGAINST the amendment...and against adoptee access.
Here's who voted WITH Representatives Goolsby, Rhodes and Naishtat to give adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates at age 21:
| Leo Alvarado | Norma Chavez | Joe Crabb |
| Diana Davila | Dawnna Dukes | Harryette Ehrhardt |
| Jessica Farrar | Kino Flores | Domingo Garcia |
| Helen Giddings | Pat Haggerty | Will Hartnett |
| Fred Hill | Scott Hochberg | Terri Hodge |
| Ken Marchant | Glen Maxey | Tommy Merritt |
| Rene Oliveira | Ron Wilson | Steven Wolens |
| Ken Yarbrough |
I urge you to tell each of these Representatives and the amendment sponsors - Representatives Goolsby, Naishtat and Rhodes - THANK YOU. Once again, the address for all is:
We had far more support than from the above group as the floor debate began. One of the amendment sponsors believes the Danburg testimony was the turning point.
He added that we should all be proud of ourselves...we got to the House floor... it's a historic moment.
I agree with his assessment.
Thanks to all of you who helped get HB 1835 to the floor of the House. There are too many to name individually, but you know who you are.
Get your own Free Home Page
If you know of other states that have current adoption
legislation pending, write to the WebMistress.