Tag Archives: Adoptee Discrimination

Update to FAQs for Michigan adoptees seeking court orders for original birth records

I have updated my frequently visited “FAQS for court order requests in Michigan for original birth certificates” webpage.* I created this in 2018 for all Michigan-born adoptees and adoptee rights advocates, lawmakers, policymakers, and the media, explaining the process for securing an original birth certificate for adoptees, especially those born between 1945 and 1980. I hope these resources are helpful and provide information that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) will not share with tens of thousands of adoptees, as part of their concerted efforts to discriminate against this class of thousands of persons who were separated from their birth mothers and kin by this inequitable system.

In addition to updating links to MDHHS’s intentionally unhelpful web resources for adoptees, I  added this:

Will MDHHS ignore court orders to release an adoptee’s original birth certificate? [UPDATED NOV. 15, 2024]: Yes, MDHHS will ignore state law and will ignore court orders, based on my experiences requesting two additional copies of my original birth certificate in mid-August 2024. In my case, MDHHS took 80 days to release two copies of my original birth certificate after getting my order for rush service on Aug. 16, 2024. The process, as it occurred with denials and delays, violated not one but two court orders requiring MDHHS to release my vital record, as required by state law. I had to get a state court to intervene after I received a denial letter. The two birth certificates arrived on Nov. 4, 2024. (Note, I already had a standing court order from 2016 when I first won my legal fight for my vital record.) See my essay, video, and links to four other stories and videos documenting MDHHS’s actions that did not comply with state law and defied a Michigan state court and judge.

*Note, I have never made a penny from providing this resource to the public, outside of the incredibly modest sales I have of my book documenting the history of the U.S. adoption with a public health lens and how my story being separated from my biological family helps explain that system and the legal discrimination rooted in law harming millions of adoptees to this day.

Filing second request for my original birth certificate being illegally withheld by Michigan

On September 30, 2024, I submitted an additional and completely redundant court order compelling the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Vital Records office to release two copies of my original birth certificate.

The public health officials at Vital Records already were required by state law to release these records by a court order they received in 2016. Instead, the agency chose to flagrantly disobey the law. The two copies I requested were not released, as required by state law. The agency cashed my check and then coordinated a strategy with a Michigan court how to force an adoptee to take steps that are not prescribed by law. This has been a practice, according to a court official I spoke to anonymously, for two decades—and this is illegal.

I then requested and then received in late September 2024 the necessary court order from the 3rd Circuit Court of Michigan, in Detroit, ordering MDHHS to surrender the two original birth certificates I requested. This court order already was in the agency’s files.

I mailed in that order with a letter reminding MDHHS it had received my request for my records in mid-August six weeks earlier and was failing to adhere to the law.

This has happened to other adoptees in other states, where public health bureaucrats violate law and harm adoptees intentionally, often without any consequences and certainly no investigation of willful wrongdoing in managing critical vital records of a person’s original identity—the single most important vital record of all persons.

I am now waiting for my two original birth certificate copies.

This is the third video in my series documenting the state’s handling of vital records requests by adult adoptees, specifically those who have already secured a legal court order forcing the state to release a copy of an adoptee’s original birth certificate without any barrier such as requests for additional court orders for duplicate copies. I will post another video update on how Vital Records complies, finally, or continues to remain in violation of state managing vital records.

See my first video that I posted when I filed by request for two extra copies of my original birth certificate and my video made after I filed a request for a redundant court order that is not required by law for MDHHS to release my vital record it must do by law already.

Death finally takes my birth mother, did you come to gawk at the photo?

Rudy Owens took this photograph of his birth mother in 2009; what do you see and why are you looking at it now?

The entire time I have communicated about my history as an adoptee and the widespread denial of basic human and legal rights to all adoptees, I held a line.

That demarcation point, for me, represented a conscious act of power and an act of defiance.

Until today, April 27, 2024, I have never publicly published a photograph of my closest biological family relative that showed their face.

Here it is. Are you amused? Do you care?

On a few occasions I published very old pictures of my biological grandparents, on my maternal and paternal family sides. These are so buried in my archive, they are likely impossible to find. These photos are also old, and they are more like museum artifacts than documentation of blood lineage.

But now I have arrived at a new destination, because the Angel of Death arrived late this week.

In fact, I started writing this essay when my birth mother* was among the living, a day before her passing. Now she is among the dead, having died in a Michigan hospital this week after a long declining trajectory to death’s final clutches.

SEE COMPLETE ESSAY ON THIS WEBPAGE.

Talking way too much with ‘Adoption: The Making of Me,’ and it was fun!

When I was invited to be guest on the adoptee-centered podcast Adoption: The Making of Me, produced and published by podcasters and producers Louise Browne and Sarah Reinhardt, I expected this to be something new for me.

Outside of what I have published in my adoptee memoir, I refrain publicly from talking about my backstory with my biological mother, my family life before I left home at the age 18, and issues that I don’t share when discussing adoption legislative reform and adoptee rights advocacy.

This time, I knew it would be different, and it seemed OK.

(If you prefer, you can listen to the podcast here, on Apple Podcasts.)

Browne and Reinhardt asked me to talk about topics I mostly keep private. So I did. I highlighted issues such the very bad domestic abuse in my adoptive family, which I have written about before. I also discussed other issues growing up I mostly keep private, as I focus more on legislative and upstream reforms to end the inequities of this system. 

Hopefully this conversation may help some others, which is why it seemed right to do this. Within hours of it being published I received a comment from a fellow adoptee using words to describe my experience that I never use to this day describing my life as an adoptee or my life story. That is fine, because each of us can experience a story with our own points of view.

Some of the other issues we covered include the denial of equal legal rights to domestic adoptees in my birth state Michigan and other states. I also talked about the history of my birthplace, the long-closed adoption mill and maternity hospital in Detroit called Crittenton General Hospital. I even was able to discuss my Finnish heritage and provide comparisons of the United States to Finland, homeland to my maternal great grandparents on my mother’s family side. As we closed, I managed to sneak in a few quick facts–because I love facts!–that the Finnish government and its national health service supports mothers and kids, making adoption in Finland rare and almost nonexistent.

As we nearly completed our hour-long conversation, I painfully realized I did too much of the talking without enough time for conversation, and they graciously forgave this sin.

I really appreciated the wonderful talk and these two podcasters, who are doing a brilliant job allowing adopted persons to tell stories to help others understand the adoption experience, from the point of view by those who lived it and who are the experts. You can also catch copies of their podcasts on their YouTube channel. Visit their past interviews to listen and learn from the voices of those who know this issue in the marrow of their bones.

Thanks again, ladies!

Rudy Owens’ book reading will shed light on systemic inequities of the U.S. adoption experience

Rudy Owens holding his completed memoir.

Rudy Owens holds his completed memoir.

I am proud to announce my first book reading, and lecture, on my newly released memoir on the U.S. adoption experience, which examines the personal and public health impacts of this widespread American institution. 

If you are in the Portland area, please mark your calendar for the event:

What: Rudy Owens book reading and lecture on his memoir, You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are
Where: Tigard Public Library (13500 SW Hall Blvd., Tigard, OR 97223)
When: Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, 6-7:30 p.m.

The reading is free and open to the public.

The event is geared to adults, given the subject matter of unprotected sex, illegitimacy, the treatment of bastard infants historically, and the taboo topic of adoption as a system that legally discriminates against millions of U.S. adoptees solely on the basis of their status of birth. The reading will be highlighting the need for comprehensive legal and public health system reforms to restore all U.S. adoptees’ full legal and human rights to their original birth records.

Copies of my memoir will be available for sale at the event. Copies may also be purchased in advance online from several online booksellers. 

Please share this event listing with friends, coworkers, and family members who are impacted by the U.S. institution of adoption or who have an interest in human rights, civil rights, family separation, and women’s and reproductive rights. 

I have created a Facebook event page you are welcome to share as well. I hope to see you all there.

Find a press release for the book reading here.