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U.S. NEWS Thursday 16 January 2020

Adoptees can access birth certificates under new NY law

By MARINA VILLENEUVE Rights Law Center, based
Associated Press in Minnesota, said it was
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New rare for New York courts to
York has become the 10th grant access to birth certifi-
state to allow adopted cates, with exceptions be-
adults unrestricted access ing made occasionally in
to their original birth certifi- cases involving people with
cates, a step that will help potentially genetic medi-
some people investigate cal issues, or individuals
their family histories. seeking help with citizen-
A new law effective ship questions.
Wednesday does away "It really was one of the top
with restrictions dating five most restrictive states in
back to the 1930s that re- the country and had been
quired an adoptee to seek that way since 1936," Luce
a hard-to-get court order said.
to access original birth re- Concerns about privacy
cords. and confidentiality have
Those rules had originally long fueled opposition from
been intended to protect groups including the Na-
the privacy of parents who tional Council for Adoption,
relinquished their children. an adoption advocacy
But attitudes about the April Green, left, a public records aide, helps Joan Morgan, center, of Mt. Kisco, N.Y., and Joseph group first founded in 1980
rights of adopted individu- Pessolano, second from right, from the borough of Staten Island, as they file their pre adoption in part to fight adoptees'
als have shifted, while so- birth certificate application, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020, in New York. access to birth records.
cial media and DNA tech- Associated Press But president Chuck John-
nology have made it easier ers who don't want to be tion decree, which hap- and thought, 'Gee he looks son said the group's per-
for long-separated relatives found," Bahr said. pened to include his birth so familiar,'" Pessalono said. spective has evolved as a
to connect. Some Catholic groups, name: Christopher Antho- "I realized he worked in this growing body of research
Restrictions in New York and adoption agencies, and ny Ray. It's an important de- deli. He worked there and suggests the vast majority
nationwide dated back to some birth mothers and tail — often found on birth would serve me my break- of women who place their
a time when many women adoptive parents, had op- certificates — that gave fast in the morning. I would children for adoption are
were coerced or shamed posed lifting the privacy him an edge over others remember him walking his open to reunions.
into giving up their babies, restrictions over fear about in searching for birth par- dog in the street. It was so "As states have looked at
according to Joyce Bahr, traumatizing people — in- ents.Pessalono said without weird. It was so surreal." laws to accommodate the
who gave up her son for cluding survivors of rape knowing his birth name, he Pessalono said he's seen his majority, we've just asked
adoption in 1966 and now and incest — who had giv- would have never been birth mother only a hand- folks to really take into ac-
serves as president of the en up their children. able to start a search that ful of times since their first count the wishes of the
New York Statewide Adop- Staten Island resident Joe led him to his birth father, meeting in 1993. He said women who wish to main-
tion Reform's Unsealed Ini- Pessalano, 58, is one of cousins and uncles. she's had a harder time ac- tain their privacy," Johnson
tiative, which pushed for roughly 600,000 New York- "I would have waited until cepting him — in contrast said.
New York's law. ers who advocates have now," he said. "And I would to his birth father, whom he In New Jersey, a law al-
"Times were different and estimated will be able to have missed out on a won- met in 1990 and has since lowed adult adoptees to
we were also led to be- access their birth certifi- derful father." died. request access to birth re-
lieve our children would go cates starting Wednesday. He ended up finding his "He was just amazing, he cords starting in 2017. Birth
off and live happily ever "It's validation of my exis- birth parents in Greenwich accepted me," Pessalono parents had until the end of
after, which was a little tence to actually see the Village in New York, where said. 2016 to redact information
far-fetched concept," she certificate that has my he had worked for several Pessalono, who lobbied for from their birth certificate.
said. Bahr ended up reunit- original information on it," years as a paramedic. He similar legislation in New Meanwhile, groups advo-
ing with her biological son, he said. discovered that his mother Jersey, said he's accepted cating for adoptee rights
Ed, when she relocated When he was 21, Joe's was baptized in a church his birth mother's perspec- hope to fight similar legisla-
to New York. She said the parents told him he was on Christopher Street, while tive: "It's unfortunate, but tion this year in West Virgin-
two "loved each other right adopted as a 7-month-old his father worked at a deli that's what she wanted. I'm ia. They also hope to pass
away." infant in Long Island. Pessalono had frequented. OK with it." laws like New York's in Con-
"I can understand that They gave him a piece of "When I met him, oddly Greg Luce, attorney and necticut, Massachusetts
there are some birth moth- paper known as an adop- enough I looked at him founder of the Adoptee and Maryland.q