Please copy this PRESS RELEASE to the media in your area. Thanks!
Regards,
Jim   (jkelly@wimsey.com)
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Contact:      Denny Glad, President
  	Tennessee Coalition for Adoption Reform
Phone:        	(901) 386-2197
Contact:      L. Anne Babb, Ph.D., President
 	American Adoption Congress
Phone:     	(405) 329-9294
FAX:    	(405) 329-9294
Landmark Adoption Civil Rights Legislation To Be Celebrated in Tennessee
   Washington, D.C., June 25, 1996 -- As America celebrates the signing of 
the Declaration of Independence, those adopted in the state of Tennessee 
before 1951 will be celebrating a first anniversary of their newly gained 
freedom to know their names at birth.
      Since July 1, 1995 all Tennessee adoptees born and adopted before 1951 
have been able to apply for and receive their adoption records,including 
their original birth certificate. Such records were sealed in Tennessee in 
1951, as they were sealed in many states. Since the new legislation took 
effect last year, over 500 applications for adoption records have been 
received and the results have been reported to be satisfactory to all 
concerned.
   On July 1, 1996, a second phase of the landmark Tennessee legislation will 
take effect and all Tennessee adopted adults born and adopted after 1951 may 
apply for and receive copies of their adoption records and their original 
birth certificate. The statutes applying to post-1951 records allow birth 
parents to maintain confidentiality by filing a "contact veto" if the birth 
parent does not want to be contacted. This momentous civil rights legislation 
restores to Tennessee-born adoptees the right enjoyed by all other American 
citizens to know their identity at birth.
   Many states judicially seal the adoptee's original birth certificate and 
adoption records and issue an amended birth certificate designating the 
adoptive parents as those who produced the adopted child. The closed record 
is inaccessible to any individual except upon a court order opening the 
sealed file. Most other countries of the world have open adoption records 
laws similar to those enacted by Tennessee last year.
  Registration information in Tennessee can be obtained through the Tennessee 
Department of Human Services, Post-Adoption Services, 400 Deaderick St., 
Nashville TN 37249-9000, or by calling (615) 313-4743. Personal assistance 
and information is available through the Tennessee Coalition for Adoption 
Reform at (901) 386-2197.
   State legislators throughout the United States will be increasingly 
challenged to follow the Tennessee model of enlightened and humane adoption 
law.
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--- Maximus 3.01
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