Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. on Tuesday presented Lorraine Dusky of Sag Harbor with a signed copy of a new bill on adoption rules passed by the New York State Legislature that Ms. Dusky helped make happen.
The bill, which went into effect on Jan. 15, allows people who are adopted to obtain a copy of their original birth certificates, which they previously could not do. More than 3,600 people requested copies of their birth certificates in the first week alone since it went into effect, according to a press release from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office.
Ms. Dusky, the author of a memoir titled “Birthmark,” written from the point of view of a birth mother, has been advocating for this change since 1976. She has written several books on women’s issues and many related articles for national publications, and has testified before state and federal lawmakers on the matter of birth certificates.
“It means the world to me,” she said after Mr. Thiele’s presentation, and thanked him for his support.
“Not since 1936 can adopted people just go in and ask for their original birth certificate,” Ms. Dusky said. “It doesn’t mean that all of them are going to search or that all of the reunions are going to be happy, but it means that they are equal to the rest of the population. Before that, the state came in and engineered bad social policy — that’s all I can think that it is — and said, ‘We’ve made the decision that you can’t find out who you were when you were born.’ ”
Ms. Dusky explained that New York has become the 10th state to allow “unfettered access” to birth certificates for adopted people. Other states allow partial access, in which birth mothers can say no when someone requests his or her original birth certificate.
“It doesn’t mean that every birth mother is opening up her door,” said Ms. Dusky, who is also the author of a 2015 book about adoption, “Hole in My Heart.”
“Some don’t — I have to acknowledge that that happens — but that still should not interfere at all with an individual to know who they were born to and where they come from,” she said. “It gives them a sense of connectedness to the world, a rooting that they didn’t have before.”
