Adoptees shouldn't have to resort to DNA testing to find their truth, says New Preston birth sibling

Editor's note: This is one in an ongoing series of posts spotlighting support for our continued effort to provide adult adoptees born in Connecticut access to their original birth certificates. The testimony featured in this series was submitted to the state Legislature earlier this year in support of proposed legislation that would have restored the right of adult adoptees adopted before Oct. 1, 1983, to access their original birth certificate. (Post-1983 adoptees had this right restored in 2014.) The letters are published with the authors' permission. Sign up for our newsletter at www.accessconnecticut.org if you want to help us end discrimination against adoptees.

Co-Chairs Senator Cassano, Senator Logan, Representative Lemar and members of the Planning and Development Committee.
My name is John A. Gueniat and I am a resident of the Town of Washington. I am writing to ask for your support of SB977.

I am also part of the adoption circle, as three of my older siblings were relinquished and adopted before my own birth. My two eldest sisters located us when I was entering my teenage years and starting in my late teens I sought to find my sister June, who was relinquished as an infant (she was also supposed to be the family secret as my mother was not married at the time). I was finally able to locate her in 1998 when we were in our early 40s, reuniting my family in January 1999...4 months before our mother passed away suddenly.

I became involved in support for members of the adoption circle in Western Connecticut, with a support group and individually for those who wanted someone to listen privately. I have also assisted in searches and reunions. I also was part of Ct Council on Adoptions' Search Committee and Committee to Promote the Rights of Adopted Individuals, serving as Chairman for 5 years.

For health reasons alone, adopted individuals should have access to their original birth certificates. Genetic health information is so important yet we have sufficiently handicapped one group of people from the ability to have current and updated access to manage their own preventative care. Soon after I found my sister, our father relapsed with colon cancer. My doctor suggested that all of his children should start early screenings by mid- forties. Often that is the case, but without personal, current information, genetic predisposition is an unknown.

In 2014, Connecticut opened Birth Certificate access to those adults adopted in 1983 forward. As has been the experience in the many other states, the sky did not fall. However, those adopted prior to this time, including my three sisters, who were adopted BEFORE the closure of access in the early 70's, are still excluded from access to original birth records.

In the past several years, DNA searching has seen a large uptick in is use for ancestral research, often with contacts of unknown cousins and siblings discovering each other. This can, and most certainly has, created a situation where a “closeted” birth parent may be outed to many, more so than if their relinquished offspring had access to birth information and contacted the birth parent privately. Access to the original birth information provides more privacy to birth parents than current Consumer DNA searching does.
In my experience with support of those in the circle of adoption, the need to connect with beginnings is strong, often necessary medically and psychologically. It does not make sense that a small percentage among us has to pay to scientifically discover what the vast majority of us always has access to. ORIGINAL IDENTITY!!

In closing, it is my hope that this issue continues forward and that those who need access to this information are no longer barred from it. THE RIGHT TO KNOW IS THE RIGHT TO GROW!! Thank you.

Respectfully Submitted,

John A Gueniat
New Preston, CT