Bolton adoptee yearns for access to her original birth records -- and the chance to discover who she is

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.

I am 61 years old, and I look in the mirror daily asking "who am I" ?

I was given up for adoption at birth. I was fortunate to have been adopted at 6 months. So I know why my personality, likes and dislikes come from. But where do my blue eyes, or my curly hair, or childhood freckles come from.....these are EVERY DAY questions. Are my birth parents still living ? I grew up as an only child....do I have blood relatives....sisters, brothers, nieces or nephews ? More questions that I think of so often. I yearn for these answers.

I've recently begun to aquire "aging" health issues....are they genetic ? I don't know. Every physician form asks for parent medical history....I have to leave it blank. It's heart wrenching to look at blank forms....it's heart wrenching to admit out loud...."I don't know, I'm adopted." The common medical response to my statement...."I'm sorry." Don't be sorry I'm adopted, I've had a wonderful life. Be sorry that I can't have, or get access, to my family/medical history !

Every human being should have the right to know where they come from. My neighbor has more rights to leave a tattered couch on the roadside for weeks and I can't do anything because of blight laws. Why can they have more rights about a couch that affects all their neighbors, and my personal life of inquiry has no rights. Repeat criminals get back on the streets every day, and even though they will most likely commit another crime, it's because they have rights. So many laws are obsolete for today's way of life, and they need to be reviewed, changed, and updated.

Gays, & transgender have gotten national attention to what they believe are their rights....right down to public restroom access. But I still don't have the right to know who I am, where I come from.

Please change the law(s) that affect adoptees....support our rights to know !

Pat Quey
Bolton, CT