Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute

On May 24th the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute will celebrate ten years of providing unique, high-impact projects designed to improve the lives of everyone touched by adoption – especially children. Adam Pertman, executive director and adoptive father, suggests we have a national conversation about all aspects of adoption and asserted that it is needed “to get on a level playing field as a normal, natural way of forming a family.”

Pertman wrote an op-ed piece published on Valentine’s Day in newspapers including the Tallahassee Democrat called “Letting Gay People Adopt Will Save Florida’s Foster Children.” The Institute is expanding on their groundbreaking previous work by conducting sweeping research for a widely disseminated white paper on the state of knowledge and recommended best practices relating to adoption by gays and lesbians, stated Pertman.

The Institute, a non-profit organization, is seeking funding for several initiatives including their Educate the Media and Educate The Educators Programs. “Public education is essential to ending the negative stereotypes and misinformation about adoption,” said Pertman. “Through its unique work with the media the Institute strives for ethical and equitable treatment for everyone in the adoption community.”

According to the Institute’s website, the organization conducts original research on critical issues in adoption designed to inform, educate, and change reality on the ground “in ways that tangibly improve both people’s lives and adoption practices.” According to the Institute’s literature, most employer health plans cover the cost of childbirth but assistance for adoption is much less common.

“Studies consistently show that sealed records are an anachronism born of society’s desire to protect the reputations of adoptees and their birth parents at a time when unwed mothers were severely stigmatized and the children born to them were denigrated as ‘bastards,'” wrote Pertman. “Moreover, the overwhelming majority of adult adoptees want the records for a variety of reasons, notably medical and genealogical.”

Pertman, author of the acclaimed book Adoption Nation, wrote in a letter to the “New York Times” this year that a recent story they ran erroneously reported that adopted people have “gained the right to their original birth certificate.” “Adoption still needs improvement but it teaches valuable lessons to those who want to learn,” the letter stated. “Fertility clinic personnel evidently are promoting anonymity irrespective of their client’s wishes and without understanding the long-term effects of this institutionalized deprivation of information.”

For more information on the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute email info@adoptioninstitute.org.