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 Damsel
Plum was a pioneer of Internet adoption activism
and the adoption reform movement. She has been interviewed in
newspapers, on radio and television and has presented at national
conferences on adult adoptee rights, the Internet, and reconnection
issues. As co-founder of several adoption-related non-profit
organizations
and events, she has focused on bringing adoptee dignity issues
to the forefront while presenting the wide spectrum of the
adoptee
experience. This includes sides of adoption not often discussed
such as abuses in adoption, unpleasant reconnections and adoptees
who choose not to search. Damsel left Bastard Nation in 2002
in response to its shift in focus from adoptee civil rights
to putative identity rights, and in response to her own need
to stop hearing people's adoption stories.
Having benefitted
from adoption herself, she is generally pro-adoption, but
qualifies
this with advocating the need for greater education of adoptive
parents, potential birthparents, and most importantly, greater
accountability and transparency in the adoption industry. Mrs.
Plum successfully completed her own search for her birthfamily
in 1990 and she advocates self-empowered search and support through
both the Internet and local offline groups. She also advocates
not getting too hung up on adoption.
Areas
of Expertise: Internet-based Communities and Activism, Adoption
Reform, Adoption Issues, History of U.S. Adoption Reform, Public
Relations, Web design.
Location:
Northern California, USA
Family:
Married, 2 children, reconnected with birthfamily since 1990
Education:
MA Yale University '89; BA SUNY Stony Brook '87; Graduate, Fiorello
H. LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, NYC (Drama)
Projects:
- Bastard
Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization: Co-founder,
web designer, former Publications & Public Relations
Chair: 1996 - 2001
- The
Bastard Quarterly, Editor, 1997 - 2002 (see for articles
and book reviews written)
- The
Adoption Ring: Founder & Co-Administrator,
1996 - present
- Adoptee
Rights Day: Co-founder and Administrative Director,
1998 - 2001
- CARE:
Coalition for Adoption Registry Ethics: Co-founder &
Board member, 1998 - 2000
- TIES:
Terminal Illness Emergency Search Program: Co-founder
and Board member, 1998 - 2001
- Adoption
Registration Coalition/Regday: Administrative Director,
1999 - 2000; Outreach
Director 1997 - 1998
- Plumsites,
Webmistress 1996 - present
- Bay
Area Moms, Webmistress 1999 - present
- Website
design & deployment: freelance for select concerns
1997 - 2004
Awards:
Forbes
Best of the Web Award for Bastard Nation and The Adoption
Ring. September 11, 2000
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Book Mentions:
Reclaiming
America: Nike, Clean Air, and the New National Activism by
Randy Shaw (University of California Press, 1999) pp. 283 - 286
Database
Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century by Simson
Garfinkle (O'Reilly & Assoc., 2000) pp. 146 - 147, 296
Ethics
in American Adoption by L. Anne Babb, PhD. (Bergin & Garvey
1999)
p. 107
Adoption
Politics: Bastard Nation and Ballot Initiative 58, by
E. Wayne Carp (University Press of Kansas, April 2004)
pp. 26, 28, 31, 103, 106 - 107, 113, 141
Selected
Press/Media interviews:
For
links to many of the articles below, go to http://www.bastards.org/bnpress
 Rolling
Stone, The Bastard Chronicles: Issue 862, February
2001 - Seventeen
Magazine, Are you my mother? Adopted teens search for
their families, their histories and their identities
by Gayle Forman, November 2000
- Chicago
Tribune, (IL), Opening Adoption Files Worries Birth
Parents: April 16, 2ooo
- Contra
Costa Times (CA) Debate on birth records goes to court:
April 25, 1999
- Newsday
(NY), Nation of Adopted Kids Earns a Hard-Won Birth:
January 30, 1999
- New
Haven Advocate (CT), My Mothers, Myself: The Right
to Know: November 26, 1998
- Pioneer
Press (MN), And the Internet Makes Three...: July
20, 1998
- KQED
Public Radio - Northern CA. "Forum" program with Michael
Krasny. Adoption search and privacy issues. February 24,
1998.
- HotWired,
Keyword: Mom: September 1997
- CNET
TV's "The Web" April, 1997
- Flux
Magazine (OR), Bastard Nation, Spring 1997
- Oakland
Tribune (CA), Bastard Nation's Positive Picket:
February 3, 1997
- Daily
Californian (Berkeley, CA) Positive Picket, February
3, 1997
- National
Adoption Reports (NCFA newsletter), 3/97
- Ashbury
Park Press (NJ), Pickets Seek Open Adoption Records:
February 3, 1997
- Self
Magazine, Mother and Child Reunions: December 1996
- "Mornings
on 2" - San Francisco Bay Area Fox Affiliate morning show.
Bastard Nation and RegDay. November 28, 1996
- San
Francisco Chronicle, Better Times for Adoption Searches,
November 16, 1996
- Oakland
Tribune, Global Registry helps reveal hidden heritage,
November 16, 1996
- New
York Times, letter published, March 21, 1996
Conference
Presentations:
*
The History of Sealed Records in the U.S.
* The History of the Adoption Reform Movement (Including
presentation of Adoptee
Rights in the 20th Century and into the 21st:Ideologies
and their Impact on Activist Strategy and Success)
Bastards on the Brick Road Conference
Aljoya Conference Center, Seattle, WA Sept. 8-10, 2000
Sex,
Shame, Humor and the Adoptee Experience (with Charles
Filius)
Bastards by the
Bay Conference
San Francisco, CA July 17-19, 1998
Activism
is Fun!: A hands-on humor-filled workshop on adoptee empowerment
and real-time outreach. Includes Internet and offline activism
Birth
of a Bastard Nation Conference
Chicago, IL, July 18 - 20, 1997
Bastard
Nation: Adoptees on the Internet (with Shea Grimm)
American
Adoption Congress 19th annual International Conference
Irving, TX, April 3 - 6, 1997
What
is Bastard Nation?: The New Adoptee Rights
American
Adoption Congress SW Regional Conference
San Diego, CA, November 9, 1996
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Contact:
(Note: I do not assist
in adoption-related searches. Read below for adoption search
resources.)
Searching:
See my Adoption
Resources page for adoption links for all members of the
triad. I do not assist in adoption searches.
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