As far back as I can remember, the first time I saw it in use here was by the always amazing @brandx and our community just sort of…adopted…(forgive me!) it for tagging. It’s intentionally not in more common usage to keep a small community of adult (often transracial and international) adoptees who want to reclaim their biological/ethnic identities, subvert expectations of “good” adoptees, discuss their individual traumas, explore the colonist roots and governmental involvement of private adoption, and also just express validity for shared experiences and make jokes that no one else would understand.
For more info, I’d recommend a click around brandx’s old posts, to get a better feel for the kinds of conversations we’ve had here in the past.
Oh, and because it’s been a long while since I’ve had these kinds of talks here, short intro: I’m a late twenties transracial adult adoptee, US based, fairly steady relationship with my adoptive family now (parents and two siblings, both also adopted), but with a fair amount of trauma from growing up in a very white environment with parental inexperience/ignorance of racism. I am aware of my birth mother’s family in my city, but though I’ve had contact with two of my bio cousins (through ancestry sites and social media), my birth mother has indicated she does not want me to have any real life contact with any member of my birth family. I meet monthly with an excellent support group of adult adoptees through my adoption agency, which is extremely beneficial.
Feel free to reach out or to introduce yourself, any adoptees who happen to run across this post!
theartofmadeline
romaincrisis
stormborns
dededos
snowghoul
vaporwave
