I would like to note that Betty Jean has a full speaking schedule booked for the rest of the year and into the next. Although Betty Jean was apologized to and re-invited to the conference, this does not erase the fact that the organizers tried to silence or forbid her from using specific terms in the first place.

On the blog link listed above, a poster in the comments who is a member of Adoption Crossroads and a conference volunteer conceded publicly that should have made it known up front about the use of the word and that the situation could have been handled differently, but they are human.

It has been discussed throughout the adoption community that Adoption Crossroads and Origins are openly anti-adoption. The reality is that they will not be able to abolish adoption. They take the position that birth mothers suffer from PSTD and, if they don’t, they are in denial and that adoptees are wounded and if they say they are not, they are in denial.

Adoption Crossroads is anger focused on individuals and not the system. There philosophy is that no one is happy with their adoption experience and that adoption is framed as individual victimization. This may very well be true for some birth parents (I am including birth fathers although no one seems to have an issue with the term birth father”) and adoptees who were and continue to be victimized by adoption. In the scheme of things, triad members are expected to analyze their individual victim status, which is not a bad idea and can be a very mentally healthy thing to do. However, instead of using that analysis as an impetus to develop a viable critique for healing, change, and growth, they are encouraged to linger in their victim hood, and their pain.