Myth #3: All adoptees search – There was a time not that long ago that you would never see anything on television in regards to adoptees searching. However, in the past several years I think the media has greatly exaggerated the number of adopted persons who search for their natural parents. Reunions are popular topics for news and talk shows.
Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, Oprah, Good Morning America, and Unsolved Mysteries to name a few all have featured adoptees searching for natural parents or reunited with the natural parents.
I and many other adoptees were adopted as infants. Many adoptees do choose to search and participate in a reunion. The reason for this is that most want answers to the big questions of who and why. There are also adoptees who feel no need to obtain information about their natural parents. Some may want or need to know their medical histories and others want to learn their natural and ethnic identities. So, these shows perpetuate the myth that all adoptees search and the reality is that there are some who do not want to search and meet their natural parents.
Those of you reading this blog can make a difference and educate society by contributing your opinion. Here are a few steps that you can take to express your opinions:
• Magazines, newspapers, and other publications often have a letters column. Send a letter about your viewpoint to this department.
• You can write an opinion piece to newspapers and magazines. The opinion piece is longer than a letter to the editor and can be as long as two or three double spaced pages.
• You can contact the author of an article and express your opinion. Your phone call may perpetuate a follow-up article to be published.
• You can write to television and radio shows that air adoption stories.
• Encourage other triad members to write and contact the media with their reactions to airings and articles of adoption related stories. The more people who do this maybe we will see some change in the roles and stories that are aired or written.