Liz Latty is a powerful writer, adoptee advocate, and activist. She shares her story with us and we talk a lot about reunion with our Dads and why we think first fathers often don’t even get a second thought. We dive deep into the complexities of adoption, sexuality, and the seemingly oh-so-common secondary rejection. Liz is incredibly candid about how concerned she was about coming out to her evangelical Christian birth father. We discuss what adoptee activism is and how understanding our own story and experiences as adopted people can be healing and create a passion for action. Liz calls for aligning ourselves with other movements to create systemic change together.

Show Notes

Full episode transcript here.

Topics We Discussed

Coming out to her adoptive family who are conservative Catholics
Estrangement and homelessness
The pain that religion had played in rejecting Liz for her sexuality made her feel even hesitant to use a “Search Angel” just because of the connotation the word angel has.
A search angel helped Liz find her mother within three weeks, and her mother told her the name of her father in their first meeting.
Why don’t we search for our fathers? Why is it a second thought?
Liz shares about when (!) and how she came out to her Dad, and all the reasons why she waited.
Liz’s adoptee activism and reactions to her work
Liz’s articles: What We Lost: Undoing the Fairy Tale Narrative of Adoption and Adoption Is A Feminist Issue, But Not For The Reasons You Think
What is actually going to change people’s views on adoption? What is going to stop unnecessary adoptions? What are the underlying causes of adoption?
How understanding our own stories can heal us, heal our relationships.
How can we align ourselves with other groups who are seeking societal change?