Down the Rabbit Hole: The Fight for Texas Adoptee Rights Then and Now

https://vimeo.com/1233070375?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci

IN PERSON AND LIVESTREAMED

This event takes place in person at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, and the full program is also livestreamed.

Join us on Friday, November 6, online or at the Bullock Texas State History Museum. A night about the fight for Texas adoptee rights.

Celebrating the release of WONDERLAND: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption, out Nov. 3 from Unsolicited Press. The evening pairs a live stage adaptation from the book with a panel discussion to raise awareness about the fight for Texas adoptees' right to their own original birth certificates.

CHAPTER 18 - ROSES & THORNS COMES TO LIFE

The lights come up on a kitchen in Texas, where a scene from WONDERLAND: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption unfolds live on stage. Featuring local Austinite and Zach Scott veteran Brian Coughlin, alongside other actors from Austin community theater.

What follows is a panel on the fight for open records for Texas adoptees.

The panel covers everything from the black market to birth certificates, and brings together Joellen Peters of Support Texas Adoptee Rights, Marci Purcell of Adoption Knowledge Affiliates, Renee Gelin of Saving Our Sisters, and Patricia Knight Meyer of the National Association of Adoptees and Parents. The conversation is led by journalist Emily Ramshaw, co-founder and CEO of The 19th.

Our emcee for the evening is Sarah Reinhardt, adoptee, co-founder and co-host of the Making of Me Podcast.

We are going to talk honestly about the history of adoption in Texas, the black market and the Baby Scoop Era, where adoptee rights in Texas stand today, and what needs to change.

Texas adoptees have been asking for their own birth certificates for more than twenty years, and bills have failed in every session since 2015. In 2027 we go back. 77 percent of Texans are already on our side.

The paperwork has changed since 1970. The secrecy has not.

A NIGHT BENEFITING KEY ADOPTION ORGS

This is a not-for-profit event, held during National Adoption Awareness Month #NAAM. All proceeds go to support the event and any remaining funds will be donated to National Association of Adoptees and Parents, Saving Our Sisters, and Adoption Knowledge Affiliates.

QUESTIONS

Contact Patricia at patricia@myadoptedlife.com

THE ISSUE

• Texas sealed adoptees' original birth certificates in 1957. Before then, an adult adoptee could get their own original birth certificate on request.
• Today an adult adoptee can get a copy only by court order, or by already knowing the names of the parents listed on it.
• The Texas Adoptee Rights Coalition estimates hundreds of thousands of Texans are affected. No official count exists.
• A 2021 Baselice & Associates poll found 77 percent of Texans believe adult adoptees should have the same access to their original birth certificates as all other adult Texans.
• As of July 1, 2026, seventeen states let adopted adults obtain their own original birth certificates. Texas is not one of them.
• Bills to restore access have been filed in every Texas legislative session since 2015. The Texas House passed them 138 to 1 in 2015 and 144 to 1 in 2021. None has passed the Senate.

THE CAST

Longtime friends and fellow thespians, Patricia and Brian go all the way back to high school theater. They return to a shared stage on this evening, where Brian will play Patricia's father, a man he knew very well all those many years ago.

Local actress Emma Benson plays young Patricia (Peep), and Nola Lafayette plays Patricia's mother. Patricia will narrate as herself. The play is directed by Victoria Grazioli.

FREE EVENT

Attend Livestream or Join Us at the Bullock Texas Spirit Theater.

With a reception ticket, stay for the reception, meet the people in the book, and get your copy signed. Or watch from anywhere in the country, free.

SCHEDULE

5:45 PM - Doors and cash bar open
6:30 PM - Program begins
7:45 PM - Program ends, reception and signing begin
9:00 PM - End

Drinks are permitted in the theater.

LOCATION

Texas Spirit Theater, Bullock Texas State History Museum, 1800 Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas 78701

HOW TO JOIN US

Watch from Anywhere. Free.

• The full program, livestreamed. Link sent before the event.

Attend in Person. Free.

• A seat in the Texas Spirit Theater for the stage piece and the panel.

Attend in Person + Reception. $25.

• Everything above, plus the reception, the book signing, and a signed print copy of WONDERLAND. Limited to 80 people.

Watch from Anywhere + Audiobook. $20.

• The livestream, plus the audiobook, narrated by Patricia.

Support the Panel. $50.

• The livestream, the audiobook, and a signed copy mailed to you after the event. US shipping only.

Seats in the theater are limited to 180.

• The livestream recording stays up afterward.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Recited to her like a fairy tale, Patricia's "adoptive" mother loved to tell the story about the snowy January day in 1970 that she and her husband pulled up along a Houston, Texas, hospital curb and drove away with their brand new baby. Yet Patricia would grow up celebrating a made-up birthday, haunted by nightmares of "The Dark Man."

At twelve, when her parents confess they never received her birth certificate, questions mount about alleged extortion and the impossible choice they say they faced: go to the police and report the shady attorney who acquired the infant or stay silent and meet his demands. Did they really dole out $30K to keep their paperless child? Such revelations compel young Patricia to wonder how she came into this family—no judge, no paperwork, no questions asked—and lead her on a quest to discover "Who in the World Am I?"

WONDERLAND exposes what happens when adoption's house of cards finally falls—when missing documents and dark family secrets can no longer withstand the weight of one woman's relentless search for truth. A haunting reckoning with Baby Scoop Era exploitation that asks: are we ready for Baby Scoop 2.0?

Part detective story, part searing family portrait, part historical reckoning, WONDERLAND exposes what happens when maternal desperation meets need and greed. A tumble down the rabbit hole of America's baby trade, this is very much a Texas story.

WONDERLAND: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption is published by Unsolicited Press on November 3, 2026.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author Patricia Knight Meyer was handed over along a Houston, Texas, hospital curb in a black market deal brokered by a shady attorney. No judge. No agency. No paperwork at all. She was not his only one. Years later she found a biological cousin he had trafficked, too. A sealed record is not just a document withheld from the person it belongs to. It is a paper trail nobody can follow, which sows the seeds of secrecy, corruption, and greed. She was 47 before she held a legally obtained birth certificate. Some adoptees find their birth parents through DNA. Many never do, and for them the record usually stays shut.