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SHAMELESS the Fight for Adoption Disclosure and the Search for My Son

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SHAMELESS the Fight for Adoption Disclosure and the Search for My Son FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For review copies and interview requests contact: Matthew Adams, Between the Lines | [email protected] | 416-535-9914 Announcing SHAMELESS The Fight for Adoption Disclosure and the Search for My Son By Marilyn Churley “Part memoir, part activist’s handbook, part feminist analysis of 1960s societal mores, Churley’s book is wholly wonderful.” – Catherine Porter, columnist Toronto Star In the late 1960s, at the age of eighteen and living far from home amidst the thriving counterculture of Ottawa, Marilyn Churley got pregnant. Like thousands of other women of the time she kept the event a secret. Faced with few options, she gave the baby up for Shameless The Fight for Adoption Disclosure adoption. and the Search for My Son Over twenty years later, as the Ontario NDP government’s minister ISBN 978-1-77113-173-5 responsible for all birth, death, and adoption records, including those February 2015 of her own child, Churley found herself in a surprising and powerful Soft cover, 256 pages position – fully engaged in the long and difficult battle to reform 24 photos adoption disclosure laws and find her son. $26.95 Canadian Politics | Law & Justice | Both a personal and political story, Shameless is a powerful memoir Gender & Sexuality| Current about a mother’s struggle with loss, love, secrets, and lies – and an Affairs adoption system shrouded in shame. About the author Marilyn Churley is a former Toronto City Councillor and former Member of Provincial Parliament. She has served as the Deputy Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party and was the Ontario Legislature’s first female Deputy Speaker. She has been referred to as the mother of adoption disclosure reform in Ontario. Turn over for praise of Shameless. Between the Lines • 401 Richmond St. W. • Suite 277 • Toronto, ON • Canada M5V 3A8 tel: 416 535 9914 • fax: 416 535 1484 • [email protected] • btlbooks.com Praise for Shameless “Her astonishing life journey—from hippie teenager to cabinet minister—was propelled by a passionate secret that Marilyn Churley had to hide in a cruelly sexist Canada. In a remarkable twist of fate, she became the poised woman who changed the very law that had tormented her for decades, an act that brought her full circle to a joyous fulfillment.” – Michele Landsberg, journalist and author “Marilyn provides a rare insider’s view of the power of political change and proves with Shameless that she is as fearless as a writer as she was as a politician.” – Olivia Chow, former Toronto City Councillor and MP Trinity- Spadina “Shameless is a fantastic book. Marilyn’s story reflects a similar journey that both myself and my birth mother, Joni Mitchell, experienced and the joy we felt when we reunited. Secrecy was so entrenched that it took years just to get a piece of paper that didn’t even have her name on it. Because of the changes in adoption disclosure laws, people can now get the information they need to search. Thanks Marilyn!” – Kilauren Gibb (Little Green), adoptee and artist “This book stands as a testament to what a principled politician can accomplish.” – Michael Grand, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Guelph and author of The Adoption Constellation “Shameless will counter stereotypes and reverse the undeserved shame suffered by the many millions of us who experienced the tragic non-choice of surrendering our babies to adoption. This is a story that needs to be shared in schools of social work, halls of medicine, and pulpits everywhere.” – Karen Lynn, President, Canadian Council of Natural Mothers “The million-plus members of Ontario’s adoption community owe a debt of thanks to Marilyn Churley. Without her integrity, and her willingness to stand up and be counted among us, we might still be waiting for access to our own records. Shameless is Churley’s modest account of the impact her reunion and her advocacy in the Ontario Legislature played in redressing the wrongs imposed by sealed records.”– Holly Kramer, past president of Parent Finders Incorporated “I wept. I didn’t expect to, but I wept. I wept for Marilyn’s humiliations, her loss, her joy of reuniting with her son, her determination, her dogged determination to change the system, her passion and compassion. I wept because with honesty and candor Marilyn took me with her: “unwed” mom, birth mother, alone again, married woman, mom again, elected politician. She took me with her to places I had never been. Perhaps you have been there yourself and it will be familiar. If not, you will experience the complexities, the surprising brutality, the love, the hope of young moms longing for their own. As a politician Marilyn gets it right! The marriage of compassion and justice, real social justice influencing policy. Read this book and believe it is possible.”– Gerry Rogers MHA, St. John’s Centre, NL, feminist filmmaker “Never did a Bill signed into law hold such emotion for so many! That was the adoption law that finally made its way through the Ontario legislature. Marilyn may have been on the other side of the House, but she worked with me to open adoption records, all partisanship aside. The chronicling of her life through Shameless is inspiring. It’s clear the new law was the moment for Marilyn to exhale, and for the adoption community to cheer.”– Sandra Pupatello, former Minister of Community and Social Services Between the Lines • 401 Richmond St. W. • Suite 277 • Toronto, ON • Canada M5V 3A8 tel: 416 535 9914 • fax: 416 535 1484 • [email protected] • btlbooks.com .
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