Edna Gladney - Important Legislation

Important Legislation

Gladney lobbied the Texas legislature to have the word “illegitimate” kept off birth certificates of adopted and abandoned children. She succeeded in 1936, making Texas the first state in the southwest to legally remove the stigma of illegitimacy.

In 1951, Gladney helped to get a bill passed that gave adopted children the same inheritance rights as biological children and recognized that they should be legally adopted rather than placed in “long-term guardianship.” Ill health forced Gladney into semiretirement in 1960, but she remained active as an advisor until her death on October 2, 1961, from diabetic complications. Gladney is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.

Read more about this topic:  Edna Gladney

Famous quotes containing the words important and/or legislation:

    Parents are led to believe that they must be consistent, that is, always respond to the same issue the same way. Consistency is good up to a point but your child also needs to understand context and subtlety . . . much of adult life is governed by context: what is appropriate in one setting is not appropriate in another; the way something is said may be more important than what is said. . . .
    Stanley I. Greenspan (20th century)

    Strictly speaking, one cannot legislate love, but what one can do is legislate fairness and justice. If legislation does not prohibit our living side by side, sooner or later your child will fall on the pavement and I’ll be the one to pick her up. Or one of my children will not be able to get into the house and you’ll have to say, “Stop here until your mom comes here.” Legislation affords us the chance to see if we might love each other.
    Maya Angelou (b. 1928)