As an adoptee, active in adoption-law reform efforts since shortly after I graduated from UF, I am disappointed that UF would extend an invitation to Diablo Cody to speak at my alma mater.
Cody is as phony as her name. Her screenplay perpetuates an adoption myth that those who profit from the adoption industry would like you to believe, namely that birth mothers walk away without scars from their experience and get on with their lives.
I have spoken with and worked beside many mothers who surrendered a child to adoption to change adoption laws in the U.S. This is not representative of their experience.
I hope Accent will make amends by adding Ann Fessler to its list of speakers. Fessler's book about adoption is not fiction. "The Girls Who Went Away" tells the stories of real women, some of whom I know, who suffered the loss of a child to adoption.
