Melissa B

Future Bioethicist 🧬 | Advocate ✊ | Donor Conceived Person 🙋🏼‍♀️ | Traveler 🧳 | Artist 🎨 | @DCcouncilUSA Co-Founder. Opinions are my own.

[Melissa B @MelUnfiltered]

I lost count of the amount of hours, late nights, cups of coffee, & how-to youtube videos it took to pull off this project. Whatever the number, it was worth it.

Everyone should watch this series & share it with everyone all the time ⬇️

[U.S. Donor Conceived Council @dccouncilusa]

INTRODUCING: Egg Donation Transparency, a USDCC Production

Full series linked in next tweet ⬇️

[Melissa B @MelUnfiltered]

Not being legally blocked from knowing your own relatives

[Melissa B @MelUnfiltered]

PSA: reminding your DCP kid how much you paid to have them is not an effective method of discipline— or acceptable in any situation

[The Anxious Rage Spiral @AnxiousRage]

If I’m advocating for the rights of children and you respond with anti-abortion talking points, I know we’re not on the same page.

[Melissa B @MelUnfiltered]

I wish more people understood that not having to jump through hoops to learn where you come from is a form of privilege.

[Masoud @linguistMasoud]

I’m quite used to the cruelty students can face when they apply for a US visa but this one broke me. We offered admission to a stellar, talented & hardworking student. After months of work and hundreds of dollars, an embassy officer saw him for 5 mins & said no. why? …

[nick @sendnickpix]

Awful. Awful way to die. The anxiety they must have had getting on to it in the first place. The noises the vessel inevitably made before it tore apart. The families not knowing what happened, and may never truly know.

Those poor migrants. They only wanted a better life.

[Melissa B @MelUnfiltered]

So yeah, learning I'm DC has evolved my understanding of family.

not to "families are made of love, not DNA"

nor "family can only be your biological relatives"

but to "family is whatever you consider it to be"

Because who the hell am I to tell someone otherwise.

[Melissa B @MelUnfiltered]

I'm often asked how learning I'm donor conceived has changed my understanding of family.

People expect a "family is so much more than DNA" response, but here's the thing...

[Melissa B @MelUnfiltered]

& I had it EASY compared to a lot of other people in this community

After seeing the extent to which DCP, adoptees, and NPEs are villainized, pathologized, and gaslit for basic human curiosity, I can't think ab the word "family" with simple, one-dimensional, rose colored glasses

[U.S. Donor Conceived Council @dccouncilusa]

In NYC? Join us for Sunday’s Pride March!

USDCC & supporters will be meeting at the Washington Square Park fountain at 11:30am to join the march at noon.

For more information, email Melissa at [email protected]

[Melissa B @MelUnfiltered]

This all goes to say that there are no
simple solutions but please remember that when you say victims of oppression should lead the way in their own liberation this also extends to communities and problems you don’t hear as much about, like DCP

[Melissa B @MelUnfiltered]

I think one of the reasons people— even very liberal progressives— struggle to empathize with the experiences of Donor Conceived People is because there is quite literally no comparison to donor conception

[Melissa B @MelUnfiltered]

Eventually this will be less and less of a problem as awareness becomes more widespread

but that doesn’t change the fact that there are DCP here now who deserve to have their problems addressed