Last Sunday, twenty year old Kelsey Cartwright was crowned Miss Oklahoma. And you’re probably wondering why I am writing about the new Miss Oklahoma on an adoption blog but that is because her platform is open adoption!

In case you don’t know much about pageants, each beauty queen has to choose a platform or a cause and she spends her year long reign promoting and speaking on and about her platform.

Miss Oklahoma has chosen open adoption as her platform for personal reasons. Her father, William Cartwright, is an adoptee of the closed adoption era. When her Father decided that he was ready to search for his birth parents he quickly found out how difficult and challenging that can be since his adoption records were sealed.

Oklahoma state law requires a court order before an adoptee can gain access to their adoption records, which contains identifying information about the birthparents. After years of trying, William Cartwright finally secured access to his personal adoption records discovering his heritage, his birth parents names, and more.

Kelsey said opening her father's adoption file "was an amazing experience for our entire family.” It strengthened her father's respect for himself and filled them both with pride, she said.

Because of her Father’s struggles in finding out his birth family’s information and history, Kelsey chose open adoption as her platform for her reign as Miss Oklahoma. In September, she will begin making personal appearances and sharing her platform with students and civic groups.

While I think it is great that Miss Oklahoma is focusing on open adoption as her platform, I’m curious to see how she is going to focus on it. Is she going to focus on open adoption as an option versus parenting or will she just promote openness in adoptions to those already involved in adoptions or to couples considering adoption?

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Related Posts:
Open Adoption Article in the L.A. Times
“Good News” Oprah

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