Gatekeeping is for sheep, but it’s a good thing you are a lot smarter than that.

Please see related:

UPDATE — March 17th, 2026:

We were 100% right all along, despite what some Korean Adoptee gatekeepers egregiously continue to deny:

Debate Over: TRC 2 Affected in NIRS Fire, Multiple Sources Confirm.

A Korean Adoptee group’s false claims about the NIRS fire and TRC 2 records raise concerns about accuracy and accountability. You can submit your TRC 3 case INDEPENDENTLY.

How might the loss of at least some TRC 2 investigation data — potentially permanently destroyed in the NIRS fire — affect the timeline for rulings in the 311 TRC 2 cases?

Statement by the Korean Association of Archivists: (We) “Strongly Urge the Establishment of a ‘Records Management Division’ in the 3rd Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC 3).”

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Please see related:

Are my documents secure during the TRC 3 process?

You Can Submit Your Case To TRC 3 Independently Of Any Group.

If a TRC 3 representative group of Korean Adoptees is unwilling to operate in a world of facts, why would you hand over to them your own private adoption documents?

Taking Care Of Your Mental Health During TRC 3.

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There are unfortunately many in the Korean Adoptee community whom for years have tried to suppress or discredit the information which we share, in order to support their own agendas.

We urge you to do your own research into the individuals, organizations and institutions to whom you may be considering submitting your sensitive, private adoption documents. Neither “fellow” Korean Adoptees nor the Korean government should ever be easily trusted with your private data. We urge Korean Adoptees to think carefully about how and with whom they share their information.

We also urge you to read and listen to multiple sources, and to not just believe what you are told by a single source of information (including us). If information is provided without any credible, published source to back it up with, then we urge you to do your own research.

It is very easy to translate Korean articles on your own with ChatGPT or other AI programs these days. Korean Adoptees no longer have to live in the dark when it comes to news from Korea.

Please do your research. Please think carefully about the motivations of those who may wish to gaslight you into believing (or not believing) relevant information. Otherwise, you can easily be led like a naive lemming (or sheep) off of a cliff.

It’s baaahhhhtter too be safe than sorry, when it comes to sharing your sensitive, private adoption documents with anyone. See what we did there?

We are always going to try to tell the truth, even if it is inconvenient.

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The pursuit of justice should never require silencing legitimate concerns about privacy, safety, and consent.

It's unfortunately too easy for Korean Adoptees who are desperate to get information about their adoption cases to be gaslighted by supposed Korean Adoptee "activists".

However, we ask that sensible Korean Adoptees ask themselves: Is it right to be gaslighted by other Korean Adoptee "activists", in pursuit of supposed Korean Adoptee "justice"?

Would it be ethical, for example, for us to tell Adoptees that DNA testing involves no inherent privacy risks, and that one should just never worry about data privacy? We don't think so, which is why we have never been pollyanna about the inherent data privacy risks of taking DNA tests. It's an unfortunate part of the landscape of DNA testing, and it's something which we would never sugarcoat in order to get more Adoptees to take DNA tests — even though we know that taking DNA tests presents one of the surest ways of finding any blood relatives in the currently fraught birth family search environment. Similarly, we would never sugarcoat the current inherent risks of FOIA requests. While we want Adoptees to find answers in their cases, we do NOT want them entering potentially dangerous situations without being fully informed of the inherent risks.

When we take ourselves outside of the emotionally fraught context of Korean Adoption and birth family search, the ethics of similar questions become much more clear.

Being a Korean Adoptee “activist” does NOT make it acceptable to decide — on behalf of others — that the very real dangers and risks involved in sharing sensitive, private adoption documents with TRC 3 should be ignored or suppressed. This applies whether those documents are submitted through so-called “representative” Korean Adoptee led groups or independently. The pursuit of justice should never require silencing legitimate concerns about privacy, safety, and consent.

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We do not believe in infantilizing Korean Adoptees or in gatekeeping information which may cause them "discomfort", in order to achieve our own agenda.

We do not believe in infantilizing or gatekeeping information which may cause "discomfort" in Korean Adoptees, in order to achieve our own agenda. Too often in Korean Adoptee community, Korean Adoptees are infantilized by Korean Adoptee “leaders” who — whether deliberately or inadvertently — gaslight their “flock” for years.

We believe in telling the truth - even if it may be inconvenient.

We have to trust that Adoptees are capable of making their own decisions when they are provided with all the information needed to make informed choices. For supposed Korean Adoptee "activists" to routinely BLOCK and GHOST others who attempt to tell the truth is NOT a legitimate manner of engagement — especially when such "activists" have already collected the sensitive, private adoption documents of said Adoptees.

This writer speaks from direct experience with so-called “Korean Adoptee Rights” “activist” groups. In 2022, she submitted sensitive and private adoption documents to one such group in connection with TRC 2. After doing so, she was without explanation blocked and excluded from relevant groups on December 7th, 2022 (the very day that the TRC 2 investigation into Overseas Adoption began), while the group’s leaders attempted to claim credit in international press for work she had spent years doing with KSS Adoptees. Since that time, she has had no further contact from this “Korean Rights” group, despite her repeated attempts at contact. Due to the profound mistreatment she experienced from these supposed “Korean Rights” “activists” — who still retain possession of her sensitive, private adoption documents — she withdrew her TRC 2 case in January 2023, despite her case being one of the first 34 accepted by TRC 2.

We believe that when Korean Adoptee "activists" hide information from Adoptees, in order to achieve their own agenda, is not only unethical but can also have dangerous consequences.

Let's not forget that there was a suicide by a Norwegian Korean Adoptee during TRC 2, amongst other related suicide attempts by other Korean Adoptees who participated in TRC 2. These tragedies, along with the topic of mental health during the TRC process — which explicitly attracts many Korean Adoptees with deeply disturbing cases — is something we have never seen the “representative” Korean Adoptee groups for TRC 3 submissions publicly discuss at all.

Let's remember our responsibility to tell the TRUTH in the pursuit of supposed Korean Adoptee "justice". Korean Adoptees’ very lives may depend upon it. We hope that these lives are not seen as simply “collateral damage” along the path to “justice”.