I received another one of those "Hey, look — see who's famous AND adopted!" emails the other day and it elicited the usual groan. I've seen URLs pushing such trivia over and over again. Adoption.com offers one, including a trivia quiz at http://celebrities.adoption.com/.

But once the groan subsided, I started pondering: where are all these famous adopted people? In my years of involvement in the adoption community, the number of celebrities we've managed to get to speak to the "cause", as it were, could be tallied on one hand. In fact, only two come to immediate mind: Wendy's founder Dave Thomas and Karen Vedder, mother of Pearl Jam rocker, Eddie Vedder. Dave Thomas started the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and has been an advocate for open records, and Karen serves as president of US natural parent group, Concerned United Birthparents (CUB).

And this is just celebrities who have been adopted themselves. I'm not even touching the even longer list of celebrity adopters.

Polite and official requests have gone out from individuals and groups, hoping to gain the support of a celebrity for adoption-related causes. None that I am aware of have received more than a casual "we'll see" response.

So we've got Bono busy saving rainforests, cancelling world debt, and fighting the spread of AIDS in Africa. Where's our hero, then? Judging by the numbers of actresses, actors, rockers, singers, politicians and other hoi polloi, one would think we'd be seeing loads of benefit concerts, political sponsorship and financial support. Do they not care that despite their celebrity status, they face the same abrogation of their civil rights that we face? That no amount of cachet is going to get them access to their original birth certificate?

Many of these listed adopted folk heavily sponsor other organizations and charities. One has to wonder if perhaps they're not quietly funding groups who campaign against open records, like the National Council for Adoption?

Well, I'll lay down the gauntlet and issue the challenge: Celebrities, where art thou? You can pin an AIDS ribbon on, drive a hybrid car or refuse to wear fur…but don't forget who you are and that millions of us continue to be denied our civil rights.