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Each year, Women’s Equality Day, Aug. 26, gets lost in the flurry of last preparations for school openings and the Minnesota State Fair, compounding frustrations that we still haven’t passed an Equal Rights Amendment.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs decision, opponents of gender equality have gone rogue, legislating abortion bans, restricting women’s travel for essential healthcare needs, declaring zygotes as persons, blocking access to contraception and dragging us back to the 1950s. In response, legislatures, activists and voters took immediate action, advancing successful reproductive freedom constitutional amendments in Ohio and Kansas.
That number expanded to include Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York and South Dakota, states that have now added reproductive rights amendments to their 2024 ballots. Huge numbers of folks are mobilizing to secure permanent protections against the recission of our rights via the ERA.
One thing is clear: we’re not going back. Equality is our inalienable right. We mean to establish principles of equal rights once and for all.
And there’s hope: Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate in the presidential race, Gov. Tim Walz, care about the disenfranchisement of all women, including Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian women and women of color, as well as LBGTQI+ individuals, and they are fully informed of the benefits of federal and state ERAs to protect against discrimination.
These leaders are poised to herald a new era for all those who were intentionally left out of the Constitution from this country’s inception.
At an Iowa campaign rally in 2019, Harris made clear what she would do for women in her first 100 days, saying, “Passing the Equal Rights Amendment, let’s start there.” And this past winter, Harris spoke to a key ERA leader who sits on the board of our national affiliate, ERA Coalition, saying, “Had we had the ERA, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now!” in reference to the Dobbs decision.
When Harris says she’ll pass the ERA, believe her.
Walz graduated from ERA supporter to champion last year when he signed ERA Minnesota’s Resolution to Congress to enact the fully ratified 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He wasn’t required to sign it, but in doing so he cemented his commitment to updating the Constitution to include all people.
Walz’s ERA action speaks louder than words.
We’re already getting a taste of reactionary, well-funded anti-ERA efforts this election cycle, unmasking blatant, loathsome misogyny. Rather than bowing to bullies, we now have the power to move our state and country forward with our vote, which can lead to a breakthrough of the barriers foisted upon the ERA. The opportunity is there to embed the principle of equality into the Constitution, our country’s strongest legal document.
State ERAs are on the march. Despite anti-equality cries to the contrary, state ERAs have a proven record of providing protections for reproductive freedom, as seen by actions in Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Connecticut. Today a majority of states have ERAs in their constitutions; 28 states have some form of state ERAs and four states actively pushed this year to add a state ERA. New York has their inclusive ERA on the ballot.
Betty Folliard
Minnesota came within a hair’s breadth of passing our ERA, no thanks to a $1 million anti-ERA pushback effort and headwinds from a few power brokers who thought it politically expedient to pass the ERA two years from now when our House, Senate and governorship are all up for election. (FYI: Telling activists to wait is unthinkable to activists who have been part of the longest movement in history, the movement that touches all other movements: the ERA. It’s been 101 years, after all.)
Minnesotans are resilient; we came closer than ever before, having passed an all-inclusive ERA through both houses of our Legislature, albeit with slightly different language. We grew our coalition, garnered national attention, and we will be back.
Elections matter. Vote for candidates who champion equal rights. Voters have the power to elect equality.
Women’s Equality Day must not be a painful reminder of a country in decline. It’s up to us to seize the moment and move forward toward equal rights for all.
Betty Folliard is a national ERA speaker, former state representative and founder of ERA Minnesota, a coalition of activists and allied organizations dedicated to passing both a state and federal ERA.
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Publish date : 2024-08-26 03:16:00
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