ERA Town Hall, 13 May 2020

ERA Town Hall, 2020-05-13

Join the ERA Coalition on tonight for the first of a series of virtual ERA Town Halls, at 6:00 pm ET. Confirmed participants include: Actor/ERA Activist Alyssa Milano, Nevada Senator Pat Spearman, Linda Coberly, Chair, ERA Coalition Legal Task Force, Former Illinois State Representative Steve Andersson, Rosie Couture, Executive Director of Generation Ratify, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA), Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (by video), and our CEO and Co-President, Carol Jenkins will be moderating! 🌠The first 100 registrants will be provided a link the day of the event inviting them to join the Zoom Webinar and have the opportunity to interact directly with the panelists. You can register at the link in bio or https://bit.ly/3cgspvP we’ll also stream live right below thanks to the Facebook live stream! Spread the word and share this post!

As my readers know, the ERA is very important to me and has been since the time of growing under the ridiculous rhetoric of Phyllis Schlafly. Schlafly was famous making up Straw Man Arguments against the ERA. None of her arguments phased me. I lived in Europe with coed toilets, and the military is already considering requiring girls register for the Selective Service. What’s more, twenty-five states already have a state-wide Equal Rights Amendment of some form, and none of the fallacious arguments Schlafly claimed to come to pass ever manifested.

Since I was brought into the ERA fight in Virginia in 2017, soon after it was passed in Nevada, I have been going down to Richmond to fight for its passage, as well as lobbying my friends in Illinois to pass it there. Having been in the trenches, I was avoiding seeing the new Mrs. America series because I didn’t want to relive the horrors of Schlafly’s insanity. But I recently decided it was best to know thine enemy. So, I have been watching.

The truth is, much of the history of the ERA is actually centered in Illinois. Steve Andersson got it passed in Illinois to make Illinois Thirty-Seven, right behind Virginia’s Thirty-Eight. Illinois was also the home of Phyllis Schlafly, who was instrumental in preventing Illinois from passing it until 2018. What makes that passage all the more ironic though is that Schlafly, a conservative who’s ideas on international politics weren’t so absurd became such a champion of the No ERA movement. Yet it took a Republican, Rep. Andersson, to put things right in the Land of Lincoln, the first, great Republican.

But, what astounds me is, since Schlafly became a lawyer, was she not familiar with Bradwell v. The State? In that 1867 case, contemporaneous with the Fourteenth Amendment. On the docket, Myra Bradwell sued the state of Illinois, yes, Illinois, for the right, under the Fourteenth Amendment, to practice law in the state. The US Supreme Court denied her this right, more or less implying she was not a citizen and therefore not qualified for equal protection under the law.

While this case seems archaic, it should be pointed out that since that time a number of cases have refined the Supreme Court’s position on women to bring it more in line with our modern interpretation of women as equal citizens. However, we need only look at 2007’s Ledbetter v. Goodyear. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that protection from pay discrimination against women was not protected by the Constitution and therefore Lilly Ledbetter was not entitled to sue for lost wages. Congress finally stepped in to pass a Statute to protect women, but women remain unprotected by the stronger Constitutional authority to this day. Which is to say, there are some weak protections for women but there are no strong, constitutional protections like there are for race.

The biggest issue is with Legal Constructionism. Under that doctrine, jurors try to intuit the intention of the author of a Constitutional element and apply it to the modern day. They eschew any more recent interpretation of the Constitution. Thus, one need only consider Bradwell v. The State to see the authors of the Fourteenth Amendment never intended to include women under it, and therefore, a Constructionist juror will likely derive precedent based on the 1867 ruling rather than any more modern ruling. The danger, therefore, is that most of the Supreme Court is made up of Constructionists, meaning we need the ERA now more than ever.

I hope you’re convinced now why we need the ERA, and please watch below to see the next steps to how we shall make it the Twenty-Eighth Amendment to our Constitution.

Town Hall

Posted by ERA Coalition on Wednesday, May 13, 2020

I hope you enjoyed the live stream, ladies and gentlemen and let’s work together to get her equal rights and make sure that equal means equal.

Virtual Campus ERA Day

Although, yet again, I was not able to attend this wonderful conversation about how close we are passing the Equal Rights Amendment and what we can do to cross the threshold, I did think the video was inspiring and though there were too many wonderful folks for me to name all of them, I wanted to thank our next Governor, Jennifer Carroll Foy, for being a part of it.

As Alyssa Milano points out so eloquently, we’re all in this together and every voice counts. Alyssa is amazing and I grew up watching her on Who’s the Boss (as a fellow thespian I hope she knows I don’t pigeonhole her that one role given her expanse of other work) and am so delighted to see her working so hard to extend equal rights to women. I have been a supporter in my heart since before the show premiered, although I’ve only been actively lobbying in Richmond since Delegate Carroll Foy came to office.

Alas, we didn’t get the ERA in 2018 despite my friends and my lobbying. But when I heard the bill was passing through the Illinois General Assembly, I immediately started posting, messaging, and tweeting to my friends in Illinois to get the bill passed, even if it meant Virginia couldn’t be 37. No shame in 38. And no shame in 39 either, as I always tell my dear friend Triana Arnold James in Georgia. I’m just delighted Illinois has a wonderful Republican State Representative Steve Andersson was behind us there and made sure the Illinois made it to 37. I was so proud to shake his hand when HJ79 passed.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Nevada State Senator Pat Spearman. Without Spearman’s push in Nevada, I don’t think I’d have been aware that we still had hope for passage despite the arbitrary and unconstitutional deadline. Thank you Pat. You rock and I hope someday to shake your hand too!

There were so many wonderful people at the event, but most inspiring of all were the student organizers. They inspire me to see the next generation as passionate about this issue as I have been.

Learn about the Equal Rights Amendment

Posted by ERA Coalition on Monday, April 27, 2020

Thank you my lady and gentlemen friends for watching and soon we will have our Twenty-Eighth Amendment, with your help!

House of Representatives passes HJ79

Since 2018 I have been advocating for the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment. Well, that is to say, since 2018 I have been advocating in my adulthood as I was a staunch ERA advocate back in the early 1980s when I was so gutted it didn’t make it. But yes, I have been going down to Richmond since 2018 to get the General Assembly of Virginia to pass the ERA.

ERA Lobbying in 2018
Here I am with my friend Emily Haines to lobby for the ERA in 2018
Photo from Fredericksburg.com

Fast forward to 2020 and the Virginia General Assembly finally ratifies the ERA. I have many photos from that day including one awesome photo with Jennifer Carroll Foy, but I’ll save those for another day. Instead, I want to talk about the passage of HJ79, the House of Representatives bill to remove the ERA deadline. My dear friend, Lisa A. Sales, was able to get gallery tickets for a bunch of us ERA supporters to attend the hearing on the House floor with none other than my friend and Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton presiding. Unfortunately, I have no photos from that as electronics aren’t allowed in the House Gallery, but you can see it on CSPAN.

The vote itself was very harrowing. At first there was a voice vote, but a Republican member of Congress called for a Recorded Vote. The acting Speaker, who had moved on from Wexton, held the vote open past the 15 minute mark to give all but 20 members of Congress time to vote. At first, the yay votes were ahead. But then around the 80 mark, the nay votes overtook the yay votes and we were gutted. But in the end, the final total was 232 (56%) for and 183 (44%) against. At 218 yay, though, we knew we had it. 5 Republicans joined 227 Democrats to pass HJ79 in the House!

However, I was able to catch up with a bunch of my fellow ERA advocates at a special event in the House.

Celebrating ERA Passage with the Deltas
These are some of my ERA friends and allies. The Delta Sigma Theta sorority, Inc has long been an advocate of passage and I was happy to work with them for this passage and be in this photo with them and their fellow allies

We Finally, our supporters in Congress were there to celebrate with us. I was very happy to meet Abigail Spanberger, Carolyn Maloney, and Jackie Speier as well as (not pictured) former Republican Illinois State Representative Steve Andersson, who was instrumental in getting Illinois to be the 37th state.

Spanberger, Maloney, and Speier
Congresswomen Abigail Spanberger, Carolyn Maloney, and Jackie Speier have been longtime advocates for the ERA and are instrumental for getting HJ79 to remove the ERA deadline passed through the House of Representatives

It was great seeing Ellie Smeal and of course my friends on fighting to make Georgia the 39th. But also, it was so wonderful to catch up with my good friend Eileen Davis. Eileen is a longtime advocate of the ERA too and what’s more, she raised a very politically savvy daughter. None other than Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, pictured above. One of my highlights is always to have long chats with Eileen, she’s such a font of knowledge.

When it was time to go, we said our goodbyes. The last person I saw was Lisa. Thank you Lisa, and thank you everyone! You are all wonderful!

Now, on to the Senate…