Jack, today, Women’s Equality Day, commemorates and celebrates the adoption of the 19th Amendment which prohibited the United States government from restricting voting rights based on sex.

Today, we also recognize that not all are equal in America even still, and in order to address this we introduced the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)--over 100 years ago. We have been waiting over 100 years for its ratification.

Sign and send the petition: Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

The ERA–an amendment to the U.S. Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens, regardless of sex–has satisfied all requirements to be added to the Constitution as the 28th Amendment. It was passed through Congress with well over the required 2/3 majority vote and sent to the states in 1972. Virginia voted to become the 38th, and last needed, state to meet the three-quarter state ratification requirement in 2020.

However, prior to ratification, Congress had set an arbitrary deadline for states’ ratification votes. As a result, the ERA’s ratification has been repeatedly blocked, most recently by a Trump administration memo in 2020 that continues to impede progress to this day.

Right now, Congress can pass resolutions to remove the deadline, certify the ERA, and send it to the archivist to publish it as the 28th Amendment.

Click here to send a message directly to your representative and senators: Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

Ratifying the ERA should not be controversial. Enshrining equality in the U.S. Constitution would provide new avenues to push for pay equality, strengthen existing laws to protect survivors of gender-based violence, and influence the legal tone and decisions regarding gender equality, positively influencing discrimination cases brought forth over time. As the ERA states, “Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.”  

We are calling on Congress to immediately advance the ratification and certification of the ERA to the U.S. Constitution. Discrimination is not up for debate!

Click here to send a message directly to your representative and senators: Ensure the Equal Rights Amendment is ratified.

Thanks for all you do,

Erin Tulley, Daily Kos