90 years on, push for ERA ratification continues

[alp227]

Drafted by a suffragette in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment has been stirring up controversy ever since. Many opponents considered it dead when a 10-year ratification push failed in 1982, yet its backers on Capitol Hill, in the Illinois statehouse and elsewhere are making clear this summer that the fight is far from over.

In Washington, congresswomen Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., are prime sponsors of two pieces of legislation aimed at getting the amendment ratified. They recently organized a pro-ERA rally, evoking images of the 1970s, outside the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Recent Supreme Court decisions have sent women's rights back to the Stone Age," said Speier, explaining the renewed interest in the ERA. The amendment would stipulate that equal rights cannot be denied or curtailed on the basis of gender.

Participants in the July 24 rally directed much of their ire at the Supreme Court's recent Hobby Lobby ruling. In a 5-4 decision, with the majority comprised of five male justices, the court allowed some private businesses to opt out of the federal health care law's requirement that contraception coverage be provided to workers at no extra charge.

full: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/90-years-push-era-ratification-continues

[PoliticAverse]

1. "and the Supreme Court upheld a ruling that the ERA was dead.". It's dead. n/t

[GeorgeGist]

2. only US calls itself leader of the free world.

[niyad]

3. it is beyond an obscenity that, over 225 years AFTER the creation of this so-called

"greatest country in the world", women are STILL less than full citizens.

[niyad]

4. the surprise to me is that that hate-filled excuse for a woman is still around. surprised

that her lies, her bile, her hate, her hypocrisy, did not choke her to death years ago.

to this day, there are times I regret not running her over when I had the chance.

[alp227]

5. Oh I should've included Phyllis Schlafly's excerpt...

but here it is...

One of the leading opponents of the ERA during the 1970s was conservative Illinois lawyer Phyllis Schlafly, who launched a campaign called Stop ERA and is credited with helping mobilize public opinion against the amendment in some of the states that balked at ratifying it.

Schlafly, now 89, said activists and politicians trying to revive the ERA were "beating a dead horse.

"They lost and they can't stand it," she said in a telephone interview. "They're doing it to raise money, to give people something to do, to pretend that women are being mistreated by society."

If you thought Phyllis was a kook, wait till you learn about her son who founded a wingnut knockoff of Wikipedia!