From Del. Mark Keam:
Did you know that gender equality is not a guaranteed right in the U.S. Constitution? Did you know that 84% of constitutions around the world guarantee gender equality but ours does not?
Sadly, the United States is one of only seven countries that haven’t made this an explicit and clear right.
In 1972, Congress finally passed the Equal Rights Amendment, and by 1982, 35 states had ratified it, which leaves just 3 more states to join in order to meet the 3/4 of states requirement under the Constitution.
On March 22, 2017, exactly 45 years after Congress passed the ERA, Nevada became the 36th state to ratify. Then, in May of this year, Illinois became the 37th state.
This means only one more state needs to join, and all eyes are on Virginia! Next year, we have a chance to make history — or HERstory — by passing a resolution through the Virginia General Assembly to ratify the ERA.
To raise public awareness, the #VAratifyERA State Campaign launched a “10 Days of ERA” statewide bus tour on Friday led by my good friend Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy (D) and Senator Glen Sturtevant (R).
The tour’s goal is to educate Virginians and to urge passage of a resolution like this one that I am proud to copatron:
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+mbr+HJ579
The bus tour kicked off at William & Mary on November 9 and will end with workshops in Richmond on November 18.
In between, it will travel over 1,500 miles with events targeting 16 Virginia colleges and the communities of Ashland, Blacksburg, Charlottesville, Fairfax, Fredericksburg, Hampton, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Norfolk, Petersburg, Radford, Richmond, Roanoke, Staunton, Virginia Beach & Woodstock.
If you live in these communities, please check this schedule and come out to support the purple bus! https://varatifyera.org/tour-schedule/.
I joined the bus when it came through my neighborhood today and thanked so many volunteers of League of Women Voters who are writing postcards to legislators urging their support of the ERA.
You can also sign a petition to support gender equality at https://VAratifyERA.org/petition/ and opt in for campaign updates. Thank you for your support!
From Ali Symons:
From VA Ratify ERA:
From Barbara Jones:
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