Sign the petiton here

Such a simple, straightforward statement: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” If race, were substituted for ‘sex’, meaning gender — presumably a human being deemed to be female — most Americans would think twice about refusing to support this amendment. 

Surveys suggest that the vast majority of Americans aren’t refusing to accept the ERA — no matter what right-wing zealots tell us. If reality, most United States citizens believe that women do have equal protection under the law. Boy are they wrong!!! Not only do women NOT have equal protection under the law, but Republicans in Congress are hell-bent on turning back the rights that women have won in the last 40 years.

“Don’t worry,” you say, ” the Supreme Court has already given American women their rights. They can’t be reversed.” Wrong there, too. And several prominent conservative justices remind us that American women have NO rights under the Constitution. Zippo! We were right there with the slaves and American Indians. Kaput on the subject of Constitutional rights! I’ll walk you through that horrifying news in a few. 

Anne of Carversville will be covering the Equal Rights Amendment that American women don’t have all week. Why? Because given all the complexities of the Republican War on Women, there is no longer any doubt in the minds of the vast majority of Americans that Republicans intend to send us packing back where we belong. That would be on the original homestead and not hard at work.

Ludicrous, you say? Yes, well it was pretty ludicrous that 10 Republican women launched a bill to make it a felony for a 15 year-old victim of incest who was impregnated by her father to get a legal abortion last week. They weren’t crying foul on the abortion, which remains legal in New Mexico. No, no. The daughter would be destroying evidence needed for the prosecution — even though the vast majority of rapists and perpetrators of incest never see a courtroom. 

Time for ERA Action

It’s time to take a stand for the Equal Rights Amendment, and I’m asking you gals and guys to hustle your beautiful, socially-conscious derrieres over to this White House petition and sign it. The petition reads:

Vigorously support women’s rights by fully engaging in efforts to ratify the 1972 Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

There are currently 35 states that have ratified the ERA and legal analysis suggests we may need just three more states for women to have equal rights under our Constitution. We ask you to support our efforts nationwide, particularly in the states that have not yet ratified the ERA: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, N. Carolina, Oklahoma, S. Carolina, Utah, and Virginia. We also ask you to place your full support behind Congressional legislation to eliminate deadlines on the original 1972 ERA. It is time our Constitution protects the rights of women, and women need and deserve active participation in ERA advocacy from the White House.

I spent about eight hours this weekend, reading legal opinions about the ERA. We’ll address all the issues in the coming days. There is no doubt that if just three more states pass the ERA, there is a VERY STRONG CASE for VICTORY! Will it go all the way to the Supreme Court? Yes. But major legal precedents say that the ERA will hold — no matter what right winger Phyllis Schlafly tells you. When you hear her talk below to the Arkansas state elected officials charged with moving the amendment forward in the state legislature, you will be astounded that this speech turned what was perceived to be a positive ERA tide in Arkansas against ratification.

Sign the petiton here

History of the ERA

When the Equal Rights Amendment was approved by the House and Senate and sent to the states for ratification in March 1972, few doubted that it would remain unratified by 38 states in 2012. Almost at once, 30 state legislatures ratified the ERA amendment. 

In events that demonstrate the determined power of one woman in America, arch social conservative and epic feminist-hater Phyllis Schlafly hit the road, broadcasting the stern message that an Equal Rights Amendment would result in military conscription for 18-year-old girls, homosexual rights and — I am dead serious — co-ed bathrooms.

Having used co-ed bathrooms all over the world without seeing any men peeing in the urinal or their bare butts in plain sight, I found this argument of Schlafly’s to be the most demeaning to human intelligence of all. Seriously — America’s women don’t deserve the status of women in other countries because we would be forced to share bathrooms with men.

ERA Bathrooms, Republicans and Pornography

If you’ll forgive me for saying so, there is something really creepy about a mind that approaches women’s rights within this psychological framework of analysis, BUT it is a hallmark of social conservatives. I’m thinking of L Brent Bozell III, who spends his days examining photos for evidence of pubic hair, so he can call magazines pornographic and raise a big stink.

What adds insult to injury here is that — hands down — conservatives in red states buy more pornography, based on their IP addresses and credit card info. But ideology — not actions — means everything to conservatives who excel at putting up a pious front while shaking their fingers at the rest of us: “naughty, naughty”. 

Harvard’s Professor Edelman reported in his porn subscription survey that states that pass anti-gay legislation buy 11% more porn.

So put your wagging finger in your pocket, Mr. and Mrs. right-wing, anti-rights for women, haters of educated women, unionized women and god forbid — anyone who has a civil service job — and let’s talk turkey on women’s rights.

Only in America is education perceived to be a threat to the future security of the nation. 

America’s Alleged Christian Tradition of Chivalry

In announcing her opposition to the ERA decades ago, Schlafly argued that it would take away the “special protection” of the “Christian tradition of chivalry” offered to women. Say what??? Schlafly’s opposition to an Equal Rights Amendment is grounded in her beliefs that American women have the “right” to be “supported and protected” by men. You heard me right, guys.