Thursday, March 29, 2007

Equal Rights Amendment reintroduced

Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly and Shakespeare's Sister are trumpeting the re-introduction of the equal rights amendment to the United States Consitution:
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification

The important point here is that this time there is no deadline by which the amendment must be ratified. (The first ERA expired in either 1979 or 1982, according to Wikipedia.)

The significance of the amendment can not be underestimated for LGBT individuals. The very root of the subordinated role of sexual minorities in American society is based in attitudes about gender roles. The ERA would clearly state that courts would have to apply the strictest level of scrutiny to laws which seek to make classifications based on sex. This has to be good for the gay rights movement. I would hope that LGBT orgs would recognize this and heartily endorse the amendment and work towards its ratification.

No comments:

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin