National Black Justice Coalition Says: Thank Black and LGBTQ+ Women for Reviving the Equal Rights Amendment
Black LGBTQ+ Group Issues Statement on Upcoming House Vote to Extend Equal Rights Amendment Ratification Deadline
CONTACT: Brett Abrams | brett@unbendablemedia.com
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to advance a joint resolution to remove the deadline for states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The Equal Rights Amendment would amend to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex or gender.
In reaction to the upcoming vote, David J. Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, a leading civil rights organization dedicated to the empowerment of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer+ and same gender loving (LGBTQ+/SGL) people, celebrated the role of Black LGBTQ+ and transgender women in reviving the Equal Rights Amendment in the following statement:
“The Equal Rights Amendment is a critical fix to our Constitution that would explicitly spell out the rights of women in the United States.
“It is critically important that we recognize that the Equal Rights Amendment, which stalled after its initial introduction in 1972, was revived by a Black same-gender loving woman, State Sen. Pat Spearman of Nevada, and a transgender woman, Del. Danica Roem of Virginia – who would not have been welcomed by the largely white heterosexual cisgender movement that originated the ERA’s conception.
“The movement for women’s right has come a long way since the 1970s because of its recognition that all women – cisgender women, transgender women, white women, Black women, Indigenous and other women of color, heterosexual women, and same gender loving women – matter and deserve equal protection under the law.
“We celebrate the revival of the Equal Rights Amendment in the House of Representatives and hope that the Senate will move in a judicious manner to ensure that the equal rights of all Americans are explicitly spelled out in the Constitution.”