Dear Readers,

Just a brief post this week to express my gratitude for your reading these weekly newsletters and for the messages you often share of your personal responses. I appreciate knowing when the information and stories inspire engagement!

And that is the purpose of this final one of 2024.

Faithful readers or followers of the long journey of the Equal Rights Amendment know that it has been a decades long struggle to get this important constitutional amendment truly verified with the last step being officially written into the Constitution.

Yes, the ERA Amendment has been passed by Congress and has the required 38 state ratifications. It has been sitting in the US Archivist office for many years, waiting for the US Archivist to publish it and make it the official law of the land.

In the final days of the Biden/Harris administration, let’s remind President Biden of the opportunity he has to secure his legacy as the president that secured equal rights for women in the US Constitution!

Many Americans think that women already have the rights we need, and that we don’t need a constitutional Equal Rights Amendment. Believe me, it does matter and for a full description of all the many reasons this campaign to secure the amendment goes forward, visit ERACoalition.org or listen to this interview with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from The NYT Daily over the weekend.

One example — with the ERA in place, it would have been more difficult for the US Supreme Court to strike down Roe v Wade and take away women’s right to their own bodies!

Surely, we can agree that it's unacceptable that more than half of this country’s population do not enjoy equal rights in this democracy’s Constitution, the model document for rights and freedoms for other democracies around the world. Yet, the United States is one of the very few countries in the United Nations that does not explicitly prohibit discrimination or guarantee equal rights on the basis of sex or gender.

Let’s not lose this historic opportunity to make history.

Your call or text just might be the one that secures action here.

Urge President Biden to do everything he can to publish the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution to ensure his legacy includes enshrining gender equality.

Here's what the ERA Coalition recommends…

Call (202) 456-1111 and text (302) 404-0880 the White House and demand that the ERA becomes reality. WH phone comment line open: 11am-3pm, Tues-Thurs
We need you to be involved EVERY DAY. Call, text and ask your friends and community to reach out to the White House. (social toolkit)
You can also email the White House to let them know you want this done before President Biden ends his term.

Taking action would be the greatest gift you could possibly give to your daughters, granddaughters and every women fortunate enough to live in a country where equal rights for all citizens is the promise… let’s do our part to make that promise a reality for all women and girls.

And may you and your family, wherever you live and whatever you believe and however you celebrate, find joy together, and may this deeply divided and violent world find new ways toward peace in the New Year.

Onwards!

- Pat