On Tuesday, Jan. 14 amid a tectonic start to Minnesota Legislature 2025-26 Session, one bright spot emerged: a resounding collective voice for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) echoed throughout the hallowed halls of the Minnesota Capitol exclaiming: “All the way with ERA!”
Hundreds of participants from all across the state gathered for Forward Together: Rally for Equal Rights in the Capitol Rotunda to declare that equal rights are non-negotiable: they are our birthright, our inalienable right, and they must finally be constitutionally protected in both our state and federal constitutions. Anything less is simply that: less.
The Rally for Equal Rights was the launch of a brand new, greatly expanded coalition called “Minnesotans for Equal Rights” https://www.genderjusticeaction.us/era/ (#MN4ER), that intends to pass a state ERA to allow the voters to decide whether to include Minnesota values in our state constitution. The message is clear: let the people vote!
It was made crystal clear that activists and the myriad organizations are simply not going to lie down and play dead for the next four years while watching our rights eroded away by reactionary legislatures, judges, and courts. A wide array of partner organizations in this diverse new MN4ER coalition include organizers ERA Minnesota & Gender Justice; AAUW MN, the Asian American Organizing Project, Compassion & Choices, FairVote MN, Indivisible North Metro; Island of Discarded Women, Jewish Community Action, League of Women Voters of MN, MN AFL-CIO, Minnesota Council on Disability, Minnesota Move to Amend, Minnesota NOW, National Council of Jewish Women Minnesota, OutFront Minnesota, TakeAction MN, The ARC Minnesota, The Paper Lantern Project, RISE-Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment, Voices for Racial Justice, Women’s Foundation of MN, Women’s March MN, and YWCA Minneapolis.
Currently 29 states have some form of state ERA, but not Minnesota. At a time when the rights of citizens are under systemic attack, the purpose of this ERA effort is to provide constitutional safeguards against discrimination and to protect Minnesotans’ hard-won fundamental freedoms. The Minnesota ERA will explicitly safeguard against discrimination based on race, color, sex, disability, gender identity or sexual orientation, pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, and more. This charged political environment has brought about rollbacks of people’s rights happening on an epic scale, making it critically necessary to pass the ERA to protect our freedoms.
Equality speakers at the rally included Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan; MN State Auditor Julie Blaha; Senator Bobby Joe Champion, President of the Senate; Minnesota ERA bill chief author Senator Mary Kunesh; Bernie Burnham, President of Minnesota AFL-CIO; Tenzin Choesang, Strategic Partnership Manager at AAOP; the Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis, Senior Pastor at Plymouth Congregational Church; OutFront Minnesota President Kat Rohn; High School Students Max Nguyen, Kyle Chen, & Dheekshi Jayaprakash representing The League of Women Voters MN; Gloria Perez, President & CEO of Women’s Foundation of MN & Janett Jimenez, WFMN fellow in the Young Women’s Initiative; Megan Peterson, Gender Justice Executive Director; Trevor Turner, Director of Public Policy at Minnesota Council on Disability; AAUW MN President Kelsey Waits; Shelley Carthen Watson, President & CEO of YWCA Minneapolis; and MCs for the rally were Kate Quinlan-Laird, Co-President of ERA Minnesota & Iman Hassan, Advocacy Director from Gender Justice.
Equality is not a partisan issue. After 102 years of fighting to add the now fully ratified federal ERA into our federal constitution, and 42 years of pushing to add an ERA into our state constitution neither party has yet succeeded - though both have tried. This is indeed the longest, hardest, most arduous movement in America, the movement that touches all other movements. It began as a Republican initiative for decades in the 20th Century; was embraced by the Democrats along the way, then 50 years ago the country got caught up in the Culture Wars.
Things have only worsened in recent years after the abhorrent Dobbs decision, and of late we are witnessing women’s rights, immigrant rights, and LGBTQIA rights being systemically stripped away in other states. Much of this playing out through the unprecedented rancor at the Minnesota Capitol. To secure future protection against discrimination, we need the ERA now.
We invite all sides to unite around principles and virtues that are at the very bedrock of the American experience – that all people are created equal. Equal rights are a moral imperative, they are our inalienable rights and we will persevere until they are explicitly protected in our highest legal document - our constitution.
Organizations and individuals who wish to join in this effort can email us at info@eramn.org
Betty Folliard is the founder of ERA Minnesota, a coalition of activists and allied organizations dedicated to passing and Equal Rights Amendment into our state and federal constitutions. For more information, go to www.eramn.org
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