For those of you active in the Democratic Party, here’s a resolution to take to your precinct meetings to gain the support of your county for ERA ratification by North Carolina!
Download the resolution as a Word document: 2018 ERA Resolution Democratic Precincts
Text of document:
A RESOLUTION CALLING FOR HEARINGS AND RATIFICATION OF THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT
WHEREAS, Women, who constitute over 51% of the population of North Carolina, continue to confront workplace discrimination; health care inequities; disparate rates of poverty; rape and domestic violence assaults; a lack of political parity; and
WHEREAS, Anti-discrimination state laws are not uniform and federal laws are not comprehensive; additionally, these laws can be repealed or reduced; and
WHEREAS, The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is needed to help correct systemic sex discrimination, since the US Constitution does not explicitly guarantee that all the rights that it protects are held equally by all citizens without regard to sex; and
WHEREAS, The ERA was proposed in 1923, passed by Congress in 1972 and ratified by 35 of the 38 states necessary to put it into the Constitution as of a June 30, 1982 time limit; and
WHEREAS, Irrespective of a time limit for ratification, the Nevada Legislature ratified the ERA with a bipartisan vote on March 22, 2017, becoming the thirty-sixth state to ratify the amendment; and
WHEREAS, Congress can alter time limits in the proposing clauses of amendments, and the deadline for the ERA appeared only in the preamble and not in the text of the amendment; and
WHEREAS, Sixteen municipalities and/or counties across North Carolina have adopted resolutions of support for the ERA; and
WHEREAS, ERA bills were introduced into both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly in 2015 and 2017; were assigned to Judiciary and/or Rules Committees, but were not considered in hearings; and
WHEREAS, The North Carolina Democratic Party Platform calls for a renewed effort to ratify the ERA; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the North Carolina Democratic Party will prioritize advocating that the General Assembly hold committee hearings upon ratification bills like those introduced in 2015 and 2017, and all Democrats will pursue ratification of the ERA to the US Constitution as proposed by Congress on March 22, 1972.
Submitted to the _________________ County Democratic Party by (name)_________________________________, Precinct #_____, _________________ County February __, 2018. E-mail address: ________________________________________
Informative Sources: ERA-NC Alliance era-nc.org; ERA equalrightsamendment.org; US Census Bureau census.gov/quickfacts/NC; ERA Coalition eracoalition.org; NCDP Platform Preamble tinyurl.com/ya3f5rfc