We need an Equal Rights Amendment more than ever

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

The culture war carousel has gone into overdrive. Extreme whitemenification of federal government perpetrated by the Trump/DOGE administration underscores the serious need for an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

Manipulation of the manosphere, suppression of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, erasure of accomplishments of diverse racial and ethnic communities, veterans, LGBTQIA+ individuals and women, and a federal documents purge of words like the F-word — female — are intended to keep folks flapping in the wind.

These actions lay bare a gaping hole in our Constitution. We lack constitutional equality that would guaranteeing all people equal protection against such discrimination so that the rights of all people are secure and cannot be easily revoked.

Despite this chaos, the movement to finalize the ERA continues. Last week on Equal Pay Day congressional chief sponsors Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., introduced a resolution declaring the ERA the 28th Amendment. The federal ERA reads: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

The aim of the federal ERA is to establish gender equality as an unassailable legal principle. As supreme law of the land, the Constitution is a dynamic document that framers designed to be improved over time, reflecting our ever-evolving society. This ERA will dismantle structural gender inequities, acknowledge the pervasive nature of discrimination, then provide a foundational remedy to overcome them.

By embedding constitutional protections into our strongest legal document, the ERA provides remedies in our courts that cannot be easily eroded while creating a framework for progress — social, moral and legal.

In 2020, previous Trump administration lawyers put a pause on the ERA via a memo from the Department of Justice to the U.S. Archivist that thwarted publication just as Virginia became the final state needed for ratification.

In January 2025 the federal ERA movement got a leg up from President Joe Biden when he declared: “I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: the 28th Amendment [ERA] is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex.”

In this political environment, debate rages — and the painted ponies go round and round.

Today, ERA attention has turned to states: Twenty-nine of them already have state ERAs — but not Minnesota. This year an all-inclusive Minnesota ERA is chief authored by state Sen. Mary Kunesh (SF 473) and state Rep. Leigh Finke (HF 501), with language negotiated at the end of last session. The first hearing is this Thursday.

The inclusive ERA provides an off-ramp from the twirling whirligig. The state ERA language fills a gap laid bare when our state Constitution was first penned in 1857. Think about all the folks who were left out when rights were passed out; then read the proposed ballot question on offer: “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to say that all persons shall be guaranteed equal rights under the laws of this state, and shall not be discriminated against on account of race, color, national origin, ancestry, disability, or sex, including pregnancy, gender, and sexual orientation?”

State ERAs are a declaration of our evolving values, explicitly recognizing areas where discrimination is still pervasive. They reflect our ever-changing society: past, present and future.

The proposed Minnesota ERA is a declaration of Minnesota values to ensure that freedom, fairness and equality are protected in our strongest legal document.

Opposing forces will assail this effort, spinning the ERA as all about abortion and boys in girls’ bathrooms. But denying an individual’s right to privacy and bodily autonomy reduces humans to objects, body parts, lady bits. And anti-trans arguments were never about bathrooms, just as Jim Crow wasn’t about water fountains. It’s about power, and power doesn’t give itself up.

Acknowledging equal rights for all doesn’t diminish your rights; it simply ensures that everyone is entitled to the same rights.

Good folks find solutions. We’ve been on this merry-go-round for 50 years. There’s an off-ramp, the ERA, and it’s on the march in Minnesota.

Act now: Tell legislators to let Minnesotans vote for equality for all people.

Betty Folliard is a former member of the Minnesota House and is the founder of ERA Minnesota.