St. Paul – Today, Representative Mary Kunesh-Podein participated in the first public hearing of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) bill before the House Government Operations committee. If approved, the ERA bill (H.F. 13) would put an Equal Rights Amendment on the ballot in Minnesota in November of 2020 to amend the state constitution to read, “Equality under the law shall not be abridged or denied on account of gender.” If ratified, the amendment will take effect on January 1, 2021.
Rep. Kunesh-Podein, who is the chief-author of the bill, released the following statement:
“Minnesotans deserve nothing less than constitutional equality and a government that upholds our basic values of fairness,” said Kunesh-Podein. “Gender discrimination must receive the highest level of scrutiny – assumed equality is not enough. Our state should work for all of us, no matter what we look like or who we are.”
Speakers at the hearing included:
- Lisa Stratton, founder of Gender Justice
- Jettie Ann Hill, MAPE member
- Pheng Thao, statewide coordinator, Men and Masculine Folks Network
- Trista MatasCastillo, Ramsey County Commissioner, Army/Navy/Marine Corps veteran
- Ruben Vazquez, vice president of Racial and Public Policy, YWCA
- Deb Fitzpatrick, co-director, Center on Women & Public Policy, Humphrey Institute, U of M
Senator Richard Cohen is sponsoring a Senate companion bill, S.F.200.