Stevens: ERA up, Weinstein down - what a day for women
Stevens: ERA up, Weinstein down - what a day for women
(many images from the rally here: https://www.google.com/search?q=national+rally+for+equal+rights+springfield+IL+2018++images&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjCwMbX_MHbAhVM_oMKHRfLBiYQ7AkIMg&biw=1019&bih=560#imgrc=PW4uY4mNNb6uPM
By Heidi Stevens / Chicago Tribune
Speaking of things that seemed unimaginable just a year ago.
Illinois passed the Equal Rights Amendment on Wednesday (May 30), the same day a grand jury indicted Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Both a long time coming. Both long overdue. Both a signal that power is shifting in this country. The Illinois House voted 72-45 to ratify the ERA, following an April vote in the Senate, which makes way for Illinois to become the 37th state to ratify the measure — more than 45 years after it was approved by Congress. It needs backing from 38 states to be included in the U.S. Constitution, and legal experts are debating whether that can even happen at this point, since those 38 votes were supposed to take place by a 1982 deadline.
Still, it’s more than symbolic. It’s a historic push to give women, for the first time, the same rights as men in the U.S. Constitution. It’s proof that the arguments used for decades to deny that protection — fear that the amendment will spell the end of separate locker rooms for men and women, fear that it will increase taxpayer-funded abortions — aren’t working anymore. Wood Dale Republican Rep. Christine Winger told her colleagues before Wednesday’s vote: “I am pro-life. Again, I am pro-life. I’m a mother of a 2-year-old daughter. I am for her and others to know in the state of Illinois she should have the same opportunities as men.”
And Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat, had this to say: “This is about the United States Constitution, people. And half the people in this country aren’t in it. They aren’t included in the United States Constitution. Isn’t that enough for you to realize the historic moment and step back from predispositions you’ve had and your heels dug in the ground on this issue and that issue and the other issue?”
On Wednesday night, it was enough. Earlier the same day, Weinstein was indicted on charges that he forced one woman to perform oral sex and raped a second woman. The charges stem from alleged incidents that took place in 2004 and 2013. It’s easy to forget how impossible such a development seemed prior to October, when The New York Times broke the first story about Weinstein’s alleged serial assault and harassment. In a story last week, when the producer was arrested on rape charges, this sentence stopped me cold: “With camera shutters clicking and reporters shouting questions,” The New York Times wrote, “the scene was a mirror image of the red carpets where Mr. Weinstein presided for decades as a movie mogul and king of Hollywood.”
The fact that we were parsing his apology mere months ago (“I came of age in the ’60s and ’70s”) and now he faces felony charges is a signal — perhaps the biggest so far — that women’s voices are finally being heard and heeded in ways that will shift the landscape forever.
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http://www.gainesville.com/opinion/20180602/stevens-era-up-weinstein-down---what-day-for-women
= new reply since forum marked as read
This is what progress looks like in the era of dolt45! Mother Jones had an amazing article ("#Metoo Movement Has Revived the Equal Rights Amendment" by Olivia Exstrum, March 2018) talking about this very topic.
One of 2 silver linings during the terror of tRump....1) you no longer have to convince folks that racism is real and 2) women are being motivated to run and prioritize our issues.
