Why This Feminist (Kimberley A. Johnson) Is Voting for Bernie Sanders
Why This Feminist Is Voting for Bernie Sanders
by Kimberley A. Johnson * Jan. 19, 2016 * HuffPost
Last July, I had the opportunity to attend Netroots Nation,(NN) and while having lunch with a group of colleagues, Bernie Sanders walked into the restaurant. The group I was with started cheering and Bernie waved to us. As an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) activist and the spokesperson for the women's advocacy group We Are Woman, I wanted to ask Sanders if he would endorse the ERA on the campaign trail.
The president of We Are Woman, Wendy Cartwright, and I quickly made our way to Sanders as he was leaving and I asked him my question: "Will you endorse the ratification of the ERA?"
He replied, "Okay!"
Wendy asked if his answer was enough of an endorsement to create a graphic to post on Facebook. I told her I didn't think it was. He'd been gracious enough to give us an answer, but I felt we really had to nail it down.
Sanders spoke to an enormous crowd later that night. Tenacious Wendy managed to get into the front row and she once again had the opportunity to ask Sanders if he would endorse the ERA. He shook her hand, looked directly into her eyes and said, "Yes, I will." A few weeks later, this quote appeared on his website:
"Not only are we going to expand policies that advance gender equality, we are going to fight to pass the long-overdue Equal Rights Amendment and vigorously defend the critical laws and programs which protect all working people in our country."
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