Assemblymember Monica P. Wallace (D-Lancaster) announced that she co-sponsored and helped pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) (A.271). This legislation seeks to amend the New York State Constitution to guarantee equal protections for people on the basis of sex.

“It’s been nearly 100 years since women gained the right to vote, yet we’re still fighting to have the same rights and opportunities as men,” said Wallace. “By passing this long-overdue measure, we’re sending a clear message that discrimination on the basis of sex has no place in New York.”

The New York State Constitution protects against discrimination based on race, color, creed or religion. The Assembly passed an amendment to the state constitution to ensure no individual may be denied equal rights on account of sex. The Equal Rights Amendment now heads to the state Senate. If it passes the Senate this session, then it will be re-introduced next legislative session where it will need to be passed a second time by the Assembly and Senate. Once a Constitutional amendment passes both houses of the Legislature in two consecutive sessions, it is proposed to New York voters as a ballot referendum.

“New York State has been at the forefront since the earliest days of the women’s rights movement. In 1848, trailblazing activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott assembled the nation’s first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, attended by more than 300 women and men.^[1] This critical proposed amendment continues New York’s legacy of leading the way to gender equality,” noted Wallace.
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