Georgia Dem lawmakers try to revive Equal Rights Amendment in era of ‘increased discrimination’

by Jill Nolin, Georgia Recorder
February 21, 2025

Democrats in both chambers have filed resolutions that celebrate and affirm former President Joe Biden’s pronouncement made on his way out the door that the Equal Rights Amendment is “the law of the land,” although the now-fired national archivist declined to certify it. 

“It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people,” Biden said in a statement last month announcing that he believes the ERA should be added as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.

The 1970s-era amendment, which would guarantee men and women equal rights under the law, was ratified by the required number of state legislatures in 2020 when Virginia passed it and became the 38th state to do so. But that was well past the 1982 deadline set by Congress. 

Georgia has not passed the amendment, although there was a bipartisan push in 2019 that ultimately petered out.

Rep. Lisa Campbell, a Kennesaw Democrat, is sponsoring the resolution in the state House that would recognize the amendment as “the law of the land” and encourage Georgia to join other states in ratifying it. 

Campbell acknowledged that the amendment’s future is unclear but argued Georgia’s role in helping make equal rights official shouldn’t be.

“This work and this fight has been going on for 100 years, and in this body and in this chamber, week after week, we are hearing them talk about protecting women and girls,” Campbell said at a press conference Thursday. “The Equal Rights Amendment does exactly that. So, the conversation should be, why aren’t all of our states ratifying this amendment once and for all?”

Both chambers have prioritized measures this year that ban transgender athletes in girls’ sports and target health care access for transgender Georgians, including a proposed ban on puberty blockers for minors and ending gender-affirming care for state workers through the state health benefit plan. 

“Since we are seeing these harmful and divisive conversations on gender, we repeat the phrase we want ERA now in Georgia,” said Rep. Park Cannon, an Atlanta Democrat. “If the majority party is so concerned about binary gender expression, then they should go ahead and write this one into law as well.” 

Sen. Sally Harrell, an Atlanta Democrat who is sponsoring a resolution in the Senate, said part of their goal is to just keep the Equal Rights Amendment alive.

“Particularly in this environment where we have extreme abortion bans that can result in discrimination of women workers,” Harrell said. “And now we’ve got this politicized issue of DEI that includes women. So, we’re living through an environment of increased discrimination.”

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