Remarks

given at the

Generation Ratify Equal Rights Amendment Day of Action

Brendan Johnson

Rochester Municipal Park

Rochester, Michigan

March 21, 2021

Hi my name is Brendan Johnson,

I live right here in Rochester, and I’m not only incredibly honored to be asked to speak here today, but blown away by how many people are here on this beautiful March day to support the nation-wide ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment!

I think it’s really important right off the bat to establish why it is we are here and why the heck we’re still having this conversation. If you didn’t know already, the Equal Rights Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would enshrine, frankly, basic equality and protections for women under the Constitution.

If you’re wondering, “Didn’t we do this in the 1970s??” Yes! You’re correct. The U.S. House of Representatives passed this amendment in 1971, and the U.S. Senate in 1972. But the way text becomes an actual part of our constitution is that it needs to be ratified individually by 38 of the states directly.

Don’t worry, Michigan did ratify the ERA in May of 1972, and many other states did thereabouts too. But not quite enough. We still needed three more states. Now without going into a whole bunch of constitutional law hullabaloo, it took several decades, blurry deadline extensions, and some proclaimed ratification revocations for Nevada in 2017, Illinois in 2018, and finally Virginia in 2020 to become the last three needed states.

Now I know we will be marching to Sen. Gary Peters’ office right here in town today to ask him to work with his colleagues to recognize that we have finally met the ratification threshold to get this amendment added to the Constitution. Because it’s about time. It’s about time.

These protections are nothing new, and they should be blatantly common sense by now. Equality in civic abilities, voting, holding office, employment, housing, banking, insurance, and so much more. But we see time and time again with women, with younger people, with the LGBTQ community, that unless it’s explicitly protected in the Constitution, it simply doesn’t exist. And if it is in the Constitution — looking at you, #2A folks — it may as well be the word of God.

So you see how important this work we’re gathered together to do today is. I’m so inspired by your gathering here, and I’m more so inspired by the fact that I think I’m one of the oldest people here! Your generation continues to make waves, and I hope that today we can prove that women’s equality is something we care too much about to let fall to the dustbin of history.

Thank you. Now let’s go out and get this done!