ST. PAUL, Minn. – Senator Mary Kunesh (DFL-New Brighton) rallied with hundreds of people attending a State Capitol gathering yesterday asserting that Minnesota needs to add the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the state Constitution to ensure equal rights are not denied to Minnesotans based on race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry, or national origin.
“It’s been 100 years since the ERA was first debated in the United States, and Minnesotans are not explicitly by the amendment’s protections in our state Constitution,” said Sen. Kunesh. “My legislation will put the vote to Minnesotans to decide whether to amend those protections into our state’s Constitution. I successfully passed this legislation in the House during the 2019 session and will move it throughout this session to include the question on the state ballot in 2024.”
Sen. Kunesh, who is Chief Author of the 2023 state Equal Rights Amendment Bill in the MN Senate, said Minnesota’s Constitution does not currently explicitly ensure those rights and that she will press to get her legislation passed in both the Senate and House to be included on the Minnesota ballot in 2024. It’s been 100 years since the first ERA was introduced in the U.S. Congress in 1923, she said, and it is past time we have inclusive language in our state’s constitution to ensure all Minnesotans are equally recognized.
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