View of demonstrators as they carry a banner on Pennsylvania Avenue during the Equal Rights Amendment March, Washington DC, July 9, 1978. (Photo by Ann E. Zelle/Getty Images)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (NSF) - Two Democrats filed proposals Friday calling for the Florida Legislature to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
Senate Minority Leader Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, and Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, filed the proposals (SCR 392 and HCR 239) for consideration during the 2020 legislative session, which starts in January.
Similar proposals have not passed in recent years. Florida was part of a group of states that did not ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which was sent to states in 1972 after congressional approval.
The proposals by Gibson and Driskell say, in part, that “constitutional equality for men and women continues to be timely in the United States and worldwide, and many other nations have achieved constitutional equality for their men and women.”