New York state Republicans are organizing to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment – or Prop 1 – on the statewide ballot in November.
The proposed amendment, which has been passed twice by state lawmakers, bars discrimination based on gender identity. The amendment also would also enshrine the right to an abortion— without explicitly using that word. It has survived a number of court challenges this year.
Outside Schenectady City Hall Monday, former Republican Congressional candidate Liz Joy, who unsuccessfully challenged Representative Paul Tonko for the 20th district seat in 2020 and 2022, claimed if passed, the amendment to the state constitution would strongly infringe on parental rights.
“It allows minors under the age of 18, minors the right to medical treatments, to procedures, including gender transitions, gender transition drugs and surgeries without parental consent,” Joy said.
The state constitution currently bans discrimination based on race, color, creed or religion.
An appellate court in June overturned a May decision by an upstate judge who struck down the amendment on technical grounds, allowing it to appear on the November ballot.
Schenectady County Republican Chair Darlene Harris calls it an attack on women’s rights.
“This will allow for biological males to enter the arena and the areas of where girls and women have the rights to be independent of and it's going to allow them into our sports, our locker rooms, our bathrooms, our sororities,” Harris said.
Harris was asked if she opposes all transgender athletes.
“I'm not aware of a high push from women trans men to push into men's sports. So that, that dialogue, that circumstance has not really come about in full,” Harris said.
Claudia Cavanagh, a member of the local Republican party, says the amendment would establish dangerous precedent.
“The demon has got a toe in the door, and if you don't stop them, the whole body’ll be in… and we cannot have men in women’s sports. That's another thing. When this whole men and women's sports debacle started, I wondered where were the Me Too women, the women who came out against men saying things to women or touching them inappropriately? Where were they? Nothing. Crickets,” Kavanagh said.
State Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh, whose 112th District includes part of Schenectady County, says proponents’ claims the ERA is needed to protect reproductive rights in New York are unfounded.
“Abortion has been legal in New York even before Roe versus Wade was decided, and with the Reproductive Health Act's passage in 2019, New York State has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the country. That is not going to change,” Walsh said.
The bill was championed by Manhattan Democratic state Senator Liz Krueger, who promoted it in early 2023 at the capitol.
“Fundamental rights have to be established Constitutionally, and that’s what we’re going to do with the second passage of the ERA, then turning it over to the voters to understand how crucial this is for all 20 million of us,” Krueger said.
Supporters say it’s part of a number of efforts to protect reproductive rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision.
Assembly candidate Joe Mastroianni, who is challenging incumbent 111th District Democrat Angelo Santabarbara, says the proposed amendment would grant 11 more groups anti-discrimination protection.
“One of them, very dangerously, is age. And what that will do is that will allow minor children to be able to make decisions without parental consent,” Mastroianni said.
The press conference by the question’s opponents was part of a statewide effort that launched Monday.
The measure has also come in for criticism from good government group Common Cause New York, which says the language is too difficult for New Yorkers to understand what they will be voting on.
