January 15, 2020

You have been driving for what seems like years. You have endured three flat tires out of the four on your car. You have driven through rain storms. And sand storms. And snow storms. Your kids have thrown up in the back seat so many times you have lost count.

And finally you have reached your destination and you just sit in your driver’s seat and stare. 

That is a bit the way I felt today sitting in the back row of the gallery while hearing the speeches and watching the vote to ratify the ERA in the House of the General Assembly of Virginia, the 38th and the final state needed to ratify the amendment and make it part of the Constitution of the United States of America (except for some technical problems we have to deal with.) The ERA had never reached the floor of the Virginia House for a vote, because the majority party had never let it come out of committee—or even sub-committee. The ERA had passed several times with bi-partisan approval in the Virginia Senate but never in the House of the Virginia General Assembly. But the 2019 state election had pushed the power levers. 

And thus the gallery of the House today was packed with people of all ages and colors jubilant to see history made. Many were wearing the gold-white-purple sashes such as I had worn in the ERA marches down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC in August of 1977 and July of 1978. I was 35 years old in 1978, wearing white in the blistering heat and confident that together we could make the world a better place. It would take much longer than we thought. Forty-two years have passed since that march. There were women who made it their life purpose to see the ERA pass, and at least one of them is sitting in the gallery today. 

A black woman delegate, a graduate of the former all-male Virginia Military Institute, introduces the resolution and speaks about being on the right side of history. 

A transgender delegate speaks about her mother and what the ERA means to her. 

An older woman delegate speaks about marching in 1978 with her daughter. She is wearing the same sash that she wore then. 

Delegates from the other side speak in opposition. 

It is time for the vote. The resolution passes, 59-41. The gallery erupts with cheers, applause, hugs. I stand quietly, my eyes filled with tears. 

Such a simple statement: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex.”