ERA is back!!!

Oh SWEET. The Dems are planning to reintroduce the Equal Rights Amendment, also known as the ERA. For a great history on the ERA, check out wikipedia's entry. And for a great blog entry on this, check out salon.com's Broadsheet.

Basically, the ERA is a constitutional amendment that guarantees equal protection for women. It was first introduced in 1982, but failed ratification by just 3 states (Illinois was one of them... dammit!!!). The right-wing froths at the mouth over this, claiming all sorts of insane things like women being too frail to serve as firemen or combat troops, despite the fact that thousands of women do both of these things every single day.

But realistically, this amendment would lead first and foremost to equal pay for the same job... and how nice would that be. I'll never forget that Gillian Anderson made less than David Duchovny on X-Files, despite the fact that there was no show without both of them there.

So yeah, I'm a huge supporter of the ERA. And I'm really excited that it's back. Hopefully it'll make it through this time... it's been 25 years since the first introduction, and I'd like to think we're a better country these days than we were back then...!