Republicans sound the alarm on the scale of New York’s ERA

New York voters will vote in November on Proposition 1, also known as the New York Equal Rights Amendment.

The ERA would solidify abortion rights in the state constitution and expand protections against discrimination against women and LGBTQI+ people, among other things.

Republicans, led by former Rep. Lee Zeldin, a former Republican gubernatorial candidate, argued Monday that they want New Yorkers to read the amendment carefully because they say it contains more than what which they think Democrats are talking about openly.

To do this, they teamed up with former high-profile student-athlete Riley Gaines.

A former collegiate swimmer at the University of Kentucky, Gaines said she was forced to compete against Lia Thomas, a University of Pennsylvania swimmer who is a transgender woman.

She said Thomas swam to the women’s national title by beating accomplished female athletes.

“It’s very quickly labeled anti-trans, or transphobic, but understand that I’m not against anything, I’m standing for something,” she said. “I am not saying that one sex is inferior or superior to the other. It simply means that we are different and deserve to be recognized, celebrated and honored based on those differences.

Gaines’ appearance was intended to highlight Zeldin’s suggestion that Democrats are trying to prey on voters, accusing them of publicly making Proposition 1 on abortion, while he maintains that abortion is already protected by state law.

“This is not an amendment that only concerns abortion,” he told reporters. “If they wanted an amendment exclusively about abortion, they should have drafted one.”

He said Spectrum News 1 that the ERA’s broad language on preventing discrimination on grounds including sexual orientation, gender identity and expression could have implications for women and girls like Gaines.

“For those who don’t think we should have transgender boys participating in girls’ sports, or in girls’ bathrooms or locker rooms, if you are concerned about the extent of constitutional rights afforded to people who are illegally in our state or country, it’s important for us to have a conversation about the depths of this issue,” he said.

State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal fired back.

He stressed that constitutional protection of the right to abortion in New York was necessitated by the overturning of the law. Roe v. Wade in 2022, effectively leaving the decision to the states, and that enshrining this protection in the state constitution is a step further than current state law.

“The Equal Rights Amendment will codify our efforts in the Democratic state Senate to ensure that women’s reproductive health is enshrined in our state constitution,” he said.

Hoylman-Sigal, who currently has legislation in committee that would require school districts to establish policies and procedures regarding the treatment of transgender or gender nonconforming students, rejected the idea that Democrats are turning away from other aspects of the ERA, making clear he believes the anti-discrimination protections contained in the amendment that extend beyond abortion are necessary.

“Against LGBTQ New Yorkers, against women, against people with disabilities, against many other classes who deserve the full protection of our state constitution,” he said. “Transgender children should not be demagogues by politicians. »

In a recent Siena College poll, 48 percent of New Yorkers surveyed favored allowing parent groups to override educators’ decisions about which books should be made available to students, while 69 percent were supported strengthening protections to protect members of the LGBTQ community and 66% supported requiring a high level of protection. school athletes only compete with others of the same gender assigned to them at birth.