March 23, 2019
Is Equality Equal?
On Monday, March 18, Eagle Forum held a briefing on Capitol Hill to educate Congressional staffers on the dangers of the Equal Rights Amendment and similar “equality” legislation. Our panelists included Anne Schlafly Cori, Chairman of Eagle Forum, Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life, and Emilie Kao, Director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation.
The briefing tackled the history of the ERA, the legal problems surrounding it, how to message the issue, and how staffers could take a stance current legislation, such as the Equality Act, to prepare for this fight. This led to a robust question and answer session at the end.
Nearly 40 people were in attendance. In addition to Congressional staffers, an employee from the
Department of Defense and community members joined the briefing. Staffers also were able to
network with other organizations present including the Family Research Council and Concerned
Women for America.
We came prepared for a possible disruption by ERA advocates. The President of the National
Organization for Women, Toni Van Pelt, RSVP’d for the event. It turned out to be an empty
threat. However, three representatives from the ERA Coalition came, but made it clear that they
were not there to cause any problems.
Anne and Kristan have drafted an OpEd that should be posted this week. Students for Life also
filmed the briefing and those clips will be made available soon.