Today is the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Watch our CEO Bamby Salcedo testify in Congress last fall at the hearing commemorating this day and how important the ERA is for the protection of LGBTQ+ folks across the country.
From the Advocate:
Though it commemorated the 50th anniversary of the ERA, the hearing was not your grandma’s ERA hearing. One of the most compelling witnesses was Bamby Salcedo, founder of TransLatin@ Coalition and the first Mexican-American transgender woman to testify before Congress. Salcedo donned suffrage white along with the other witnesses and began her testimony in Spanish, causing several of the Republican committee members to do a double-take. As she continued on switching to English she directly tied protection of vulnerable trans people to the ERA, saying that while she supports legislation like the Equality Act, “the truth is that the Equality Act does not look at all of the intersections that cross my life and will not provide constitutional equality.” With the recent deluge of attacks on trans people in many states, Salcedo implored members of Congress to back the ERA. Legislative fixes like the Equality Act, while important, will not provide permanent protection.