Hey, good evening Shelby County.
I'm Will Barnett and I'm running to be your next
State Representative.
Today's question comes in and asks,
Hey, will. Where do you stand on women's rights?
I think it's a great question to spend just a minute or two on here today.
Now, the philosophy I try to live by
or the doctrine that I've accepted comes from
Robert G. Ingersoll who was a civil war era attorney
and orator.
And he said basically this,
Give to every human being
every right that I would claim for myself.
Or that you would claim for yourself
and I think those are absolutely words to live by.
When we talk about women's rights, we're
talking about a portion of humanity, right?
These should be human rights that we're discussing
there shouldn't be any differentiation based on sex or gender
or traditional gender roles. Correct?
At least I think so.
Now, the Equal Rights Amendment,
which had been around ins some iteration since the early 1920's,
was finally passed by Congress for ratification by the States in 1971
would have added gender to some of the Constitutional protections
that we enjoy as citizens.
However, it did not reach the number of states needed to ratify it by
the first deadline for ratification in 1979 which was extended until 1982.
Virginia became the 38th state here just a month or two ago to ratify that
however there are some questions as to the legality of that
Because the,
deadline had expired
and Kentucky was one of, by the way,
5 states that rescinded its ratification
and Kentucky did so in 1978.
I think today there is as much need if not more than ever
for new calls for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
You know, one of the biggest opponents of the time
was Phyllis Schlafly
and she defended her opposition by
saying that the Equal Rights Amendment was a threat to housewives
and a threat to traditional gender roles.
They went so far as to
lobby legislators with homemade bread, jams, and pies
to try to exhibit to them what might be lost if
if all the sudden women had equal protection or no distinction under the law
compared to men.
So,
I think its time to look
at the Equal Rights Amendment as a state legislator
potentially, I can play a part in that if the call were to come out
for that amendment to be ratified again
but I want to leave you with those words from Robert G. Ingersoll again,
that says,
Give to every human being every right
that you would claim for yourself.
Again, I think those are words to live by and I'll leave you with that for today.
I thank you for your time.
You can check out the website,  I've got an issues page up.
www.votewillbarnett.org
Keep sending your questions to will@votewillbarnett.org
and I will talk to you again tomorrow.
Thanks, and have a good evening.
