NY MAGAs mobilize against Prop 1.
I will be voting on November 5th for the first time as a New York state resident.
New Yorkers can early vote starting next Saturday.
Because of the electoral college system, when it comes to presidential elections, Illinois voters are essentially disenfranchised. It is the same thing in New York.
In spite of that, I will cast a vote against Trump because…well, Trump.
But there are several ballot measures I will also vote on.
Like Proposition 1.
That proposition is on this year’s ballot and would expand the Equal Rights Amendment within New York State’s constitution.
Right now, the amendment prohibits discrimination based on “race, color, creed, or religion.”
Prop 1 would add ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.
Aside from expanding protections, having the proposition on the ballot was to increase turnout in a state where Harris is an odds on favorite.
Abortion and reproductive rights is a big issue in down-ticket races.
But the MAGA right is using the proposition to do the same thing.
Mother Jones has reported:
In a year in which support for abortion rights could determine control of statehouses, Congress, and the presidency, Prop 1 seemed like a shoo-in, especially in the blue state of New York. Yet with a little over a month before the election, the effort to pass the New York ERA has been stumbling. An opposition campaign, calling itself the Coalition to Protect Kids, has fixated on the amendment’s protections for trans people, exaggerating its impact on women’s sports and pushing misleading claims about its effects on parental rights. “By solidifying new constitutional rights based on gender identity, Prop 1 is sacrificing the rights of girls,” Amaya Perez, the New York chapter leader of Gays Against Groomers, a right-wing group known for pushing extremist anti-LBGTQ narratives, said at the press conference.
Those tactics appear to be working. Leaked polling from the pro-Prop 1 campaign shows that voters find the opposition’s messages extremely persuasive. Months ago, Democrats saw the amendment as a means of motivating liberal turnout in November. Now, state Democratic politics are in a precarious state following the indictment of New York Mayor Eric Adams, and Republican candidates are turning the tables, using opposition to Prop 1 as a rallying cry for their own voters.
Prop 1 is good law.
You should vote for it.