Equal Rights Amendment adds’ physical orientation, gender identity, female expression’ as secured groups
This month, the New York electorate approved a constitutional amendment that would make it illegal for male students to engage in women’s sports.
The amendment wo n’t immediately have much impact in New York, according to both a leading supporter and opponent, according to The College Fix. However, it may affect future decisions by the authorities on civil rights issues involving sex, parental right, and religious liberty.
” It really does not change anything on the terrain”, Justin Flagg, director for state Sen. Liz Krueger, who sponsored the act, told The College Fix.
Students are permitted to perform on the team that match their gender identity, according to Flagg in a recent telephone interview because Title IX is now in federal court, which has been interpreted by federal courts.
” That’s also a part of the New York state laws. It also supersedes the charter of New York, which is now the law of the land across the nation, he said. ” The clouds is no falling”.
The article, which passed as the ballot measure Proposition 1, adds to the privileges from bias in the state law.
These include a woman’s” sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender appearance, childbirth, pregnancy outcomes, and sexual healthcare and freedom”.
On Nov. 5, the amendment passed with 56 percent voting in favor and 34 percent opposed, according to unofficial election results.
Proposition 1 would “allow biological males to compete in girls ‘ sports,” according to the Coalition to Protect Kids NY, which was opposed to the proposal on its website. PolitiFact rated , the statement as “mostly true”.
Over the past two weeks, The Fix has sent the coalition a number of email requests for comment.
Another opponent, New York civil rights attorney Bobbie Cox told Newsmax in an October interview that the amendment will “erode parental rights” and “give males a constitutional right to be in female spaces, locker rooms, bathrooms, showers, dormitories”.
Cox emailed The Fix asking for her response after the amendment was passed, but she failed to respond.
The amendment was also the subject of a protest by student athletes and their families in October, according to the New York Post.
MORE: Women’s volleyball coach suspended after submitting a complaint about a transgender athlete.
However, Flagg, director of communications for Sen. Krueger, said the amendment does not change much in the short term.
” So, we’ve added ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy”, Flagg told The Fix.
” Meaning that in the future if legislature or a governor were to try to, for example, restrict abortion access, they would not be able to do that”, he said.
Cameron Macdonald, adjunct fellow with the conservative think tank Empire Center for Public Policy, also said the amendment’s impact likely will not be felt right away.
In a recent phone interview, Macdonald stated that” someone would actually need to go and challenge or rule a law that divides sex from sports and have the courts downhold it as unconstitutional.”
” It really does n’t do much directly because the way the law works”, Macdonald said.
In an executive summary that was made public before the vote, he said the amendment” could throw New York civil rights into turmoil.”
” Prop One does n’t create or destroy any particular individual rights”, he told The Fix. What it does is that it establishes a non-discrimination mandate, which could allow people to challenge the status quo in the context of adherence to the constitution’s non-discrimination provisions.
According to his executive summary, these lawsuits may “include irreconcilable differences between classes like religious belief and gender identity.”
According to Macdonald, the state legislature should be in charge of resolving disputes involving “value judgments” and civil rights laws, but the amendment allows the courts to make those decisions.
Meanwhile, the New York Republican State Committee, which also opposed the amendment, is advocating against a proposed state Department of Education rule regarding athletic participation.
According to a fact sheet released this month from the committee, the current policy prohibits biological men from playing on women’s and girls ‘ teams, and allows biological men to play on teams based on gender preference.
According to a recent Siena College poll, 66 percent of New Yorkers believe high school athletes should only compete with people of the same sex at birth.
According to the fact sheet,” Women will bear the burden and the repercussions of this outrageous policy.”
The College Fix emailed the committee several emails asking for feedback on the passage of the amendment and its effects on women’s sports, but the committee did not respond.
The Fix sent two emails to The ACLU of New York asking for their response to the amendment’s approval from voters.
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