TEXAS SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Reflections on the Texas Equal Rights AmendmentAn Essay by Lynne LiberatoTHE FIRST TIME I VOTED IN A NATIONAL ELECTION, I voted for the Texas EqualRights Amendment. My college boyfriend and I could not miss class on Election Day, so wedrove from our hometown of Arlington to the county seat to vote early. We arrived in Fort Wortha few days before Election Day in 1972, excited to vote in the presidential election. A committedRepublican, I cast my first presidential vote for Richard Nixon.I did not realize that I would be voting on laws as well as candidates until I read the ballot in the votingbooth. I remember seeing the Texas Equal Rights Amendment on the ballot because it struck me as odd that theproposed amendment contained a laundry list of protected groups based on sex, race, color, creed, or nationalorigin. I was confused about why the amendment was necessary, because I thought that all of those groups alreadyhad equal rights under the U.S. Constitution. I might have missed the inclusion of sex on the list, which it turnsout was the point, or maybe I thought that the Constitution already prohibited discrimination based on gender.In hindsight, my vote for Richard Nixon came to look different to me as the Watergate scandal unfolded.My vote for the Texas Equal Rights Amendment came to look different too, as the national amendment ran intosignificant opposition during the ratification process in 1973. My youthful idealism faded as opponents stirredfears that women would be drafted and the Equal Rights Amendment would require men and women to sharebathrooms.The entire text of Section 3a, Texas’s Equal Rights Amendment, reads as follows: “EQUALITY UNDERTHE LAW. Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, color, creed, or nationalorigin. This amendment is self-operative.”Like so many simple laws, the Equal Rights Amendment became complicated in its application and itsfailed adoption nationally. But, the issues raised are deja vu all over again. The issue of drafting women hasmorphed into questions of whether women should serve in combat units as they fight in wars with no front lines,effectively making every unit a combat unit. The issue of women in the military became personal to me when myson became a Marine. Through him, I met women described by my son as Marines he would be glad to share afoxhole with. That vote of confidence seemed a more significant affirmation than anyone in a voting booth couldprovide.I am reminded of the bathroom issues as I currently represent the City of Houston in a challenge toits Equal Rights Ordinance, which similarly protects a laundry list of groups. This time, the point of the lawis protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Opponents argue that bathrooms—again—blockthe path to individual rights. According to briefing in the appellate court, the coalition that seeks to repeal theordinance opposes it because: “The Coalition’s chief concern about (the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance) is thatit would potentially endow a biological male with the legal right to forcibly enter a women’s public restroomwithout the knowledge or consent of the adult or minor females using that Houston facility.”18