Nevada voters weigh state version of Equal Rights Amendment

Get Nadine White's Race Report newsletter for a fresh perspective on the week's news Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Nevada voters are deciding whether to adopt an Equal Rights Amendment in their state constitution, a sweeping update that would guarantee equal rights to people who have historically been marginalized. Question 1 would amend Nevada’s Constitution to ensure equal rights for all, “regardless of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry, or national origin,” a more wide-ranging amendment than the federal ERA that Nevada adopted in 2017, which outlaws discrimination based on sex, though the push to ratify it in the U.S. Constitution remains gridlocked. "And we’ve seen that in the very recent past — statutory protections we thought were forever are being chipped away.” Conservative groups oppose the expansiveness of the amendment, claiming it will cause a “flood of litigation” due to its vague nature and open the door to judicial discretion on a host of gender identity and LGBTQ rights issues. Fred Lokken, a political science professor at Truckee Meadows Community College, said the Equal Rights Amendment would not bar churches from their First Amendment rights “as long as they’re longstanding beliefs and practices."