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7 <br /> Commissioner Rich asked Ms. Gral if she is speaking in other parts of the state. <br /> Marena Gral said the other co-chair lives in the western part of the state, and the goal <br /> is to go to every county and congressional district in the state. <br /> Commissioner Jacobs said expressed gratitude to these women and encouraged them <br /> to keep fighting for equality. <br /> Commissioner Price read the resolution: <br /> ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT <br /> WHEREAS, Orange County forthrightly supports equal rights for all residents of Orange <br /> County; and <br /> WHEREAS, women continue to confront a lack of political parity, workplace discrimination, <br /> healthcare inequities, disparate rates of poverty, rape and domestic violence assaults; and <br /> WHEREAS, the United States Constitution fails to guarantee explicitly that all rights that it <br /> purports to protect are held equally by all residents without regard to sex; and <br /> WHEREAS, the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment never has been interpreted <br /> to guarantee equal rights for women; and <br /> WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment [ERA] was drafted to help correct systemic <br /> discrimination based on sex, i.e., by situating sex as a suspect category invoking strict <br /> judicial scrutiny, as with race, national origin and religion; and <br /> WHEREAS, the ERA was passed by Congress in 1972 and ratified by 35 of the 38 states <br /> necessary to put it into the Constitution, yet was assumed to have expired in 1982; and <br /> WHEREAS, Congress can alter time limits in the proposing clauses of amendments, and the <br /> deadline for the ERA appeared only in the preamble as opposed to the actual legislation; <br /> and <br /> WHEREAS, Senator Floyd B. McKissick, Jr. and Representative Carla Cunningham <br /> introduced ERA ratification bills in the NC General Assembly in the 2015 long session, with <br /> Senator Mike Woodard co-sponsoring the Senate bill and Representative Henry M. Michaux <br /> co-sponsoring the House bill; and <br /> WHEREAS, these legislators have indicated that they will introduce similar bills in 2017; and <br /> WHEREAS, US Representative David Price, Representative Alma Adams, and <br /> Representative G.K. Butterfield co-sponsored bills in the 114th Congress to adopt an ERA, <br /> and to lift the time limits on states for ratifying the ERA; <br /> NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Orange County Board of County <br /> Commissioners calls on the US Congress to pass into law a bill to adopt an Equal Rights <br /> Amendment, or to remove the time limit for ratification of the ERA so that ratification shall be <br /> achieved upon the affirmative vote of 38 states, of which 35 already have ratified; and <br />