(CNN) The coming Democratic takeover of the Virginia legislature has cleared the path for the state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which would ban discrimination on the basis of sex and guarantee equality for women under the Constitution. Earlier this year, the state Senate voted to advance the ERA. The new Democratic legislative majority is poised now to finish the job -- and make Virginia the critical 38th state to back the amendment. "One thing we are going to need to do right away is pass the Equal Rights Amendment in a Virginia," state Senate Democratic leader Dick Saslaw told a cheering crowd. while sitting next to a middle-aged woman on a bench at an Equal Rights demonstration, 1970s.

Source: CNN November 06, 2019 12:00 UTC