To the Editor:

I’ve seen quite a few letters these past few weeks in support of Proposal 1 and I’m truly having a difficult time grasping how people can be so unaware of how insidious it is. Prop 1, otherwise known as the entirely misleading, “Equal Rights Amendment” is a Trojan-horse constitutional amendment where the goal is to prevent the will of the electorate in the future from pushing back against the farcical radial liberal agenda currently running roughshod over our state.

Prop 1 is being marketed as an expansion of protections against discrimination including new protected classes such as sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, reproductive healthcare and autonomy, and country of origin.  We are being force-fed the idea that Prop 1 further protects New Yorkers from unlawful discrimination, safeguards LGBTQ rights, and solidifies abortion rights. However, that just isn’t the case, it’s just the same old misinformation being peddled to you by the Albany elite.

Wake up Sullivan County, every “new” protected class listed in the amendment is already protected under NYS law. Abortion has been legal since 1970 and is now codified in NYS law. The LGBTQ community is protected from discrimination by both NYS Human Rights law and the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act.

Prop 1 does nothing to expand the currently available rights and protections for these classes of individuals. Do you know what it actually does? It simply enshrines these protected classes into the NYS Constitution, where unlike a law, this amendment will not be easily overturned. The vague language of this amendment will be the fodder for much confusion and litigation going forward rather than actual protection of rights. It’s a textbook Gotcha! by the Democrat party—while they maintain temporary power, they are doing everything they can to force their radial liberal agenda down our throats.

So why are you seeing all these signs urging you to vote no and to protect girls’ sports? It’s because it’s the simplest way we can stress the importance of what is at stake; once these “protections” become constitutional law, anything is possible. You will be giving a female-identifying male the Constitutional right to play on a girls’ team, superseding the rights of girls and women everywhere.

But it’s so much more. Female-only spaces such as locker rooms, bathrooms and sorority houses will be constitutionally illegal. In what world are we living in where our daughters, sisters and wives are denied their own protections in favor of the whims of others? Where does it stop?

If Proposal 1 passes, illegal immigrants will have a constitutional protection from discrimination… but what does that mean? If an illegal immigrant is denied social services, is that discrimination? If an illegal immigrant is denied student aid, is that discrimination? What about when they are denied the right to vote, is that discrimination? Where does it stop? Where is the line?

So no, it’s not just about girls’ sports, it’s about so much more. It’s about preserving everything we stand for as a nation.

Greg Goldstein
Sullivan County Republican Committee