RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Two advocates for the Equal Rights Amendment have been handcuffed and escorted away by police after staging a “die in” outside Virginia House Speaker Kirk Cox’s office.
The two women were arrested early Thursday morning by police after lying down outside Cox’s door in a Capitol office building.
The women said there were holding a “Valentine’s Day die in” because the Republican-controlled House of Delegates has killed legislation to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
The proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution would outlaw discrimination based on gender.
ERA proponents had hoped Virginia would become the 38th state to approve the amendment. It would then have met the threshold for ratification in the U.S. Constitution. But Congress set a 1982 deadline for ratification.