League of Women Voters to Hold Library Event

Amid the push to pass the New York State Equal Rights Amendment, the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale will host a guest speaker.

BY DEBORAH SKOLNIK

League guest speaker   Jenna Lauter, an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the New York Civil Liberties Union, will speak at the Scarsdale Public Library on October 1st.

All eyes are on the upcoming presidential election. But this November, New Yorkers will also vote on The New York State Equal Rights Amendment, aka Proposal 1. Whether or not it passes will make a profound difference in many women’s lives. Not only will it enshrine existing prohibitions against race- and religion-based discrimination into the New York State Constitution, it will also expand coverage: Residents will be protected against government discrimination based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.

As we have witnessed on the national front, complacency is dangerous, and laws that we assumed were safe may change overnight with the political tides. —League of Women Voters of Scarsdale

If you’d like to learn more about this ballot initiative, the League is hosting a community discussion with Jenna Lauter of the New York Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, at 7 p.m. at the Scarsdale Public Library. As an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the New York Civil Liberties Union, Lauter focuses on policy advocacy challenging family separation and surveillance by the family regulatory system (more commonly called “Child Protective Services”).

The event is free and light refreshments will be served, but people are urged to RSVP (see below) for planning purposes. Attendees are guaranteed to walk away from the evening with valuable information. “As we have witnessed on the national front, complacency is dangerous, and laws that we assumed were safe may change overnight with the political tides,” the League warned in its press release. “Prop 1 is about ensuring that we New Yorkers, not politicians, control our healthcare decisions and personal futures.”

7 p.m.-9 p.m. Tues. Oct. 1; Scarsdale Public Library, Scott Room, 54 Olmsted Rd.; admission is free; RSVP here.