Local activists push for Equal Rights Amendment

On Wednesday, local activists gathered in Luray to push for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

The event was called "Pizza N Politics" and it came at a perfect time, according to Jennifer Lewis, a local activist and former Congressional candidate.

"It's currently going through our state government right now. It just passed Senate yesterday," said Lewis. "Now it goes to the House of Delegates."

On Tuesday, the Virginia Senate

, the proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would outlaw discrimination based on gender.

Congress approved the ERA for ratification by the states in 1972. Thirty-five had ratified it by a final 1982 deadline, leaving the amendment three states short of what was needed.

In the last two years, Nevada and Illinois ratified the ERA, bringing the number of states to 37. ERA supporters are now looking to Virginia to become the final state.

A recently released poll

for ratification of the amendment. Only twelve percent of citizens opposed it.

But for years, bills to ratify the ERA have never passed Virginia's House or even left its Privileges and Elections Committee. The Senate has approved it four times before.