To the editor:

Today our nation and our great state of New York risk losing our long fought for rights and freedoms.

People from many different marginalized groups have fought long and hard for years and in some cases decades for the right to be who they are, love who they love, live their authentic lives and just as importantly have control over their own bodies and reproductive rights.

The rights we take for granted today, could potentially in one election cycle be stripped away from us with outright lies about what this ballot initiative will do.

We cannot allow that to happen!

We must safeguard our protected rights today to ensure we, our children and their children, can grow up and prosper in a state that values the dignity and worth of every citizen.

That is why we are here to ensure the passage of New York’s Equal Rights Amendment — Proposition 1. Simply put, the ERA takes our existing protections and adds them to our state constitution making it more difficult in the future to take those protections away from the citizens of this state.

ERA does not add any new laws, rights or protections.

It does not take away parental rights, as some would have you believe.

It does not allow for abortion in the ninth month or after birth.

It does not allow for children to be forced into gender/sex change surgery by any school or any other unfounded lie currently being pushed by people spreading outright lies or misinformation.

Think about this realistically!

Some schools today are struggling to pay teachers’ salaries.

Many teachers need to purchase their own school supplies for their classrooms.

Simply look at our school budgets to see there is no money left over to pay the tens of thousands of dollars required for just one gender surgery.

These things do not happen regardless of the fear/hate mongering pushed by some.

The ERA ensures that the rights and protections currently under New York state law are enshrined in our state constitution making it harder to repeal them should the opposition ever regain power in New York.

Currently, the state constitution only protects against unequal treatment based on race, color, creed and religion.

This proposal amends the constitution to include: No person shall, because of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed [or] religion or sex including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes and reproductive health care and autonomy be subjected to any discrimination in [his or her] civil rights by any other person or by any firm corporation or institution or by the state or any agency or subdivision of the state pursuant to law.

New York’s ERA ensures that the protections we currently enjoy today under law will be enshrined in our state constitution which cannot be easily undone by those looking to destroy our rights, freedoms and protections. Proposition 1 is our only hope of surviving a disastrous takeover of our New York state government.

Kelly Metzgar

Saranac Lake