Author: Lisa Sales

Lisa Sales is the president of Virginia National Organization for Women (NOW), the former Chair of the Fairfax County (Va.) Commission for Women and serves on the policy committee for the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance—because as a survivor of sexual assault, she learned there is a nexus between women’s lack of recognized equality in America and the violence they experience. Virginia is the 38th historic state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

Virginia Becomes the First State in the South to End Child Marriage

Virginia became the 12th U.S. state and first in the South to end child marriage last week, after Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) signed HB 994 into law. The law completely ends child marriage in the state by establishing a minimum marriage age of 18 without exceptions and removes a legal loophole that previously allowed emancipated minors to marry in Virginia. The law will go into effect on July 1, 2024.

Child marriage has been shown to result in increased risk of future poverty, particularly for teen moms, as well as greater vulnerability to sexual and domestic violence, human trafficking, coercive control, financial abuse, homelessness and mental illness.

Stop Making Women’s Equality a Political Question Mark

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Looking back on 2022, we moved through multiple Equal Pay Days and April’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month… July’s Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention… August’s Women’s Equality Day… October’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month… and, just last week, United Nations Human Rights Day. Maybe one day, we won’t need all these special monikers (and painful reminders of just how unequal women are) for these months of the year.

Correct the record, and publish the 28th Amendment once and for all.