A Constitution Day fundraiser planned for Thursday evening at Santa Monica's Bergamot Station has taken on new weight this week, transforming from a routine advocacy gathering into a memorial for Gloria Steinem, the feminist icon and longtime Santa Monica resident who died September 2 at age 92. The event, called Unfinished: Cocktails & Conversation for Gender Equality, will also honor Dolly Parton, and brings together actors, advocates, and philanthropists pushing for formal recognition of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Steinem died just 15 days before the fundraiser held partly in her honor, according to Santa Monica Next. She was a founding board member of the ERA Coalition, and ERA Coalition Forward, a sister organization of the ERA Coalition, is hosting Thursday's event. Per the Santa Monica Mirror, the Steinem tribute portion of the evening is co-hosted with Ms. Magazine, the publication Steinem helped make famous.
The event starts at 7 p.m. at Range inside Bergamot Station, and organizers say featured guests will include Alyssa Milano, Lisa Ann Walter, Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins, Christine Lahti, Suzanne Lerner, and Ron Baldwin. Walter and Featherson-Jenkins are scheduled to participate in a fireside chat, while comedian Dulo leads a live auction and Sasha Farber performs a dance, the Mirror reports. Attendees will receive a commemorative copy of the U.S. Constitution stamped with the proposed amendment text, and ticket proceeds directly support ERA Coalition Forward, a tax-exempt organization.
Who Runs ERA Coalition Forward
The ERA Coalition was founded in 2014 by attorney Jessica Neuwirth alongside Steinem, and it is currently chaired by actress Lisa Ann Walter, with Zakiya Thomas serving as president and CEO, per the same Santa Monica Next report. Neuwirth had previously co-founded Equality Now with Steinem back in 1992, establishing a decades-long partnership between the two before launching the coalition that now leads national advocacy efforts to secure full constitutional recognition of gender equality. Dolly Parton, the evening's other honoree, received the coalition's Women's Equality Trailblazer Award in 2024, according to the Mirror.
The Legal Gap Behind the Push
The fundraiser's political urgency stems from a stubborn procedural roadblock. Advocates note that 38 states — the three-fourths majority required under Article V — have ratified the Equal Rights Amendment following Virginia's 2020 vote, as detailed by the Feminist Majority Foundation. Virginia became the 38th state to ratify on January 15, 2020, following earlier ratifications by Nevada in 2017 and Illinois in 2018.
Yet the U.S. National Archives has refused to certify or publish the amendment, citing legal ambiguities over Congress's ratification deadline, initially set to expire in 1979 and later extended to 1982. On December 17, 2024, U.S. Archivist Dr. Colleen Shogan and Deputy Archivist William J. Bosanko issued a formal statement declining to do so, according to the National Archives. Justice Department opinions have supported congressional or judicial action on the issue.
Fighting on Two Fronts
Advocacy groups like ERA Coalition Forward are pursuing what the National Constitution Center describes as a two-pronged strategy: lobbying Congress while simultaneously litigating in federal courts to establish the ERA as the 28th Amendment. On March 24, 2025, Representative Ayanna Pressley reintroduced House Joint Resolution 80, alongside Senate companion S.J. Res. 38, to remove the original 1972 congressional deadline and formally declare the ERA fully ratified, per records filed with GovInfo.
Meanwhile, federal lawsuits including Equal Means Equal v. Trump, with arguments scheduled in U.S. District Court for March 24, 2026, contend that the ERA is already a valid constitutional amendment and seek to invalidate male-only Selective Service draft registration on equal-protection grounds. Government attorneys continue to argue that prior Supreme Court precedent and federal appeals court rulings uphold existing statutes, the Constitution Center notes.
A California Backdrop and a Local Legacy
California officially ratified the federal Equal Rights Amendment on November 13, 1972, according to World Population Review. California voters further expanded state-level constitutional equality protections in November 2024 by passing Proposition 3, which repealed former Proposition 8 and enshrined marriage equality into the state constitution regardless of sex or gender, per Ballotpedia.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass joined women's rights advocates in May 2024 to sign a national petition endorsing the Equal Rights Amendment, reinforcing regional municipal backing across Los Angeles County, as Hoodline previously reported. Federal authorities have still not formally adopted the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, leaving Thursday's gathering at Bergamot Station — itself a former rail depot turned city-owned arts hub that opened exactly 32 years earlier, on September 17, 1994 — as both celebration and unfinished business.
