To the Editor:

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ben Hull is the St. Lawrence County Legislator for District 8.
Proposition 1 claims to expand civil rights. But in reality, this amendment would inject our State Constitution with poorly-defined terms and would tear a hole in our Constitution's equal protections guarantee.

Part (a) of the amendment expands classes shielded from discrimination. It adds "ethnicity", "national origin", "age", "disability", "sex", "sexual orientation", "gender identity", "gender expression", "pregnancy", "pregnancy outcomes", and "reproductive healthcare and autonomy." Some of these terms lack any common or legal definition, so incorporating them into our Constitution is simply reckless.

Forbidding distinctions based on age and sex sounds good at first. But these distinctions are often used for the benefit and protection of vulnerable people. If the amendment passes, girls' sports programs could become unconstitutional. How could we allow sports programs for girls without distinguishing on the basis of sex?

Even worse, age-of-consent laws would be called into serious question. In 2021, New York raised the age of consent to 18 to protect vulnerable children from exploitation. That law was passed with an overwhelming majority, but it (like so many laws) discriminates on the basis of age. Proposition 1 could render that law unconstitutional too.

Part (b) is even more destructive. It creates a constitutional loophole which allows discrimination if it’s "designed to prevent or dismantle discrimination." This would allow individuals, businesses, and the government to commit widespread civil rights violations if they claim the discrimination is preventing or dismantling discrimination. Besides sounding like Orwellian doublespeak, this is a sinister and deeply un-American notion.

The framers of our Federal and State Constitutions pursued equality of rights and equality of opportunity. But Proposition 1 scraps that tradition for the utopian goal of equal outcomes where civil rights must yield to equity.

Are you worried about the government treating you unequally because of your race or religion? Proposition 1 would allow such mistreatment as long as it's tied it to a social justice goal. For example, Proposition 1 would give the government the power to levy taxes and create crimes which only apply to people of a certain race or religion.

Proposition 1 allows the government to take liberty from one person for the benefit of another and call it progress. That is a false premise. We cannot dismantle discrimination by authorizing more of it. We will not solve historical wrongs by simply inflicting old injustices on new victims.

Proposition 1 sets the stage for unequal treatment writ large. I urge you to vote "No.”
Ben Hull
Madrid