There was a big TV ad push in the final weeks. They ran one ad a lot. They picked out scenes from SF gay pride parades that would possibly shock conservative Iowans and ran them with a solemn voice over saying 'do you want THIS in IA???? vote no on ERA.'

It was also claimed that the ERA would lead to abortions everywhere; that's what neighbor women told me.

It was also claimed that the ERA would lead to uni-sex bathrooms. I always wondered if the opponents had ever traveled by plane or eaten in small-town IA restaurants, many of which had only one bathroom.

The background to this ERA referendum--

The IA legislature had passed the ERA amendment to the US constitution; this amendment had been making its way through the various state legislatures. Then the right noticed what was happening and mounted a national anti-ERA campaign; the Mormon church played a major role nationally and locally.

Friends who volunteered to travel the state speaking in favor were totally stunned by the anti-ERA sentiment that had been stirred up. I remember one woman asking us after one such trip: 'What is secular humanism?? Many women are saying the ERA is a secular humanist plot.'

Although it may not have been very clear at the time,it now seems obvious that the anti-ERA movement was part of the rise of the political activism of the religious right; the Moral Majority of Jerry Falwell started at the same time. It was the 1980 religious right equivalent of anti-abortion and anti-gay rights.

I remember walking the precinct to get out the democratic vote on election day 1980 and being 80% sure that most of the people I talked to had voted or would vote for Reagan and against the ERA. It was an EXTREMELY DEPRESSING election.