Enshrining Equality: The Push for the Minnesota Equal Rights Amendment
Leader: Monica Meyer, Lauren Himiak
Date: Nov 21, 2026
Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Bethlehem Lutheran Church – Commons Room
41st and Lyndale, Minneapolis
Minnesotans know how to stand against threats to our freedoms. But we also know that progress can be undone. In a time of escalating national threats, we must enshrine equality, fairness, and freedom directly into the foundation of our state laws.
Join us for a discussion on the future of our civil rights, where we will share information about Minnesotans for Equal Rights — a cross-sector coalition fighting to cement a comprehensive Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) into the Minnesota State Constitution. We will lay out the long-term strategy for the 2028 ballot and discuss how passing one of the nation’s most inclusive ERAs will offer the strongest possible protections against discrimination, no matter who is in power. Learn how we can make Minnesota a state where equality isn’t just a hope—it’s a constitutional promise.
Monica Meyer
Political Director, Gender Justice
she / her / hers or they / them / theirs
Monica Meyer has been leading organizing, activism, fundraising and policy advocacy on behalf of issues of equity and justice since 1992. Monica’s most recent job was working for LGBTQ liberation as the Executive Director of OutFront Minnesota. During Monica’s twenty years at OutFront Minnesota, she loved getting to work with thousands of justice-loving people fighting to make Minnesota more loving and equitable.
During this time, OutFront was involved in securing some key victories advancing LGBTQ equity including helping to form and lead Minnesotans United for All Families, the campaign to defeat a constitutional amendment banning same-sex couples from the right to marry and secure marriage equality through the Minnesota legislature. They also worked to pass one of the country’s strongest anti-bullying laws, a policy to secure trans inclusion in sports, and elect pro-equality candidates up and down the ballot.
Some of Monica’s recognition includes the Humphrey Institute’s Public Leadership Award, the Lynx’s Inspiring Women Award, HRC’s Brian Coyle Award, the Charlotte Striebel Award from MN NOW and the MN School Social Work Association’s Friend of Social Work Award.
Monica received her master’s degree in public policy from the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota, and her undergraduate degree from Hamline University.
Lauren Himiak
Communications Director / MN4ER Campaign and Coalition Manager
she / her / hers
Lauren Himiak is a strategic communications leader who started her career as a journalist and has spent more than 20 years building communications infrastructure, storytelling strategy, and stakeholder trust for organizations working on the front lines of social justice, global health, and reproductive rights.
Lauren has led communications strategy at both the international and grassroots level. Early in her career, she led communications for global health organizations including Population Council and Women Deliver, shaping strategy and messaging for global health and advocacy initiatives. She later brought that same strategic instinct to reproductive rights work in the U.S.: at the Center for Reproductive Rights, she created a new storytelling initiative that wove abortion storytelling into litigation, national campaigns, and policy advocacy, and at the Women’s Equality Center, she helped launch UnRestrict Minnesota, building trust and alignment among a wide range of stakeholders to advance reproductive rights in the Midwest — work that gave her deep, firsthand ties to Minnesota that she has maintained ever since.
Most recently, Lauren served as Associate Vice President at Fenton Communications and Senior Director at Metropolitan Group, where she led communications strategy and supervised staff across a range of social justice clients. She holds a Master of Arts in International Affairs, Governance & Human Rights from The New School and a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing & Communications from SUNY Cortland.