Metro Parent Magazine August 2014 | Page 9

[ Play Room ] Take Four Leanne Littrell DiLorenzo is a Portland mother to a son and a daughter, and the founder of Vote ERA, the organization behind this November’s Oregon ballot measure that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender. We asked her to answer a few questions: Q: Why is the time right for the ERA in Oregon? A: Why on earth would anyone oppose half the population having their equality written in any constitution? My 93-year-old grandmother, Lorraine, was born in 1921, the year after women gained the right to vote. She stayed at home, raised five kids who all see her every week still and she sewed clothes and baked pies. When I asked her why she thinks we need the ERA she paused and said “it goes without saying.” Q: What’s the next step for your campaign? A: The next step for our campaign is outreach. We’d like to ask all Oregonians to please he