Phyllis Schlafly, dubbed the “First Lady of the Conservative Movement”, died Monday at age 92 after a long battle with cancer.
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In a statement posted on its website Monday afternoon, the Eagle Forum said Schlafly died at her home in St. Louis surrounded by family members.
She said the press coverage of his homosexuality was an attack on her.
I remember feminists wondering at the time if Schlafly had ever taken a plane ride and used one of those dreaded unisex bathrooms. She and the forum supported Donald Trump in the presidential election campaigns.
For years, these two formidable women were sure to draw the largest crowds and the most enthusiastic responses from audiences at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. “Phyllis mobilized millions of regular Americans – through organizations like Eagle Forum, the Mindszenty Foundation and America’s Future – to push back against the globalists and modernists”.
“It was very instrumental in cementing my belief in limited government and the power of a Constitutional Republic”, he said. “Phyllis was iconic in the conservative movement”.
In 1952, with her young family living in nearby Alton, Ill., Schlafly’s husband, attorney John Schlafly Jr., was approached about running for Congress.
Huckabee recalled being given a copy of Schlafly’s book “A Choice, Not an Echo” when he was 15 years old. Barry Goldwater earn the 1964 GOP nomination, according to her biography on Eagle Forum.
But she rocketed to public prominence in the 1970s, when she led the battle against amending the U.S. Constitution to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender.
Schlafly argued that equality would be a step down for most women, who are “extremely well-treated” by society and the law.
Donald T Critchlow, author of a biography of Phyllis Schlafly, said that defeating the ERA helped to usher in a new conservative era in USA politics, paving the way for Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980. But just as her lifetime of waging war on cultural and political progress failed, so will Trump’s.
She had firm views on this regard.
Her appearances and speeches would often touch off loud rallies on college campuses, both for and against her positions on issues.
“When I went to the hearings for the Equal Rights Amendment and I heard what they were saying, and they had absolutely no benefit to offer women, but we could see a lot of disadvantages in it”, Schlafly told Martin.
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She frequently criticized immigration reform and the Obama administration.
