A new public opinion study says that 73 percent of Americans support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that guarantees equal rights regardless of sex. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released the results of the study Monday. It comes not long after the state of Virginia’s legislature unexpectedly passed the Equal Rights Amendment, known as the ERA for short, in January. The ERA says that equal rights cannot be denied or decreased because of gender. When Virginia passed the amendment, it became the 38th state to do so. The approval meant that three-fourths of states had approved the amendment, the amount required by the Constitution.