"Equal but different" bears a striking, creepy similarity to the US Supreme Court's "Separate but Equal" doctrine that allowed Jim Crow anti-Black laws to remain on the books as Constitutional for decades.

"Black people are different from white people and have different facilities, like different schools, churches, and restaurants. But the reality that they are different from white people and should have separate facilities does not mean they are not equal."

This argument, by the way, was made most strongly by white Christians citing the Bible.

That bit of sophistry enabled legal segregation that Black communities in the U.S. are still fighting to recover from. Because obviously, there was nothing equal about separate.

Just as there's nothing equal about different when it comes to men and women.