The Human Rights Campaign gave Tucson a score of 100 for being LGBT inclusive, despite being located in a state that not too long ago promoted legislation that would have allowed businesses to deny service based on sexual orientation.
The country’s largest LGBT civil rights organization released its 2015 Municipal Equality Index Thursday, which every year measures cities’ progression in ensuring LGBT equality.
The group looks at things like a municipality’s employment non-discrimination policies—including transgender-inclusive health insurance coverage, which neither the City of Tucson or Pima County currently provide, but Tucson’s good performance in other areas helped it score a 100, such as offering same-sex domestic partner registry, and civil union certificates, long before same-sex marriage was legalized in Arizona. Law enforcement relationship with LGBT people, and the equality advocacy are also considered in the equality index.
Phoenix and Tempe were the only other cities that got a perfect score. Then there were towns like Glendale that received a sad 29/100.
“While this has been an historic year for equality, we are constantly reminded of just how far we still have to go,” said HRC President Chad Griffin in a statement. “In too many communities, LGBT Americans continue to face barriers to equality, overt discrimination, and even violence. We believe those challenges make full equality and strong legal protections all the more important, and today’s report makes clear that hundreds of local communities throughout all 50 states wholeheartedly agree.”
“Across the nation, cities and towns are leading the way on equality for millions of LGBT Americans. This year, a record number of communities have earned top scores in our Municipal Equality Index because they’ve extended fully-inclusive benefits and protections to LGBT people and their families. What makes this progress especially remarkable is that these cities and towns are often going above and beyond state and federal laws to ensure LGBT residents and visitors are protected and treated equally.”
In total, 47 cities earned a perfect score, up from 38 last year.
This article appears in Dec 17-23, 2015.
This report has nothing to do with how friendly a place will be. This is not an LGBT friendly town. The things that they rate are window dressing.
Why did Wingspan close? They said funding. Well, if there was a large enough gay community they would have survived from running benefits, dances events etc. Gay places that have disappeared: Woody’s, Howl at the Moon, Colors, rainbow planet and one other I can’t recall. Gays are leaving Tucson.
City employees and Sun Tran employees should be given mandatory sensitivity training.
Tucson is a fraud! And it being promoted by HRC.
To use a rating normally used for sex abuse, murder and rape to promote the gay agenda puts it in the same context as pedophilia. Are they sure they want to go that route?
I can’t wait until they finally admit that dropping the ‘”T” from LGBT will be the best thing for all parties involved.
LGB’s come to open business’s and restaurants, increase property values and support the arts.
T’s show up for any type of attention and make business’s and schools build special bathrooms, when they aren’t filing lawsuits or agitating everyone in general.
I wish the conservative LBG’s would come out more, I know there are more of them out there, it’s just that they are demonized and shunned by their supposed “brothers and sisters” when they agree with anything that does not promote socialism or “wrong-think”.
They, they, they! i doubt there is such a thing as a socially concervative LGB (T). Why would any person that was a part of LGBT want to discriminate against another person? Hate is not something the movement endorses. No I am not part of a LGBT lifestyle – but I highly support any and all lifestyles that are about people being who they are. I’m a mother of 3, grandmother of 5.