The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) released its ninth-annual Municipal Equality Index (MEI), a nationwide assessment of municipal policy and law inclusivity for LGBTQ people. The report found a record-breaking 94 of 506 U.S. cities achieved the maximum score for LGBTQ inclusion in 2020. The index ranks the various cities from every state based on 49 criteria that fall into five broad categories, according to MEI program head and HRC senior legislative counsel Xavier Persad: citywide non-discrimination laws; city policy for its own employees; city services; law enforcement and city leader’s public support for LGBTQ equality.

Of the top-ranking 94 cities, 93 were found to report hate crime statistics to the FBI; 88 have an LGBTQ liaison for the city executive; 85 have contractor non-discrimination policies and 64 have a publicly LGBTQ elected or appointed senior leader.

Cities made headway this year on becoming more inclusive despite the year’s setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic and racial violence, according to the report. The MEI’s national city score average jumped to an all-time high of 64 points out of 100, up from 60 points last year, marking the fourth consecutive year of national average increases.

Other highlights from the report include the 38 MEI-rated localities that have adopted anti-conversion therapy ordinances in states without state-level protections. And 103 MEI-rated localities are now required to provide single-user restrooms to people of all genders.

"My hope is that we see this trend continue and grow exponentially," Persad said. "City leaders are the closest elected representatives of the people and so the decisions that they make affect their neighbors, their families, the people they interact with every day... it’s vital that they take seriously their foremost duty of protecting the health, safety and well-being of every member of their community."

Read the full article about LGBTQ inclusion by Cailin Crowe at Smart Cities Dive.